St. Thomas University men’s soccer head coach John-Ryan Morrison will leave what has been his home at the end of the season, after an 11-year run.
Over a decade later, Morrison will leave having won the Tommies’ second-ever Atlantic Collegiate Athletic Association (ACAA) championship and having not lost a regular season game since 2019, achieving the all-time high national ranking.
Morrison has had the most CCAA academic all-Canadians in the country, eight CCAA national scholars and is a three-time ACAA coach of the year as well he had STU’s first-ever CCAA player of the year in any sport.
Now Morrison has the chance to capture one more accolade during the 2024-25 CCAA men’s soccer national championship that will be hosted in Fredericton from Nov. 6 to Nov. 10.
His journey with the green and gold started more than 20 years ago when Morrison played a season with STU. He ended up as the team’s top goal scorer and MVP of the season.
Morrison said that he remembers every game that he has played with the team and after a career as a coach, STU has even more impact on him.
“[STU] made me value the importance of mental health. That’s something that didn’t exist when I was in university. So yeah … affected me a lot.”
“I honestly think we’re the best university soccer program in the country. Some schools are bigger, some teams are bigger, but in terms of everything we could offer somebody, I don’t think there’s a better place people can go play soccer,” said Morrison.
He said that the biggest challenge when it comes to coaching was recruiting, as STU is a relatively small university with a limited course catalogue, sometimes it came to a “100 emails to get one response kind of thing.”
“I’m very passionate about the team and about the school, you know, I really enjoyed STU … I love Fredericton.”
“If I had an opportunity to talk to the player or any player that was willing to come on a campus tour, then it was a pretty good shot that they’re going to come.”
Morrison has not let it completely sink in yet, but one of the things he is going to miss the most is being around “the guys.”
“I’m going to love watching the guys continue to play. I’ll be at every game, but it’s going to be the first time not coaching in 27 years,” he said.
Morrison said he has the same goal for all of his players: to graduate, which is why he always set the standard of 3.0 minimum GPA to be on the team.
“I’m trying to turn them into good young men and they’re taking a leap of faith, leaving their home for the first time in their life and moving across the country.”
“That’s why the first conversation I have with them when I’m recruiting is, I’m recruiting you here to be a student-athlete, not just a soccer player.”
Roy Mugume, assistant coach of the men’s soccer team, said one of the reasons why Morrison is so successful is because he is the hardest working person on the team.
“He analyzes every game that every team has played and he’ll know every player on every team,” he said.
Mugume said that Morrison is the coach who takes the most care of their student-athletes.
“J.R. is somebody that pays attention to the smallest details in everything that he does, he is a friend, he is a mentor and hopefully in our last whistle on the CCAA nationals we are jumping out for joy and laughter celebrating the national championship,” said Mugume.
