Morris was WW-PS’ undisputed leader
By: Justin Feil
For the past three years, the West Windsor-Plainsboro High South boys’ lacrosse team knew exactly where its offense, and its team, began. Rob Morris did a little of everything for the Pirates, and did everything well.
That’s why it’s so hard to envision next year’s WW-P South boys’ lacrosse team, a team that will not include Rob Morris, who will be playing for Rutgers University after graduation.
"Every year, you have to replace some players, that’s no different," said Kerry Weigner, head coach of the Pirates the past two seasons. "He leaves some big shoes to fill. You just don’t replace a guy like Rob Morris.
"You hope to have some guys who can step up and do some of the things he did. Maybe there’s a guy who can take face-offs for you. That’s one part. Maybe you find a midfielder that can find the open man. It might take three or four guys to replace the things he does, but we’ll find them."
Good luck.
All Morris did was come in and play varsity for all four years, and improve every year. It culminated with his second straight All-State honors to go with being named Bianchi Division Player of the Year. Morris graduates as the Pirates’ all-time leading scorer with 265 points nearly twice as many as the next Pirates’ player. In his senior season he scored team highs of 55 goals and had 43 assists despite missing a game and a half while leading WW-PS to a 12-5 record. He became just the fourth midfielder in New Jersey history with more than 200 goals in a career.
"I think it was probably our best season as a team and for me," Morris said. "It was a good way to end it. There were 11 seniors on the team. We all knew each other and we gelled real nice. I couldn’t ask for anything else."
Rob Morris is the Princeton Packet Player of the Year.
"His leadership ability is what makes him stand out," Weigner said. "He’s the first player I ever coached who was just as intense and wanted to win as much as I did. That’s big if you have a player who acts like a coach.
"His example of work day in and day out was big. It helped me every day to get guys to hustle and be intense. Not only is he a great player, but he’s a great leader."
Great leaders are evident in the way they play. Morris acts as though he’s had 10 cups of coffee, with boundless energy, yet he remains under control. He’s a blur of green and white dodging and swerving through the midfield until he finds and opening or an open teammate.
"He just keeps on coming after it," Weigner said. "He’s aggressive. He’s one of the guys who will put everyone on his shoulders. He’s able to make everyone around him better."
Some of the final games of Morris’ career showed just what an influence he’s had on the Pirates. While Morris’ 46-game goal-scoring streak came to an end against West Windsor-Plainsboro North, he had four assists and was dominant on face-offs with a new school record of 18 face-offs won in a game to help bring the Pirates back for an overtime win.
"He won like 90 percent of his face-offs," Weigner said. "One of them he lost, they called a penalty and another one was something else."
Shut down one aspect of Morris’ game, and he had two other ways to beat you. The North game wasn’t one of Morris’ high-scoring games, but it was an important win in that it was the second game in a row that the Pirates beat a team tied for the Bianchi Division lead. And being the rival Knights only made it rank higher in Morris’ highlights.
"There are some other games I could say, like scoring eight goals against PDS last year, that was great," said the 5-foot-10, 185-pounder. "But we won by eight goals, and I didn’t need to score all those goals to win. Looking back at it as a team effort, it was a game we looked forward to all year. I knew they’d be coming after me and expecting me to shoot a lot. I didn’t shot 15 times that game. That’s where our team helped."
Morris has grown accustomed to opponents zeroing in on him, and focusing more attention on him with every milestone he surpassed.
"As a junior, I started to feel more pressure," he said. "I can’t remember that many games when I didn’t have a long pole on me. And whenever I looked to dodge, I saw a slide there. I tried to use my speed and size to get by some guys. Sometimes you get matched up with someone bigger or faster than you. Being able to dish the ball then helped. That’s something that developed."
Morris credits good coaching when he was a middle school player for the Lightning Lacrosse, and the increasing ability to read defenses with his prowess in finding teammates. That was never more evident this season.
"This year, he got a lot of his teammates involved more," Weigner said. "Last year, going into the season, we only had two returning starters and we had a lot of guys that got thrown into the mix. He tried to do a lot of stuff himself because we were so young.
"This year, he allowed a lot of players to step up. (Mike) Malec didn’t have as many goals, but Jon Lupo and Moe Velez scored more. He allowed them to get some confidence. If he didn’t score, he did what he had to to get other guys the ball."
At the end of the year, Morris’ absence may have shown best what he meant to the team. Against St. Joseph’s in the state tournament, it was a one-goal game when Morris was injured. Though he tried to return briefly, without him and four other starters who weren’t 100 percent healthy, the Pirates lost by 10 goals.
"Would the game have been different? I would hope so," Morris said. "I don’t see us getting beat by 10."
They also lost to PDS the following day when Morris was still unable to play due to injury. Now, the Pirates are faced with getting used to the idea of playing without Morris for an entire season, while Rutgers will find the benefits of having Morris join its men’s lacrosse team.
"I’m pretty much being brought in for face-offs," Morris said. "Offensively and defensively, I’m going to have to step up my game a lot to prove myself on the field. Rutgers had two guys taking face-offs, one was a senior and the other was a sophomore. It’s going to be a challenge. Hopefully, I can help them win some games."
Morris will bring all the qualities that also bring winning leadership, toughness and non-stop hustle. It helped him become a record-setting player and a valuable teammate for WW-P South boys’ lacrosse.
"It’s something you remember the rest of your life," Morris said. "The best part is I have four more years to keep playing.
"We had a great season. A lot of my success comes from the coaches and players on our team. We had a lot of fun and I’m looking forward to my new coaches and more success."
They’re looking forward to him as well.