COACH TIM Morris earned his 200th career win at Melrose High when Melrose earned a 34-27 win over Swampscott on the road last Friday. (file photo)

 


Melrose’s football win earns coach major milestone

By JENNIFER GENTILE

MELROSE—Longtime Melrose High football coach Tim Morris has the earned rights to an exclusive group of Massachusetts high school football coaches: The 200 win Club.

On Friday, Sept. 27, Coach Morris and the MHS varsity football team earned their long awaited milestone on the road at Swampscott High when Melrose took a convincing win over the Big Blue, 34-27. Players, fans and personnel had been waiting with baited breath since last Thanksgiving to see the Super Bowl winning coach seal the deal, but a holiday loss to Wakefield last November had Melrose eyeing 2024 for the feat.

Morris, a Melrose High and Springfield College graduate, has been at the helm since 1994 when he took over for the late coach Bruce McPherson, whom he coached with to start his career at MHS. Morris has been Melrose’s head coach since, earning two Super Bowl and several Super Bowl trips. Indeed some of MHS’s best ever teams have been under his direction with plenty of undefeated seasons. Certainly, the coach has seen it all.

It’s not in Coach Morris character to dwell on a personal achievement in the midst of competitive football season. But even the most “all-business” coaches are allowed to enjoy the milestone, reflect a little, before going back to the playbook.

“I’m happy to get this win for the kids, first and foremost. We needed it and it was against a very talented team,” Morris said. “It’s definitely a chance for reflection over the decades, but it was really the kids who won these games. Between the players and coaches I’ve had, I’ve had lots of help.”

 

IT WAS good company for MHS football coach Tim Morris who clinched his 200th win and marked the occasion with former players (and now colleagues) Adam Federico of his 1994 team and Nathan Lusas, now asst. coach at MHS. Both men’s sons play for MHS. (courtesy photo)

 

After thirty years of seeing the evolution of MHS football, it’s indeed rewarding to see Melrose transition from a gritty team battling a tougher road to Super Bowl in “the parking lot” to a premiere team who have made trips to Gillette Stadium in Super Bowl appearances a fairly routine thing, mostly based on their unique ability to reload talent each year, fueled in part by a strong youth program.

Since 1994, Melrose has earned 10 Middlesex League championships, 5 Sectional Titles and two State Championships. That’s a legacy to be proud of.

“I suppose we are more recognizable because of our Super Bowl appearances and wins,” says Morris. “But over the years, we really have been doing it the same way and run this program the same.”

While there have been memorable teams who either went unbeaten and clinched a ticket to Gillette, with a particular strong run from 2013-2020, there are also excellent teams whose legacy isn’t defined by actual bus trips to Foxboro. Whether it’s the unbeaten 1999 team (denied a chance to Super Bowl over a coin flip) or an unbeaten juggernaut 2020 team who saw no playoffs due to COVID-19, success in this program isn’t measured by trophy.  Beyond the numbers, Coach Morris takes more meaning in the relationships built over the decades.

“My first team, the 1994 team, had a chance to go to the Super Bowl, and fell just shy,” Morris notes. “But now I get to see some of those former players developed into coaches. I was young when I started, and seeing these players take the lessons we learned on the field and apply them in their lives and careers is special.”

The Long Red Line certainly has a legacy of players who either come back to watch their old team play on Friday nights or on Thanksgiving, or stick around to encourage their own children to play on Fred Green Field just like they did. MHS football is, as always, a family tradition. Morris’ own sons played for him, after all.

“It’s good to win,” says the coach. “But my hope is that all these players were glad to have played at MHS, and that this game helped them grow and have good character.”