Coach’s Profile: Justin Morsey
By Isaac Krueger
Coach Morsey is now in his fifth season as the varsity offensive line coach for the Owasso Rams football team. He started his coaching career as a graduate assistant for two years at the University of Tulsa. He was then hired by Union, where he would spend the next six years as the offensive line coach, before joining the Owasso staff.
Photo by Cambry Shields
Morsey has a love for his job. He spills his passion into each and every one of his players. He works tirelessly with the other members of the Rams staff to make sure that his players are getting the best training possible.
Morsey’s favorite part of coaching is, “Getting to be around them [the kids] and have relationships with them and competing with them...teaching them something that they don’t know how to do and watching them learn it and then succeed,” he elaborates.
Morsey takes pride in his bond with his players, which will play a crucial role this year since the team is more inexperienced in big time games than in past years. The Rams offensive line is full of talent, but with the graduation of many key players, the newer team lacks play time. He feels confident, however, that their work ethic will overcome their lack of exposure.
“They’ve put in the work, and in all of the things we’ve asked them to do, they’ve just worked their tails off. As they get more experienced, they will just keep getting better and better,” states Morsey.
Though, getting better does not happen without hard work and good training, so Morsey has had to shift his coaching focus to adapt to just that. In order to get the offensive line ready for game day, it takes a special set of training components.
“You have to build confidence in the basics, because if you don’t understand the basics, then you can’t get to the higher level stuff,” Morsey explains, “We spent a lot of time working on the basics and fundamentals, because it’s the groundwork for everything that you are going to do.”
Team progress demands hard work, but there are mental components to team improvement as well. Linemen aren’t the highlight reel players. It can be hard for them to stay motivated and in the right mental state.
Morsey continues, “It’s probably the most under-appreciated job in all of sports, because if no one knows who you are, then that means you are doing your job well. The only time you ever get your name said, or anybody says your number is if you have a penalty or you miss a block. And even then, if you miss a block nobody says ‘come on right guard’, they say ‘come on o-line’.”
Morsey finds light in this, though. All of the linemen experience this issue, and it creates a common ground on which they can build tight bonds with each other. These tight bonds have helped the inexperienced o-line join together. Ultimately, Morsey finds team chemistry to be a pivotal factor in overcoming all types of adversity.
He concludes that for the players, “It’s kind of an us-against-everybody mentality. You kind of get to circle the wagons, and it’s just us in there. You get to build a bond and then they are playing for each other and for the team, rather than for individual accolades, which I love.”
This season will be a challenge for the Rams offensive line, but they have had a great start. With a season opening win against Edmond Santa Fe, and a tough win against Fayetteville, the Rams are looking solid. So come out and support Coach Morsey’s o-line and Rams football!