Chris Clark looks to bring a winning culture to St. Joe’s Prep. Just like Speedy Morris did.
The Prep boys' basketball team hasn't won a Catholic League title since Speedy was at the helm. Clark wants to change that, but first he needed to ask his former coach for his blessing to take over.
When St. Joseph’s Prep approached Chris Clark in May about the possibility of becoming its boys’ basketball coach, he wasn’t sure what to do. Clark felt a strong connection to the Prep — where he’d played point guard for four years — but had worked at Temple for a decade and loved his job there.
A week later, the Prep reached out again, and Clark began to think about it some more. He liked the idea of having the opportunity to build his own program, and his family was fully on board.
But before he could make a decision, there was one more step he needed to take.
He had to ask Speedy Morris for his blessing.
Morris, 83, coached Clark at the Prep from 2001 to 2004. They’d achieved a lot together: they went 24-6 in their first season, 30-2 in their second, and 27-4 in their third, while winning back-to-back Catholic League championships in 2002-03 and 2003-04.
Despite all of that success, much had changed in the years since. Before Morris’ retirement in 2020 — hastened by a diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease — the Prep put his name in big, block letters on the court. In 2023, to the chagrin of his family and friends, the school moved his name to the sideline.
Morris continued to attend games at the Prep regularly and support the Hawks in any way he could, but Clark still wanted to make sure his former coach was OK with his decision. So, about two weeks ago, he called Morris at his home in Roxborough.
Clark asked what he thought of the job. Morris told his former player that “the Prep needed him” and emphasized how proud he was.
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He gave his pupil the blessing he’d been looking for, and on June 5, Clark was announced as the Prep’s boys’ basketball coach. To Morris, it felt like the perfect fit; a winning player, returning to his alma mater, in an attempt to bring the Hawks their first title since he’d left.
“He’ll motivate them,” Morris said. “He’ll be a leader. He’ll be there for the kids. And he’ll be tough on them, but he’s going to win. I’m looking forward to going down and watching.”
‘Stars shine, but teams win’
Clark was a sophomore when Morris was hired. He was skeptical at first. This was 2001, and search engines were fairly new. So he didn’t have the wherewithal to research his coach ahead of time.
He took one look at Morris, with his gray hair, and thought, “What does this guy know about basketball?”
The point guard quickly learned that the answer was “a lot.” Clark came from a basketball family. His father, George, played for Slippery Rock, his uncle, Jeff, played for St. Joe’s, and his uncle, Dana, played for Frankford. All three were well-aware of Morris’ coaching prowess, from his time at Roman Catholic through his 15 seasons at La Salle University.
Clark decided to give him a chance.
They had a few disagreements right off the bat. Clark was one of the best players on the team, and, as a result, he felt entitled to do things a bit differently. That meant wearing sneakers of his choice — Jordans, as opposed to the team sponsor, Reebok.
Morris wouldn’t budge on that.
“Speedy said, ‘Get your a— out of the gym,’” Clark said.
Practices were Division I caliber, and the coach often would be screaming from start to finish. He was especially hard on Clark because he was running the team and had to communicate effectively on the court.
It didn’t take long for Clark to realize that this demeanor was reserved for Morris’ players.
“He would curse us out, and then he would go to Mass and pray,” Clark said. “I’m like, ‘Yo, what are you praying about? Trying to find more words to curse us out? What are you praying about?’ Hilarious.”
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It was tough love, but Clark learned from it. And he came to respect the culture Morris was trying to build. The coach had a catchphrase that he’d always say in practice, one that has stuck with Clark all these years later.
“Stars shine, but teams win,” the former player said. “He said it all the time because I was a knucklehead. And [shooting guard] John Griffin was a knucklehead. And every once in a while, we’d be like, ‘I’m averaging 18 a game, and I’m first team All-Catholic. You better put some respect on my name, Coach.’
“And he would just reel us back in, curse us out. But he would always say that. It’s cool to be a star. But you need the other guys in order to win. And we needed those guys as much as they needed us.”
The team grasped the concept almost immediately. With Morris at the helm, the Hawks played an unselfish, hard-nosed brand of basketball, which usually allowed them to beat more talented programs.
There was no better example than the 2004 Catholic League final. Cardinal Dougherty had three Division I recruits — including future NBA star Kyle Lowry — and two players who stood at 6-foot-8. But the Prep defeated them handily, 84-61.
They stayed true to Morris’ ethos until the very end. Clark and Griffin had combined for 52 points. As the clock dwindled and it became apparent that they had the game in hand, Clark decided to pass the ball to an unsung hero, center Mike Kearney.
“I remember throwing a bounce pass to half court, and he was underneath the basket,” Clark said. “He got it, and he dunked it, and that was the exclamation point.
“He did all of the dirty work. He rebounded; he defended. I could have scored another point. John could have scored another point. But we wanted Mike to finish it off. We were always looking out for each other.”
Setting a foundation
A few minutes before Morris gave Clark his blessing, the former player told his coach he’d changed his life. He gave him discipline at a time when he needed it. He’d taught him not just how to be a point guard, but how to create a culture.
What Clark didn’t realize was that he’d changed Morris’ life, too. When he arrived at the Prep in 2001, he was coming off eight straight losing seasons at La Salle. He had begun to doubt himself.
But Clark and his teammates quickly reassured Morris that he was in the right place.
“They really changed my philosophy,” Morris said. “I was like, ‘I don’t even know if I can coach anymore.’ And they kind of proved me wrong.”
Together, the players and the coach learned how to win again. Over 19 seasons, Morris led the Prep to a record of 366-141. He finished his career as the winningest coach in Philadelphia Catholic League history and posted 1,035 total victories, including his time at La Salle.
The game is different now. High schoolers have highlight reels and Division I schools throwing money at them. Social media has sapped their attention spans, making it more difficult to focus. Morris never had to deal with these challenges.
Clark will, and he knows it won’t be easy. But Morris gave him a solid foundation, one that will never go out of style. One that he thinks could lead the Prep to its first Catholic League championship in 21 years — its first since Morris was at the helm.
“We just didn’t care who got the credit [at the Prep],” Clark said. “We just wanted to win. That was the most important thing. And when you watch today’s youth basketball, high school or AAU, I don’t know how many really just care about winning. And when winning’s not the main thing, why do we do it?”
“I think [toughness and selflessness] are at the core of every successful team,” he added. “And it’s hard nowadays. These kids score a basket, and their parents got their cameras out. So, that’s a challenge for me to get these guys to not worry about who is getting the credit.
“It’s taking that same philosophy [that Speedy had] and doing it in my own way. In my own words, my own message. But those principles … I don’t think they change. I really don’t.”