H.S. FOOTBALL: Milan’s Morris back to work after 200th win

Friday night might’ve been a milestone night for Milan High head football coach Jeff Morris.

But the thrill of 200 career victories as a head coach was gone by Saturday as he and his coaching staff were back in the film room early in the day trying to get Win No. 201.

“We don’t celebrate wins too long around here because we have another opponent next Friday to prepare for,” Morris said.

But Morris wouldn’t have it any other way, because he said he thinks that’s the way things get done. And it’s hard to argue with somebody who’s had as much success as Morris has enjoyed in his time at Milan.

It took less than 20 full seasons leading the program at Milan to get to 200 wins, which means if the Bulldogs don’t win another game this season, Morris will still average 10 wins per year. With 59 losses, he has a winning percentage of a little better than 77 percent.

In those 20 years, Milan has won two state championships, four more appearances in the BlueCross Bowl state championship game, played in at least the state semifinals six of the last seven years (a total of 11 for the 20 years), won eight region or district championships and won 49 of 65 playoff games the Bulldogs have competed in.

Morris said he’d be lying if he said he never thought about career records like 200 wins, but he said the milestone never crossed his mind in the early years after he was named the head coach.

“We won seven games my first year and six my second, and at that time I was more focused on the short term and making sure we were improving then more than I was focused on the long term,” Morris said.

Those efforts to improve the team apparently worked because Milan won the state championship the next two years in 1998 and ‘99. Morris said those two championship wins would be among the most memorable of the 200 at this point, but he said one game on the way to that first championship was extra memorable.

“We played Huntingdon in the third round, and they’d beaten us in the regular season because they had the better team,” Morris said. “We played them in the playoffs and beat them in a great game, and when we won that I felt like hopefully I’d proven then I belonged in my position.”

The fact that just over a year later he was leading Milan to its second straight state title should’ve removed all doubt that Morris did in fact belong.

Morris said there were too many people who’ve contributed somewhere along the way to thank. He did mention his wife and son, Bulldog alumnus Jake, for putting up with his life as a coach. He said he’s had a number of good assistants and players too because it’s hard to win games without either. He said the town and the quarterback club at Milan High have been big as well as they’ve supplied the program with anything it needs to keep it competitive at a statewide level.

As far as this week’s win goes, Morris said he was glad to get the victory because of what it means for the 2015 Bulldog team.

“It was a win we needed, and I’m glad the kids earned it against a good team,” Morris said. “Now we want to try to win the next one and even our overall record and go 2-1 in the region.”

That opponent is McNairy Central, and the Bulldogs will hit the road for Selmer for that game.

Brandon Shields, 425-9751