Competitive siblings take talents to sidelines

LYNN, Ind. – Growing up at the Morrison house was always intense.

Brock Morrison was older and taller sibling, so when he played one-on-one with his younger sister, Jill, she didn’t stand a chance.

That’s his side of the story, anyway, though he admits, Jill often got the best of him when playing ‘HORSE.’

Jill was a clutch shooter in her playing days, and graduated Winchester High School as the all-time leading scorer in Randolph County.

Five years earlier, Brock helped Winchester’s boys basketball team reach the state championship game in back-to-back years.

Brock and Jill both left big marks with the Winchester basketball programs, and are always competing for bragging rights. But when Brock got his first head coaching opportunity earlier this year, he couldn’t think of a better assistant.

With Jill as his assistant, first-year head coach Brock Morrison led the Randolph Southern girls basketball team to a 3-0 start after Friday night’s 60-30 win over Wes-Del.

“Between Jill and I, it’s always been a competition,” Brock said. “Not so much for attention, but who has the better game, who was the better teams, who went farther into the tournament – I got her beat on that. Individually, she has me beat with the records.”

Jill Morrison graduated Winchester after scoring 1,982 career points, still the most in Randolph County basketball history – boys or girls.

Brock went on to play at Anderson University, where he scored 1,258 points, helped the Ravens win the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference as a sophomore, and earned All-HCAC honors three years.

Jill recently completed her playing career at Ball State University, where she scored 1,170 points.

The timing for her to join her brother’s coaching staff was perfect.

“It’s been awesome,” Jill said. “When we first talked about doing this, it was just kind of just like, ‘Yeah, that’s the right fit, who else would I get as an assistant coach?’ That meant a lot to me. Brock and I, ever since the beginning, we helped each other get better at this game, and how better to kind of close this chapter than to work together.”

Brock Morrison graduated from Winchester in 2008.

In his last two years, the Falcons went 45-9 and advanced to consecutive state championship games, falling to Northwestern 78-74 in double overtime in 2007, and to Fort Wayne Bishop Luers 69-67 his senior season.

His first year after Anderson, he was an 8th-grade basketball coach at Randolph County rival Monroe Central. He also spent the last two years as an assistant at Winchester, before moving to the head coaching position at Randolph Southern.

“This is my first year with girls,” he said. “I’ve been three previous years with boys, and these girls are enjoyable to be around. They come here every day, they work hard, they give me everything they’ve got, they give me their undivided attention, they give me their maximum effort everyday, and I think as a coach, that’s the only thing you can really ask for out of kids.”

Jill was a freshman when Winchester’s girls advanced to the semistate, before losing to Austin 72-48.

The Falcons went 25-1 that year, and were 84-17 in her four years with the program, winning four consecutive sectional titles.

She knew someday she’d finish her playing career and knew she wanted to coach, but didn’t expect it to happen as quickly as it did.

 “It was kind of in the back of my mind, just my passion for wanting to help people be better individuals and be better basketball players,” she said. “A lot of kids have dreams, just like I did, and that’s just one thing I’m passionate about is trying to help them do that. I always thought that I would coach, but I just didn’t think it’d be this soon.”

And the two are just getting started.

“I think the girls love playing for us,” Brock said. “Jill being an assistant, I think they’re able to relate to her and keep things pretty enjoyable for them when I kind of get on them a little bit.

“But we have high expectations, we’re both intense, we like to get after it. ... They’re doing a great job of giving me everything they’ve got.”

Jesus Jimenez is a sports reporter for the Palladium-Item in Richmond. Contact him at (765) 973-4465, jjimenez@pal-item.com, or http://Twitter.com/JesusFJimenezPI