By Matt Browning
Wayne Morrow, the boys basketball coach at Little River, was chosen as the Salina Regional Coach of the Month for February.
Morrow leads a Redskins team that is one of the highest ranked teams in the VYPE Salina Area Power 10. This is Morrow’s 29th year as a head coach, but last season was his first since 2008.
“I’m not sure how to measure my individual coaching accomplishments, as it’s always about the whole team and how everyone responds and learns their roles,” Morrow said. “My goal is to give every player and team the tools they need to become the best player and team they can be.”
Discipline, chemistry and fundamentals are the backbones to Morrow’s coaching philosophy. He said it does not matter what offense or defense his teams run, just as long as they are sound within his philosophy.
“The game can be fairly simple if I don’t try to do too much and mess things up,” Morrow said. “It’s getting them to play extremely hard day in and day out on both ends of the floor, getting them to love playing together and sharing the ball and getting them to make good fundamental decisions that have been my greatest coaching challenges over the years.”
Little River went 23-3 last season and advanced to the Class 1A Division I semifinals before the COVID-19 shutdown. The Redskins return the majority of that team this year, which makes them one of the favorites to win a state championship.
“This year the greatest challenge is to get them to keep striving to improve,” Morrow said. I know that we can be a very good team, but I also know we have some tough challenges ahead, and we need to get better in some areas. We’ll get most team’s best shot.”
