By Eric McHugh
Don’t mean to alarm him, but Sean Morris is running out of time.
He’s already 26 and currently plays for just two of the region’s nine major professional sports franchises – the Boston Blazers (of the indoor National Lacrosse League) and the Boston Cannons (of outdoor Major League Lacrosse). If he’s ever going to check the other teams – Red Sox, Patriots, Celtics, Bruins, Revolution, Breakers and Lobsters (what, you forgot about World TeamTennis?) – off his list, the former Marshfield High School star is going to have to pick up the pace.
“I wish I could,” Morris said with a laugh about broadening his athletic horizons. “I’d be making a lot more money.”
On second thought, maybe sticking with lacrosse makes sense. His prospects elsewhere appear limited.
Can’t hit the curveball, so scratch the Sox.
“I didn’t stick with baseball” as a kid, Morris recalled this week, during a lunchtime break at his youth lacrosse camp at Hingham High School. “When it got up to a 60-foot mound, that’s when I stopped playing. The curveball never really came my way. But I could hit a fastball deep, I’ll tell you that.”
At 5-9, the Celtics are not really a viable option, either, unless he’s hiding some major Spud Webb hops. “They’re out of the question,” Morris agreed. “I’ve met (point guard Rajon) Rondo, and he’s got a few inches on me.”
Morris, who calls South Boston home these days, might be on the periphery of the city’s pro sports landscape, but he plays in two storied venues – the New Garden and Harvard Stadium – and has rubbed elbows with the likes of Bill Belichick (a huge lacrosse fan) and the Bruins’ Canadian contingent, including Milan Lucic, who starred in box (indoor) lacrosse while growing up in Vancouver.
Sean Morris has stepped into a new role as the lead instructor for all indoor training sessions for the upcoming winter training season. He will be in charge of designing the program along with bringing in new dynamic coaches along with managing how they run practice. The emphasis on this upcoming skills session will be on technique, lacrosse IQ and maintaining an up tempo practice environment.
Morris will never attain Tom Brady/Josh Beckett celebrity status, but all in all it’s a good low-key sporting life, especially now that he’s closer to home. An attackman, Morris played his first two outdoor seasons with the Chicago Machine (he was the No. 3 overall pick in the 2006 MLL draft out of UMass) and began his indoor career with San Jose in 2008. Both the Cannons and Blazers brought him home via trades.
“My life is a lot easier now,” Morris said. “I was traveling nonstop before – going between work and playing. I’d just never have any time for anything but lacrosse. It was very difficult and it was something that I got really tired of after two years. It wore me down in my job and also playing. Last year getting back to the Cannons was the first step. I knew I’d get to the Blazers once they started up because I had talked to the coaching staff.
“The ability to do that – playing both indoor and outdoor in the Boston area, and being from the South Shore – is truly special. There are not many guys who can do that. I don’t take that for granted at all. I just love having my friends and family come to games and support me and also fall in love with the sport that I fell in love with.”
This is a busy time for Morris. Not only are the Cannons (5-4) heading into the three-game MLL homestretch – starting with Saturday’s home date against the Machine – but he has his work as a New England sales manager for lacrosse outfitter STX as well as his series of summer camps, the latest one drawing about 180 boys in grades 3-9 to Hingham High. Morris recruited 25 staffers, including college players, local high school coaches, and Cannons/Blazers teammates Mitch Belisle and Daryl Veltman.
Morris said he never had anything like that when he was a kid – he didn’t even pick up a lacrosse stick until eighth grade – and even bigger things are on the horizon for him in the community. He and business partner Dan Chouinard (a Scituate High assistant) plan to fold the Sean Morris Lacrosse Academy and the EMass Junior Minutemen club program that Chouinard runs into a new entity called Legacy that will operate clinics, leagues and tournaments out of sports complexes in Hingham, Canton and Pembroke. The new venture kicks off on Aug. 1.
“It’s lacrosse full-time as always,” Morris said. “But the role models who were in front of me always talked about being ambassadors to the game. That’s something that I take a lot of pride in. The name ‘Legacy’ definitely (captures) that and what we can leave behind and how we can continue to push the sport into (becoming) a mainstream sport in Boston.”
Only three other cities – New York, Washington and Toronto – boast franchises in both the indoor and outdoor leagues. Boston lacrosse fans are lucky that they have double the chances to see Morris in action, and Morris is fortunate that he gets to work on two different skill sets. He said he relishes the tight confines and physical nature of Blazers’ indoor game. But the wide-open space of the Cannons’ outdoor version is appealing, too.
“To say I like one over the other, I’m not sure just yet,” Morris said. “Whichever one I can bring a title to Boston. How about that?”
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