FARMINGTON HILLS — “Fun.” That’s a word Gary Morris uses often when reminiscing about his basketball coaching career in the Catholic High School League.
He just wound up his 29th year on the sidelines, the last 21 at Mercy, in which the Marlins (19-5) advanced as far as the regional semi-final in the state playoffs.
“This was a fun team to coach,” Morris said. “We very young last year with a 12-12 record. We went through some growing pains. Players learned to play better individually and collectively.”
On the last game of the regular season, Morris won his 500th game, a 68-33 decision against Detroit University Prep. The Marlins followed with a pair of wins in the state playoffs to push his total to 502 (against 185 losses, a 72.8 percent success rate). He’s only the 18th coach to reach that level in state history, the seventh most among active coaches.
A native of Detroit’s northwest side around St. Eugene Parish, Morris graduated from Detroit Catholic Central in 1973. In the next couple of decades, his life revolved around getting a degree in public administration from Oakland University, a teaching certificate from Madonna University, coaching CYO at St. Gerard Parish in Farmington Hills (“That’s where I developed a passion for coaching”) and at Madison Heights Bishop Foley as freshmen and junior varsity coach.
His introduction to varsity-level coaching in 1979 left him thunder-struck. He was a JV coach at Dominican High School but was thrust into the varsity position when that coach suddenly quit.
“I didn’t know what I was doing,” he said.
Morris combined duties as athletic director and varsity girls coach at Bishop Foley from 1992 to 1998. His record there was 145-52 including a CHSL Central/AA Division championship in 1998.
He stepped away from the prep scene from 1999 to 2002 to be an assistant coach for the women’s basketball team at the University of Detroit Mercy.
Morris arrived at Mercy in 2005, hiring on as a social studies teacher (he retired from the classroom four years ago) and varsity girls basketball coach. He has compiled a 357-135 record that includes 13 Central/AA division titles, five league championships, 22 state district championships, two state regional championships, and a state Final Four appearance in 2014, a 67-55 loss to league archrival Bloomfield Hills Marian, who went on to win the state title.
Morris is the CHSL’s current winningest girls basketball coach following the retirements in 2022 of Mary Cicerone at Marian (39 seasons, 707) and Diane Laffey at Warren Regina (60 seasons, 668). He needs 25 more victories to break Larry Baker’s record (381 wins, 1975-1996) to become Mercy’s winningest coach.
He has won multiple coach of the year honors. In 2009, Morris was inducted into the Catholic League Hall of Fame.
“The longer you coach,” Morris, 69, said, “you emphasize the fun aspect of coaching, but you still have expectations and demands about how the kids practice and play.”
Kids come with a lot of talent, he said, gained from playing on travel teams or getting individual training. “It’s becoming more and more common for freshmen to be playing on the varsity.”
Morris said he’s been “fortunate to coach talented players who want to be coached,” has had “great” assistant coaches, “excellent” support from the parents, and a “very good” administration.
“I’ll keep going as long as I have my health and energy to do it,” Morris said, “and the kids keep listening to me.”
And it keeps on being fun.
Contact Don Horkey at [email protected].
