To truly appreciate where Tanner Morris is – a Coach of the Year honoree with a national tournament-bound team – it helps to know where Morris was in 2010.
He was 26 and in his first job as a basketball coach. An assistant with the Howard College men’s team in Big Spring, Texas, a 17-hour drive from his hometown of Normal, Morris was working for no pay.
The 2002 University High School graduate slept on a couch in a film room adjacent to the locker room, later in a dorm room. He ate in the cafeteria. One of Howard’s players cut his hair.
Free is free.
“I sit back and think about it all the time,” said Morris, head women’s basketball coach at the College of Lake County, a junior college in Grayslake. “It’s pretty amazing what I’ve been through. The people who have helped me along the way have been amazing. Every head coach that I’ve coached under has been absolutely amazing. I’ve been very fortunate.”
In his third season at Lake County, Morris has guided the Lancers to a 27-5 record, the Illinois Skyway Collegiate Conference championship, the Region 4/Midwest District B title and the school’s first berth in the NJCAA Division II National Tournament.
Lake County plays at 3 p.m. Monday in the opening round at Joplin, Mo., with Morris the conference and region Coach of the Year. He is enjoying the ride, but he also loved that year in Texas, which ended with Howard winning a junior college national championship.
Working for no money can make or break a dream. For Morris, it reaffirmed his desire to coach. Following the season at Howard, he was a men’s assistant coach at Lincoln College for four years and at Wabash Valley in southern Illinois for eight.
In August 2022, he was hired to head the women’s program at Lake County, his first foray into women’s basketball. School had been in session for a week and the Lancers had three returning players. Morris added enough from other Lake County sports to field a team.
“I really didn’t have time to recruit that first team,” he said. “My goal was basically to come in, figure out the women’s side of things, watch some of the better teams and just see how they do it.”
The Lancers went 3-25, with many of the losses by wide margins. Morris hit the recruiting trail, but what could he sell?
“I just kind of sold what I’d done in the past, what I’d been a part of in the past,” he said. “I basically said, ‘Trust me or don’t trust me, but we’re going to turn this thing around and we’re going to win and we’re going to win a lot.’ I got three of them to buy in on it.”
The three were twins Chloe and Mariya Sisco of Prairie Central High School along with Kennedee Clark of Racine, Wis. They were the top three scorers on last year’s 22-9 team and rank second through fourth this year behind conference Player of the Year Maren McCallister.
Chloe Sisco has set a school record for 3-pointers in a season with 119, while Mariya leads NJCAA Division II in assists with 242 (7.6 per game).
Why did they choose Lake County?
“With them only winning three games, I wanted to be a reason to change it,” Chloe said. “I also knew I would be able to play more minutes because they didn’t have much of a team. But my main goal was to come in and be one of the reasons to change things a little bit.”
That also was a lure for her sister, who found Morris’ sales pitch convincing.
“He’s really good with knowing how to draw people into the school,” Mariya Sisco said. “It was a little scary that they only had three wins, but he was really good at encouraging us that he was going to find the right people to make this a good team. He did that both years that we’ve been here.”
Morris, 41, is fueled by a basketball upbringing. His father, Bob Morris, was a men’s assistant coach at Northern Illinois, Illinois State and Lincoln College. He also was the boys head coach for six years and later the girls head coach for eight at U High, twice guiding the Pioneer girls to the state tournament.
Tanner was at a lot of practices and games growing up.
“There was always an inkling that he loved basketball. He played it as long as he could, but then he got hit by a bad gene pool,” Bob Morris said. “Short and can’t jump kind of runs in the family.
“His playing days came to an end, and it was at that point that I really saw he had a passion for the game. He was always asking questions and always wanted to know why.”
"Any time I want to call home, I have someone who has coached at every level and has been very successful."Tanner Morris
Tanner Morris considers his father a valuable resource who has given him an advantage as a coach. The two chat regularly during the season, as in “almost every day,” Tanner said.
“Any time I want to call home, I have someone who has coached at every level and has been very successful,” he said.
Bob Morris, who is retired, welcomes the calls.
“We discuss anything and everything, but it’s all basketball related,” he said. “We’ll talk about where he’s going that night to watch some kid play, what took place at practice, what my thoughts are on a 3-2 zone versus a 2-3 zone, how do you attack particular things that I’ve seen.
“We go over it a lot. It’s something that I still love. What I really love is watching him grow into this position and have success with it.”
Proud parents Bob and Carol Morris will be in Joplin on Monday when the 18th-seeded Lancers play No. 15 seed St. Cloud (Mich.) in the 20-team, double-elimination tournament.
Regardless the outcome, Tanner Morris believes a sustainable culture has been established in the program. He takes as much pride in that as anything.
“That’s been the joy of coaching on the women’s side,” he said. “If you’re pretty confident in what you’re preaching, they’re going to buy into what you’re telling them. I really pushed togetherness, family, doing things as a team.
“I wish I would have gone to the women’s side sooner. I enjoyed the guys’ side, but I’ve really enjoyed coaching the women. They’re a lot of fun. It’s been a great experience for me.”
Coaching provides Morris a paycheck now, though clearly, the rewards run deeper than dollars.
Would he do it for nothing?
He already has.
