POLAND – Nothing sums up life like words on a t-shirt.

Just this week, the Poland girls’ basketball team unveiled new shirts printed with the words, “It’s Not About Where We’ve Been. It’s About Where We’re Going.”

It is a motto the team has taken to heart. It is a statement of the Knights’ hard work, focus and perseverance, despite their winless record.

The Knights have no better example of that slogan than their new coach, Andrew Morong.

Not far from the basketball court where Morong preaches his work ethic and never-give-up attitude is the scene and source of much of Morong’s motivation. Occasionally, while making the commute from Bath to Poland, he’ll drive to that spot off Route 202. It is where life irrevocably changed.

The scene is where the car he was driving slid off the road. The accident claimed the life of his girlfriend and dramatically altered his path.

“I have driven by it a couple of times,” he said. “I actually like to. You can’t appreciate where you are until you respect where you’ve been. It’s obviously a huge part of my life.”

The physical injuries from the accident were severe, but the emotional toll was far worse. Coaching basketball proved to be his distraction, focus and saving grace.

“It was definitely direction,” Morong said. “You just lost a big part of your life, but now you have something that may not have been there if that hadn’t happened. That doesn’t justify it, but I wouldn’t be where I am if I hadn’t gone through what I did.”

Morong is excited about his direction in life. He loves coaching basketball at Poland, hopes to revive the girls’ program and invigorate the community’s faith and interest in the team.

Basketball has become his passion and his escape. He appreciates the journey he’s taken, but respects and honors its cost.

Heather Johnson, a standout athlete at Jay, was a passenger in his car when it slid sideways and slammed into a tree. The tragedy still haunts him, but also inspires him.

“When someone touches your life like she did mine, it’s hard not to think of her,” he said. “She affected my life in a positive manner. I’m not going to forget about it. I don’t want to. She’s still a big part of me.”

August 2005

Morong was driving Johnson to work early that rainy morning, heading for Naples via Route 202.

He met Johnson through a mutual friend, who was Johnson’s roommate. When the two girls traveled back from a trip to Florida, they visited Morong in New York City, where he was attending St. John’s University. Morong and Johnson kept in touch and spent much of that summer together.

All was fine until their car slid on the wet road early that awful August morning. Morong could not keep the vehicle under control.

“I remember the car wiggling,” he recalled. “I was thinking ‘OK, I’m hydroplaning. Don’t slam on the brakes. It’s only going to make it worse. Pump the brakes. Just relax.’ I did that, and the tail end kicked out.

“It was really like a movie. You don’t think something like that happens, but everything slowed down. I remember actually seeing the tree. I was like, ‘OK, I’m going to hit that tree. There’s no way around it.'”

Morong awoke in an ambulance and was told he had a broken neck. With every bump on the way to the hospital, he wiggled his toes and fingers to make sure he could still move them.

At the time, Morong didn’t sense the severity of the crash. His biggest fear was that he’d wrecked his parent’s car. After a thorough examination, a police officer walked into his room.

“He grabbed my hand, and he already had tears coming down his face,” Morong said. “I tried to convince myself that something bad was about to be told to me, but I was thinking, ‘No, it wasn’t that bad. Nothing could have happened.’ Then he told me.”

Broken body and spirit

In addition to his broken neck, Morong suffered a fractured vertebrae and a broken foot. He had numerous cuts and scars from broken glass, some of are still visible on his hands.

“I really lucked out,” he said. “I don’t know why. There’s got to be a reason.”

He was told he’d spend three or four months in a confining brace. In the first week, he could barely move his jaw because of the pain and stiffness. He vowed that he wouldn’t be in the brace any longer than necessary. He walked regularly and put himself on a regiment of vitamins, assuming they’d help strengthen his bones.

“I said, ‘There’s no way I’m going to be in this brace any longer than that,” he said. “I was going to get out early. After my two-month checkup, I got my brace removed. I attribute a lot of it to (the vitamins) as well as my positive mind-set.”

He despised the attention and said wearing the brace was like a scarlet letter. It reminded him and those around him of what happened. As painful and slow healing as his physical wounds were, his emotional scars were more difficult to treat.

He feared being overwhelmed by anger, bitterness and self pity. He didn’t want to see himself spiral to the depths of despair. His family suggested he seek counseling, but he was determined to face it alone.

“I knew if I didn’t spearhead it, and I didn’t deal with it, it would have just destroyed me,” he said.

His goal was to move forward and face the facts of what happened. It was painful and difficult, but Morong knew it had to be done.

“Everybody told me it was just an accident, and it was,” he said. “There’s nothing I could have done differently, I don’t think, that would have prevented it, but I have to take responsibility.”

Morong sought accountability. He felt guilt and pondered what he could have done differently. He realized second-guessing couldn’t change the tragic outcome. He didn’t seek excuses, but sought to overcome, figuring that if he could endure this, he could face anything.

“I don’t know what kind of lesson it’s supposed to be teaching me, but I don’t think it’s worth someone’s life,” he said.

He devoted himself to getting better physically and then faced the emotional damage. One of the first steps in moving forward was revisiting the past.

“As soon as I felt comfortable driving again, I went back to the accident site,” Morong said. “I went to her grave, and I talked to myself out loud. That’s the kind of stuff that needs to be done in those kinds of circumstances. Each time, a little weight came off my shoulders.”

Coached up

One of the first signs Morong saw of coaching’s impact came at Johnson’s funeral. His father, Tom, was the long-time girls’ coach at Morse High School. During moments of despair and disbelief that week, Morong saw a glimmer of hope.

