Lisa Morgan: Patch Coach of the Year 2009/2010

Without question, the most dominant force in Columbia sports is the Cougar girls track and field team. Three years ago, there could've been an argument made for the basketball teams or the boys soccer team, but head coach Lisa Morgan has elevated the track program an elite national status level since taking over three years ago.

After taking steps forward, some tough losses and a few years of harnessing the team's potential, it all came together for Morgan and the girls track squad, which won just about everything possible this season. In most cases they didn't only win, they completely dominated.

This magical spring for the girls, which saw them win a national championship, the conference, county, section and group championships, was in the makings after a disappointing 2009 performance in championship season. Last year the girls were edged by 4.5 points in the section and took fifth in Group 4. At the end of it all, Morgan told her assistants that they were going to dominate the state next time around. At the beginning of this season, there was one mission: win everything. Morgan and her team of all-stars delivered.

"It feels good to dominate the state," Morgan said. "I feel really good about what they accomplished. "To have dominated the state the way we did and to almost do it on a national level, I can't ask for much more."

Their mission was apparent very early on in May, when they scored 117 points at the county relays at Livingston High School, crushing the field. The Lancers were in second place, and finished 44 points behind. A week later, at the SEC championships in Millburn, they dropped 176 points, beating out the combined score of second place Livingston and third place West Orange by 42 points.

The next week in Montclair for the county championships, they won with 167 points, which was 117 more than second place Mt. St. Dominic and more than the second, third, fourth and fifth place teams combined.

At the North II Group 4 state sectional championships, Columbia had an astounding 11 winners (out of 16 events) and set a record with 182 points scored - more than second, third and fourth place combined. A week later at the Group 4 championships the Cougars put up 95, while second place Randolph scored 33. To give an idea of just how dominant that is, consider that Southern Regional won with 55 points a year ago, with 38 the year before that and 48 in 2007.

In fact, no Group 4 team had scored more than 60 points in the championship since 2001 (Trenton Central, 62 points), the 95 points by Columbia was the highest by any Group 4 team in the championship since the Cougars scored 69 in 1997. It is not clear whether the girls' performance this spring is a record, however.

Whereas all season long you could see the development and the depth of the Cougar machine, during the Meet of Champions, the development of the players individually came to the front.

Kayann Richards won a state title in the 100 hurdles, Columbia's first individual state champ since 1998. Richards was also part of the state's fastest all-time 4x400 team. Brittney Jackson was second in the state in the 800, Jasmine Carter was fourth in the 100. Freshman Amber Ballew took fifth in the long jump, the 4x100 team won a state title and TyVonna Johnson was fifth in the 800.

"Coach Morgan has definitely been a huge part of my success. Without her, I don't think this would've been possible," Jackson said. "She is a great coach for life coaching and on the track coaching."

There are no team victories in the MOC, but had there been, it would've been another run away win for Morgan and her girls, who went on to win the New Balance National Championship a week later. This time they only won by 10 points.

Morgan's journey to take the Cougars to the top started right inside the halls of CHS, where the class of '85 graduate starred in the 800, taking 2nd in the MOC once and fourth another time. A hip-flexor injury suffered because overwork during her senior year lingered on through her years at the University of Kentucky. It turned out her injury problems would lead to her first coaching experience. Morgan was put in charge of orientating new recruits and instructing young runners.

During summer breaks she returned to CHS to help run track and field camps with her former coach Len Klepack and became an assistant coach. After a stint as the head cross country coach and assistant track and field coach for East Orange, Morgan became the assistant head coach at Seton Hall University in 1993 and was eventually named the associate head coach.

"I've been running since I was four," Morgan said. "It has been in my family. My brothers and sisters run track. …I began coaching and helping at the Newark YMCA. That's where the bug truly started."

She remained with the Pirates until 2003 and was supposed to coach at the University of Connecticut, but the position fell through and Morgan became a stay-at-home mother with her son Duke, who is now the team mascot.

"Just being around it every day, he can imitate every single person's running style on my team," Morgan said of her son.

In 2006, Jason Jackson, a coach with her at SHU, was now at the helm at CHS, and asked Morgan for help unlocking the potential of some of his athletes, one of Morgan's specialties.

At the end of the season, after helping freshman Arial Duncan win a conference title, Jackson left the Cougars, and Morgan did as well. There was a new head coach at CHS for exactly one year, and after that person left, Morgan took over as head of both the boys and the girls programs, where she has seen great success.

The Cougar coach is the three time defending county coach of the year for both indoor and outdoor track, as voted on by her peers, and is a master at pushing her athletes. She sees potential where others see dead ends, and that more than anything has made her a success at Columbia, with the team seeming to get better with each passing season.

"She motivates you. She motivates your confidence and that's really good," Brittney said. "You don't want to let her down. Letting her down is like letting Obama down. It's really tough. But she's not giving us anything we can't handle and she wouldn't so that."

"I really have a passion for the sport. I love track and field.," Morgan said. "I'm surely not getting paid that much, but it's like eating ice cream for me."

While the boys have not seen as much success as the girls have during her first three seasons, it's not for a lack of trying. Morgan said she spends equal time with both teams, they practice together at the same time. It just hasn't happened for the boys yet.

For as much success as Morgan has had in her short time, she remains unsatisfied and hungry for more. She's ready to surpass this year's success and have the boys take another step forward this season and join the girls team in the ranks of the nation's elite.

"There's tons that I wanted to accomplish this year that we didn't," Morgan said. "I'm growing and learning everyday. I learn something new about coaching all of the time. I need coaching myself."

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