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Soccer is life, in one form or another By
Jamie Brown She may yet make it big, but perhaps not as a player. And that's apparently OK. Morrison grew up in Tacoma, Wash., just south of Seattle. There she began playing sports with her older brothers and their friends in her back yard, and that's where she said she "learned to get tough." In her yard she got hooked on sports, and before long she brought home a piece of paper that launched her into a soccer career. That day Morrison showed her mother a flier that she had picked up from one of her close friends at school. It said that the friend's dad, Rick Forslund, was going to coach a new soccer team, the Rockers. The Rockers were going to compete in what Morrison called a premier league that had players ages 6 to 18. Morrison knew at once what she wanted to do: She handed her mother the flier and said, "I'm going to play." Morrison and the Rockers won two championships while she was on the team, once when she was 12 and again when she was 18. Morrison began playing on the team in a defender's position, the sweeper. The sweeper is the last line of defense except for the goalie. She said she chose to play the position because she likes to "stuff forwards who think they're bad." (Forwards are the players most likely to move in and try to score on the goalie.) In high school, Morrison also played for an Olympic Development team, the kind that is scouted for players to compete in the World Cup. Instead of the World Cup, however, Morrison landed on the Pacific Lutheran University team. But after just one year, Morrison packed up her cleats and soccer ball and moved to Utah, where she has some family, to go to school. Morrison signed up for school and started playing soccer at Salt Lake Community College. She stayed there for a while, treating it as a junior college, and got her Utah residency. While at school, Morrison began studying secondary education with thoughts of teaching and coaching soccer for a high school. She did some coaching, then moved to Logan to attend Utah State University. She also became an assistant coach at Mountain Crest High School. Morrison hung around and coached for a while while attending USU. At the time, Morrison said, she realized she didn't really like coaching for a high school, so she changed her major and went into journalism at Utah State. Still in love with soccer, she tried out as a walk-on for the university's soccer team. After a short time, Morrison had something happen to her that every athlete fears -- she suffered an injury in practice that could end her career. Morrison blew out her knew, tearing her anterior cruciate ligament and medial collateral ligament. But that didn't stop her. A week after reconstructive surgery, she began physical therapy and hit the weight room to try to make a comeback. Her coach at USU, Stacey Enos, said she thought Morrison was great. She said there were positive aspects to having a player like Morrison sidelined because Morrison "showed a lot of class and was very mature about her situation." Unfortunately, Morrison won't be making a comeback as a player. Not in the NCAA, anyway. Her collegiate eligibility has run out. Her mother, Susan, said, "Katrina still loves soccer, and when she got hurt she was pretty upset, but she's come to terms with it, and everything is going to be OK." Asked what was next for her, Katrina responded: "If the right opportunity came around . . . I'd coach college soccer, Division I, anywhere in America." This summer, Morrison will also continue her goal of becoming a journalist, writing for the Logan Herald Journal.
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Archived Months:
September
1998 |
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