“At Heather’s funeral, we had three or four players from Dad’s team there to support him and me,” Morong said. “They were freshmen and sophomores. Their parents brought them up. Them being there for him and us showed the kind of affect he had on their lives. They were just trying to give something back. To put yourself in a position to affect somebody’s life in a positive manner like that is something everybody should try to do. I think it’s the most intrinsically rewarding thing.”

Coaching basketball was the furthest thing from the 19-year old’s mind. His father recognized that his son needed a change for the better.

“He was home recovering,” Tom Morong said. “I just looked at him one day, sitting there in his neck brace. I was thinking, ‘How are we going to get this kid back to normalcy?’ If that was even possible.”

He told Andrew the Shipbuilders needed work offensively. He suggested that his son spend time on the computer and see what he could come up with that might be helpful. Andrew found some plays and that led to him helping out during the preseason.

“Initially, it gave him something to look forward to and get out of where he was,” his father said.

Coaches often say that being around kids makes them feel younger. Tom hoped that enthusiasm from his girls’ team would benefit his son.

“Dealing with high school kids, that’s as much life as can be,” Tom said. “They’ve got everything ahead of them. It’s contagious. To put him in with that, that’s the connection I wanted. This is what happened to you, but here are these kids bubbling with life, and you need to be around that.”

Tom had no idea if that idea would work. Coaching was a new experience, but it quickly consumed his son.

“I realized I could do this someday,” Andrew said. “It was going from an emotional low and trying to build to that emotional high. That’s what coaching provided. It provided me a big stepping stone to my emotional stability. It shifted my focus.”

Initially it was an escape, a means to forget, but it soon provided him a way to move on. He admits now that had his father not been a coach and had he not made such an offer, Andrew has no idea where he might be today.

“It helped me focus my emotions toward something else instead of what had happened.” he said. “It was pivotal for me in developing as a person and as a coach.”

The following season, he had more input at halftime and during practices. Among the tasks Tom delegated to his son were scouting, working with kids during college recruitment or giving individual players one-on-one attention. Last year, he was an associate coach, sharing most of the coaching duties. His father had the final say, but Andrew was involved in all facets.

With his graduation from the University of Maine imminent, he began searching for a coaching position. With help from his dad, Andrew lined up possible jobs as an assistant. But, Andrew wanted to be a head coach.

“At 22, it’s a hard deal for an educator to hire a 22-year-old to coach 18-year-old girls,” Tom Morong said.

“It’s Not About Where We’ve Been …”

The Poland program had been without a coach for more than six months and had gone through four coaches in five years. When Morong applied, Don King, the athletic administrator, was honest with him.

“I think it’s a great place to start, and the right person can do great things,” King recalled telling him. “There’s only one direction to go.”

Stepping into a head varsity job was a challenge. Despite having a veteran coach for a father and experience as an assistant, nothing truly prepared him.

He’s been shorthanded much of the season. One key returnee injured her knee during soccer season. Other potential returnees gave up the sport. Then, his young squad was beset by more injuries. There were some practices where Morong participated as a player just to give them enough to scrimmage. Still, he’s poured every ounce of energy into the endeavor.

“The amount of emotion – the highs and the lows – I experienced a little bit as an assistant, but as a head coach when you’re completely responsible for everything, it’s very demanding.”

He says many in the community are convinced he’ll soon leave for greener pastures. Having recently graduated from Maine with a degree in social psychology and business administration, he’s hoping to find a full-time marketing job in the area and build the Knights’ program.

He is trying to alter the mindset in the community. He’s committed himself to working with the recreation program, also involving his varsity players. He’s hosted clinics for the area youth. He’s invited area middle school teams to attend varsity games, having them sit behind the bench so they can observe.

The community is accustomed to seeing the boys’ varsity program do such things, but not the girls’.

“Andrew’s the first coach since I’ve been here that did any youth clinics,” King said. “People have said, ‘Somebody cares about the girls’ basketball program.’ Coaches have said they’re interest in the long haul and building a program, but this is the first person that has spoken to the people that are going to be around to make it change. He’s sent a clear message in the community that the varsity team is very important, but so are the youth level basketball players.”

King says parents and the players simply want a coach they can believe in. With the constant rotation at the top, that has been difficult. Morong is proving that he bleeds navy blue and silver, and that is beginning to show in the play of the team, according to King.

“His kids work hard,” King said. “They’ve come up short in games, but they haven’t stopped working to improve. That’s really important. I’ve said before that you’ll know a good coach when the kids want to work at the end of the game for him.”

Morong says his coaching style has many influences, but one of the most significant is Johnson. She was a standout player, who overcame numerous knee injuries. She was a leader, an offensive threat and a hard-working, tenacious force for the Tigers.

Morong shared his story briefly with the girls earlier in the year, but intends to discuss his journey further at another time.

“Heather is a big influence on my coaching philosophy,” said Morong, who said he’s had some contact with her family and hopes to have more in the future. “I remember being at the Civic Center when Jay played Dirigo in the semifinals. I remember being there watching her play before I knew her. I was thinking that girl is the epitome of hard work and determination. What more can you ask for from a player? That attitude, that little pop in her step that she had, I’m trying to teach that. She was one heck of a basketball player, and it wasn’t because she could score 20 points a game. It was because of her complete, all-out effort.”

Morong says that is all he requires of his Knights. With a young team trying to build confidence and consistency, he wants his team aiming high and striving hard, regardless of the challenges.

It is something their coach knows all too well.

“If they’re working hard, what more can I ask for?” he said. “If they’re diving on the floor when they’re down 20 in the fourth quarter, trying to take an offensive foul, obviously I’m doing something right, and they’re doing something a lot right if they’re continuing to fight no matter what the score is.”