When Karl Morrin was hired to be the principal at Little Wolf High School, he had no intentions of coaching at the school.
Even after the boys’ basketball coaching spot became available, Morrin still had no intentions of applying for it.
Morrin’s past includes extensive high school basketball coaching experience, and Morrin has a passion for basketball, but he said his focus was on the job of being principal.
“We had a vacancy and people from the school and community asked if I was interested in coaching and I said, ‘Well, I’ll think about it a little bit.’ I felt I had some support from people in the school. My boys both told me, ‘You have to do it dad.’ So I applied and went through the process and they offered me the position.”
Morrin said his principal job will always come first, and he has told his assistants that.
“If there is an issue that I have to deal with [as principal], we’ve already discussed that they have autonomy,” Morrin said. “The boys all know that as well. The assistant coaches demand as much respect as I would.”
Morrin said his passion for basketball came from when he was a kid growing up in Washburn. Back in the 1980s Washburn was considered one of the best high school basketball programs in northwest Wisconsin.
“Just that rich tradition in basketball, that’s where it came from,” Morrin said. “Then I got into coaching right away in college and it’s just part of my life.”
He has nine years of varsity basketball coaching experience, including: two at Laona, five at Valders and two at Chilton.
He said he will run the swing offense, which he has used everywhere he has coached.
“I’m going to try to push the ball,” Morrin said. “We’re going to have an up tempo game. We’re going to try to play a very good half court defense. I run a lot of set plays. I look at situations and if I see a mismatch I’m going to attack the mismatch.”
To get to know the parents of the basketball players, Morrin recently invited them to a practice.
“I don’t know a lot of the parents so it’s a way for them to meet me and me to meet them,” he said. “Everywhere I’ve been I try to have a parent night where they can watch practice, watch what we’re doing, how we do things. And then we just kind of talk about some of the expectations they have.”
This also allows the parents to see his demeanor.
“I’m vocal. I’m intense. But I’m very positive on the sidelines. I think the kids feed off my energy. I’ve seen that already,” Morrin said.
To Morrin, he isn’t just coaching the boys’ varsity team, he sees himself as taking over the whole basketball program. He plans to start a K-4 basketball program at the end of November. He also recently took signup for fifth and sixth grade basketball.
“We have 25 fifth and sixth graders signed up for basketball so we are really going to build the foundation here,” Morrin said. “That’s my goal, to build the program from the bottom up. Get kids to fall in love with the sport. I feel that we have talent here.”
Morrin hopes those in the community come see that talent.
“I encourage people to come watch the kids play this year because I think we’ll have a very competitive team,” Morrin said. “We’ve set some high goals. We’re going to work hard as a team.”