Victories Aren’t Only Milestone as Spellman Coach Wins 700th

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For Cardinal Spellman girls’ varsity basketball coach Jane Morris, who reached the 700-victory milestone Feb. 11, the victories are nice but it’s the memories she will treasure most.

“It means lots of girls and lots of fun over the years with all different people who are now grown,” she told CNY during a recent interview about the plateau reached in her 40th year of coaching at the Bronx high school. “That’s what it means really, many years of coaching but many years of individuals and their families. I’ve met some of their grandchildren and I’ve heard from a lot of old players and parents of old players. So that’s the fun of it, absolutely.”

Number 700 was picked up against Preston High School Feb. 11 in a raucous Spellman gymnasium before many of her old players, friends and family. Spellman pulled ahead in the second half to win 61-52.

Following the game Ms. Morris was presented with a congratulatory cake by her current players and just managed to avoid an impromptu soaking when her players were unable to disengage the water cooler from its tether to give her a non-Gatorade bath.

“They went to pick up the bucket and the part that it rolls on came with it and the bucket turned over before they wanted it to, so I escaped,” she said with a laugh. “It was funny because I don’t do Gatorade. I always tell them if you want Gatorade, you got to buy it.”

Ms. Morris’s record is now 700-214, and counting. But she isn’t looking for number 800, either. If it comes, it comes, she says, but again numbers aren’t important. She said she has no imminent plans to retire. Her association with girls’ high school basketball goes back to her own playing days at Spellman, and she recalls that back in those days, statistics weren’t even kept for girls’ basketball.

“When I was in high school up until my junior year we were still playing six-player,” she recalled. “My senior year was the year the rules changed and we went with what we called ‘boys rules.’ In that respect it become much more interesting for the spectators. The six-player game was probably not fun to watch. You could only dribble three times, so in many ways it held the women back. The thinking was women didn’t have the stamina to run the full court,

“That turned out not to be so,” she added with a hint of incredulity.

It was largely due to her efforts and the efforts of two other women, Diane Skalicky of Sacred Heart in Yonkers and Peggy Ryan of Notre Dame Academy, Staten Island, that girls’ high school basketball in the archdiocese has reached the level it has. The three founded the girls’ division of the CHSAA, and she served as president and treasurer of the organization. She has also served as chairwoman of basketball, softball and soccer for the association.

In those roles she has seen a huge change in girls’ athletics since the late 1970s. Statistics are now kept for one thing. The girls are faster, stronger and they are much more competitive. Another thing that has changed, not necessarily for the better she believes, for both boys and girls in high school, is the degree of specialization. Kids are much less likely today to play a variety of sports, choosing to concentrate on just one in the hope of landing a college scholarship.

“I think that’s unfortunate in some ways because really the percentage of them that do get an athletic scholarship to college in any sport is pretty slim,” she pointed out. “And that I think is the goal for many of them. That is why they’re told that they need to specialize. I don’t encourage it. If I have kids who play in another sport I have no problem with it. In fact I encourage them to venture out and try something else.”

In fact, one of her current players, 6-foot-1-inch senior guard Maria Backman is going to the University of Michigan next fall. She scored 30 points in the game that gave her coach win 700.

During her tenure at Spellman, Ms. Morris’ teams have won three CHSAA state championships and the 1999 state Federation title. She is a member of the CHSAA Hall of Fame. But she says what she is most proud of is that she has kept Spellman competitive year after year without recruiting. Kids want to be there.

“We don’t recruit. The kids, I don’t even know their names, I’ve never laid eyes on them before they try out. We’re not on the summer circuit so to speak and I would like to try to keep it that way. I guess I’m a little bit of a throwback,” she said.

As to her own long association with Spellman both as a coach and a player she said, “I’ve been blessed with a bunch of really nice kids over the years. We have a beautiful facility. We have good students and a pretty good sports program. There’s a lot of life in the place after school. I’m just proud to be part of that.”