Coach Morrison and the Tommies Take on Nationals
Coach Morrison and the Tommies Aim for the Top
John-Ryan Morrison is hoping to go out top — or as close as he and his St. Thomas Tommies can come to getting there.
The Tommies head coach and his Atlantic Collegiate Athletic Association men’s soccer champions get their chance this week when they host the Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association championship tournament on the Grant-Harvey turf.
The eight-team tournament runs Wednesday through Saturday and features eight teams from across the country: Les Rouges de Saint Boniface of Manitoba, the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology Ooks of Edmonton, the University of Kings College Blue Devils of Halifax, the Humber Hawks of Toronto, the Algonquin Wolves of Ottawa, the St. Lambert Cavaliers of Quebec, as well as the host Tommies.
Win or lose this week, the tournament will mark Morrison’s swansong on the Tommies’ sideline – 10 years after taking the reins of a program that had missed the ACAA playoffs the three previous years.
There were some growing pains on the way to a 63-26-19 overall regular season record. But the 43-year-old Fredericton native built an ACAA powerhouse. His Tommies haven’t lost a regular season game since October of 2019. This year’s Tommies completed a fourth straight regular season without a loss. Morrison was named coach of the year in the ACAA for the third time in four years and the fourth time overall.
Coach of the Year
This year, Morrison adds a new accolade – he was crowned CCAA Coach of the Year at the Nationals Awards Banquet on Tuesday evening. He is the first New Brunswick-based men’s soccer coach to receive the honour.
Even still, he knows it is the right time to move on. “I knew after we won the ACAA a couple of weeks ago it was the right decision. I wanted to leave on top and here we are.”
He’s been coaching, or playing, or been on a board of directors for 27 years in all. For the last decade, his tireless energies have been directed toward the green and gold.
Coaching the Tommies “has been my full-time job outside of my full-time job,” said Morrison, whose other full-time job is executive director of the New Brunswick Construction Association. “This is just a love affair and a passion that takes full time hours.”
“There’s nothing I love more than soccer,” Morrison said. “All my friends come from soccer…all my travels (seven World Cups and five European championships) come from soccer. It’s all I’ve really known. I don’t really know what I’m going to do, but a little ‘me time’ for sure,” he said.
Record Student Success On and off the Field
What has marked his career at STU is his dedication, and his diligence in recruiting. This year’s roster includes players from five Canadian provinces, one from Maine, and one from the Netherlands – all brought to one of the smallest campuses in the country, and almost all maintaining a grade-point average of 3.0 or better.
“What I’m most proud of is, we have the most CCAA scholars in the country,” Morrison said. “Considering the size of our school, considering the obstacles in recruiting, we have one of the best university soccer programs, regardless of the league, regardless of the size.”
“I like his dedication to personal success both on and off the field,” said fifth-year striker Brett Springer. “He has high expectations for us as student athletes and he wants to win just as much, if not more, than everyone on the team.”
Springer, who returned to the Tommies after a year away said being accepted into the Bachelor of Education program at STU and the opportunity to play for a national championship helped lure him back to Fredericton. But Morrison was part of it too.
“Everyone sees the amount of effort he puts into the program and although we want to win it for us, he plays a big part in who we are playing for too.”
The Tommies are one of the underdogs of the eight-team tournament. They draw from a student population of about 1,700 students. Langara College, their first-round opponent, has a student population ten times as large. Top ranked Humber College of Toronto has a student population of 38,000.
Morrison is undaunted by the numbers.
“They can only field 11 guys, so we’ll hope that our 11 guys are better than they are.”