Chris Morrison takes pride in saying he has been the first Black athletic director at two area high schools — St. Anthony in Long Beach, where he is now, and St. Pius X-St. Matthias Academy in Downey.
He says he’s accomplished this because he was able to rise above the racism he experienced when he played college and pro basketball.
Morrison is also stoked about what he’s seeing during the recent civil unrest — young people trying to take charge and make their voices heard.
A 1991 St. Anthony alum, Morrison started his college basketball career at Western Wyoming Community College in Rock Springs.
“Going from Long Beach down there, it was a serious culture shock,” Morrison said this week. “I think it was probably about 10,000 people (actually about 19,000 at the time) in the town. There were guys riding around with guns, gun racks in their trucks and there was only one street that everybody cruised on a Friday night, and you didn’t want to get caught out there when they were cruising on that street late at night.
“And I actually got caught out there one night and I actually got jumped while I was out there. Yeah, I’ve been through some things.”
Morrison said he also experienced racism while playing professionally in Finland. But the one thing he said he never did was retaliate. Instead, he took the high road and ended up elevating himself and his career.
“I’ve experienced the racism, but I never got mad and gave into being on the negative side of it because if I did what they did, then I wouldn’t be where I am now,” said Morrison, who continued his college basketball career at Western Washington University before turning pro. “And I think by giving education, getting as much education as you can and moving up as high as you can in your job or in your field, basically, it kind of gives back to the people who are racist telling you that you couldn’t do it, that you can do it.”
Morrison also played professional basketball in Australia.
Morrison has a 21-year-old daughter who votes and an 18-year-old son who recently graduated from high school and soon will be voting for the first time. Morrison said that during the recent Black Lives Matter protests, they were out there making their voices heard.
“I thought that was great,” Morrison said. “I embrace them wanting change and I embrace all the young kids that want change in the world. You see that going on and you’re happy for it because kids are actually starting to understand why their vote counts, why doing the census counts, why being active in the community actually counts.”
Update on fall sports coming
An update on the status of fall sports and when they might begin is expected from the state CIF office no later than July 20. It figures to be interesting to see what happens when the announcement is made considering there has been quite an uptick recently of coronavirus cases in the state.
St. John Bosco and St. Anthony — both of which operate under the umbrella of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles — this week began football conditioning workouts. As did Downey and Warren, which fall under the Downey Unified School District banner.
Moore League to begin football workouts
On Friday afternoon, Wilson football coach Mark Ziegenhagen said Moore League schools from the Long Beach Unified School District will be able to begin conditioning workouts July 6. Six of the seven league schools are under the LBUSD. Only Compton is not.