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Schools

Springfield Senior Converts Himself Into Top Player

Tyler Morrissey didn't take too much seriously, but he does now.

Tyler Morrissey used to have that “tag.” The damning one that would get passed around by coaches privately, the one that said, “Could be a great player, if he wasn’t such a wise guy.”

The 6-foot-3, 240-pound senior linebacker admits it himself: he wasn’t exactly a peach his freshman and sophomore years. He was a snarky kid that used to be on the periphery of the crowd each time a coach was speaking and, under his breath, would slide in a comment, or two, or three.

Sometimes things happen when coaches pull players aside and Morrissey had his share of that. Sometimes those words bounce off players and mean nothing; other times they're absorbed and turn out to be everything. In Morrissey’s case, it was the latter.

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He’s gone from a prankster who didn’t take much seriously on or off the football field, to one of the best defensive players in the area that opposing coaches better take seriously.

Morrissey has already received a scholarship offer from Temple, and Boston College, Pittsburgh and Miami are showing interest, too. He had 146 tackles last year to lead the area and the Central League. At times, he was unstoppable, all over the field, a wrecking machine that instinctively weeded out plays before they unfolded.

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He’s come a long, long way from where he was two years ago. He’s gone from a coach’s nightmare to a coach’s dream.

“You can call me a jokester my sophomore year, I always used to mess around and used to have that attitude,” Morrissey said. “I guess that was my personality at the time. I’d make jokes out loud, and there was more than a few times a coach would pull me aside to talk to me. Then I’d go back and do it again. No, I wasn’t exactly a peach.”

Cougars’ assistant coach Chris Britton used to get on Morrissey, because he saw potential in him. Previous head coach Dan Ellis used to do the same, screaming at him to “wake up and realize you could do something with football.”

“I think what helped me change was the first time they put me in on varsity,” Morrissey recalled. “We were playing Strath Haven, and it was near the end of my sophomore year. I wasn’t ready for it. I was lost out there. You can say I paid a price for all that screwing around. I was embarrassed. But I think I learned. It was always in the back of my mind how I played in that game, because I knew I could have put more work into it, to become better.”

He did. It happened.

Now opposing teams have to game plan around No. 41. He’s large, mobile and “plays with a great motor always going down hill,” Cougars’ new coach says. “Tyler is the best defensive player I’ve ever coached. He plays with a tremendous desire on the field and he knows how to read. He knows his keys and can pick things out before they happen. Tyler is going to be a Division I [college] football player.”

Kline slipped in a little joke of his own this season on Morrissey, who will be used more in Springfield’s passing game as a tight end.

“It’s something I mentioned to our coaching staff more than a few times already, Tyler better be careful, because some schools may want to come after him as a tight end after this season is over,” Kline said with a laugh. “He runs really well for a kid 6-3, 240 pounds.”

Morrissey shakes his head over where he once was and where he is today. He’s improved considerably academically, “another area I used to be lazy about,” he admits; he has his sights set on certain goals. He’d like to be first-team all-Central League, a distinct possibility, play in the Hero Bowl, another distinct possibility, and land a position in the Big 33 game—which may need more serious attention on his part.

“I didn’t see any of this happening to me,” Morrissey admits. “I had no idea about football or what could happen. I guess I woke up.”

Just in time, too.

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