Coach Calls Emotion the Key : But the Tons of Talent on the Morningside Football Team Doesn’t Hurt a Bit

Ocean League football coaches probably won’t believe it, but Coach Ron Tatum of league champion Morningside High School said recently that football is 95% emotion.

With talents like tight end-linebacker Terrell Edwards (6-3, 200 pounds), fullback-linebacker Deshon Mosley (6-2, 210), receiver Shannon Thompson (5-8, 160) and 5-11, 180-pound quarterback Ernesto Carmicle, opposing coaches probably think Tatum has his priorities confused.

The Monarchs average 345.3 yards of offense a game. Carmicle has completed 53 of 115 passes for 1,338 yards (a 25.2 average) and 11 touchdowns. Mosley averages 8.9 yards a carry and has scored 7 touchdowns. And Thompson has 21 catches for 604 yards (27.8 per catch) and 7 TDs.

Three weeks ago, however, Morningside relied on more than just its mammoth athletic arsenal to crush South Torrance, 44-0, and clinch the league championship.

A day before Morningside’s victory at South, Spartans Coach Joe Austin unknowingly gave the Monarchs a verbal slap in the face by saying in The Times that he was sure his team could beat Morningside if South played the way it had been playing.

The comment shocked Tatum and apparently was misunderstood in the Morningside locker room. It inspired the Monarchs to no end.

“Austin didn’t give us any credit at all,” said Mosley. “He just said it would be no problem beating us.”

“He said that we couldn’t play with South,” said Thompson. “We didn’t like that.”

The Monarchs’ collective dander only increased when they learned that South receiver John Morton had been taunting opponents all season by wearing a less-than-humble towel touting his speed; it read: See ya’ later.

Austin said later that he did not read the apparently pivotal story. “But I will tell you this,” Austin said, laughing, “whatever I said, I will never say it again.”

When it was suggested that Austin had been misunderstood, Carmicle replied: “Regardless of what he meant, it was said and it inspired our team.”

Asked later if he had anything to say to the Spartans, Mosley grinned and said: “Like the South coach said, no problem. How you like us now?”

The incident should go down as a monumental misunderstanding. It hurt South, but the Spartans still earned the CIF-Division VII at-large playoff bid and visit San Marino (8-0-1) Friday at 7:30 p.m.

For the Monarchs, however, the incident provided a clue to their team’s personality that could play a big factor if they expect to conquer more formidable foes than St. Bernard, which No. 7-ranked Morningside plays host to Friday in another Division VII first-round playoff game.

In his best footballese, Tatum said the Monarchs “are their own worst enemy. If they want it, they can get it. If they come to play, it will be hard to stop them.”

Translation? If they play with emotion, they can compete with most teams.

The problem? They don’t always play with emotion.

Against Mira Costa a lackadaisical Morningside almost swallowed its own humble dessert because the Monarchs were thinking more about that evening’s homecoming dance than the last-place Mustangs. Mira Costa kicker John Williams just missed a last-minute, 47-yard field goal, and Morningside escaped with 19-17 nail biter.

“They were ready for the dance but they weren’t ready for the game,” Tatum said after half of his team legitimately missed the Mira Costa pregame meeting so they could get haircuts. “They were out of it. They were flat. But we survived.”

Carmicle, Mosely and tailback Phillip Favors ran for a combined 171 yards and 2 touchdowns and Carmicle connected with Edwards for a 47-yard scoring strike.

“But we took them for granted,” Carmicle said. “We were sloppy . . . but the South win put us on high.”

How high?

So high that the Monarchs could celebrate their league championship and risk incurring the wrath of Tatum by drenching their coach with a bucket of Gatorade.

There is room for celebration at Morningside this year because the team has returned to 1986 form, when it won the Pioneer League championship. Despite a continuous battle with penalties, infractions have not prevented them from going undefeated in the realigned Ocean League after finishing last in the Pioneer League (0-4-1) in 1987. And players say the Monarchs get along much better than last season’s team.

“Ever since Hell Week we have been close,” Carmicle said. “We do everything together.”

“Last year,” said Thompson, a senior who also plays defensive back, “all the seniors were just thinking of themselves. Now, we think of everybody and try to get the ball around as much as we can.”

It’s a multidimensional attack that almost upended Hawthorne and Leuzinger early in the year, speared South and frustrated Mira Costa.

“More than speed,” said Mira Costa Coach Dave Brown, “it’s all the tools they have. You can’t load up on them because they will hurt you in another way.”

In August, Tatum knew Carmicle, Mosley and Thompson would give Morningside a bead on a league championship.

What worried him was the offensive line. And after two games in which the Monarch running game proved nonexistent, Tatum’s apprehensions grew. But soon senior linemen Aaron Elliot (6-5, 300), who had joined up for the first time this fall, and Tron Bridges (6-0, 200) blossomed. Then Tatum smacked some speed onto the line by moving sophomore Danny Katoa (5-10, 200) from fullback to guard.

The spirited Monarchs haven’t lost since.

The team always gets together at a local restaurant on game days. Which is essential, Katoa said, because “we are usually so pumped in the huddle that we can’t even hear the plays.”

Credit emotion with a share of at least one championship.