Eric Morris, who has won 13 national titles, is InterMat's No. 1-ranked junior high school wrestler in the U.S.“I really loved it from the start,” said Eric Morris. “I was just starting out so I was learning things and I caught on pretty fast. I started to get better and go to more practices. I liked it from the start. I like that it is individual. I like the intensity and I like that you can’t really say it is boring.”
To say he caught on quickly would be an understatement. It had been five months since Eric stepped on a mat and he had qualified for the Eastern Nationals and took third. Morris had a feeling he had a chance to do something special in the sport leading up to his third-place finish.
“I would practice and one of my coaches or my dad would walk up to me and say, 'Do you know what you just did?' I would say, 'No, I was just going with what I thought would work.' They would tell me, 'Well, that was a fireman’s carry' or something like that. I realized I could pick it up on my own and it was something that came naturally.”
Since that third-place finish, Morris has dominated his competition. He has won 13 national championships, four Pennsylvania championships, and four Ohio championships. Coming into 2009, Morris had won over 500 matches while losing only 47 … and the wins and championships have only increased that total this year.
Eric’s dad started to notice things when he was very young.
“Since he was a little kid, even before he started wrestling, he’s always had almost unnatural strength,” said Mark Morris. “Most people who wrestle him say he’s freakishly strong. He works out and wrestles with some Division III college guys and beats starting 133-pounders. Their comment will be about how strong he is.”
“He is mentally strong and he has an extremely high pain tolerance,” continued Mark Morris. “Sometimes when we are wrestling or just messing around he gets in some positions where I can tell, if I kept going I could hurt him before he would tell me.”
Coming into 2009, Morris had won over 500 matches while losing only 47 ... and the wins and championships have only increased that total this year“He is very calm,” said his father. “He doesn’t get flustered on the mat. It doesn’t matter what is going on, he’s always believed he was going to win. He doesn’t care if he is wrestling Rick Bonomo during practice, who is in the NCAA Hall of Fame, he will get frustrated when Bonomo takes him down. He just believes he should win.”
“With the people I work with, I have so many different styles,” said Eric. “All the coaches I work with have different styles. That helps a lot because from wrestling with them, I know how to defend that type of wrestling.”
Early on, Mark was able to take over management of a wrestling Web site called Pennsylvania Youth Wrestling that has put the family in touch with many East Coast wrestling insiders. Through them Eric and his brother have been able to train in some of the best organizations available. Some of the guys he trains with include, Bonomo, Brian Morrow of Central PA Stars, Adam Smith from Penn State and former Penn State NCAA champion and Olympian Sanshiro Abe. Depending on how close to a tournament he is, Morris might hit four of five practices in a week with all the different organizations and coaches he works with.
The workload is something the Morris family deals with on a nearly daily basis. The delicate balance between working enough to keep Eric at the top of his game while remembering he is an eighth grade kid, has been difficult at times, but Mark Morris thinks by keeping communication between all parties open, they have found a good balance.
“That is something we always talk out as a family,” said Mark. “We always talked about what his schedule should be and we always talk about what his goals are. I would tell him I was here to help him reach his goals and sometimes I was going to have to tell him some things he didn’t want to hear. I would have to push him to do things beyond what he wanted to do at times. He would tell me when he needed to take a step back.”
Eric’s mom often played an important role in mediating between the two.
Eric Morris has aspirations of wrestling in Division I and also competing on the U.S. Olympic teamFather and son don’t always agree, but because they are able to communicate effectively, it has made the balancing act easier for all involved. They both work through the amount of training Mark feels Eric needs in order for Eric to compete in the tournaments Eric wants to compete in.
As the Morris’ travel to different tournaments this summer, including Greco, freestyle and folksyle. Eric’s short term goals are to obviously win as many matches as he can, but his long term goals are much more ambitious. Morris credits his coaches, his dad and his older brother Adam (who wrestles on his high school team) as people who have made his success possible. In order to reach his long-term goals, he will need to continue to rely on that support system. He wants to wrestle at the Division I level after high school and wants to compete on the U.S. Olympic team if not in the upcoming Games, but for sure in 2016.
Those are big time goals for a junior in high school, not to mention someone in junior high, but Morris might just be the guy to do it. He has all the pieces in place: talent, drive, support system and coaching. It is a perfect situation for a wrestler who seems to be born to do it.
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