John Raffel

Sports Scene

 

Jordan Morgan has signed on as the new football coach this fall at Lansing Eastern.

He realizes he has an incredible challenge.

The Quakers have struggled through three straight 0-9 seasons. The previous four years to that, they were 3-33. They haven’t had a winning season since 1997.

The Quakers were outscored 444-60 last year and 360-25 in the previous season.

But Morgan is ready to get to work. Last season, he helped out as a volunteer.

“Prior to that, I did some youth coaching in the Morley Stanwood area by Big Rapids,” he said. “It’s been mostly a playing career with professional indoor football in Bemidji. Minn. Prior to that, I had a rookie minicamp with the New York Giants. Prior to that, my college career had me as a four-year starter at Ferris State University.”

Morgan got a job in the Lansing area with the fire department.

“I knew I wanted to get back into coaching football,” he said. “I saw the school was close to the hospital. I reached out and saw they needed some help and came on as a volunteer. After getting timeout with the kids and realizing how much I was loving it and enjoying it and seeing the program go a certain way, I knew I wanted to stick around Lansing Eastern after I learned (the previous coach) had been let go. I talked to the AD and said I wanted to come up in any fashion.

“When the posting came up, I decided to put my name in the hat.”

He was hired during the winter.

“I got in there right away and in February and March, we started a winter lifting program all the way through the summer,” Morgan said. “We did some 7-on-7s. I definitely believe we had a good start going into two-a-days.”

Morgan was realistic about this year’s prospects.

“It’s been pretty rough the last few years,” he said. “I’m thinking we’re going to do very well. I have high expectations for these kids. We had a young program last year. A majority of sophomores were starting. These guys are juniors now. They’ve had the varsity experience. They’ll be a lot less scared, a lot less timid. We’ve been putting in a lot of work. These guys have been coming in, showing up all summer. We have some great senior leadership. I’m looking forward to where this thing is going to go.”