By Randy Whitehouse,Staff Writer

Sean Morey will be living out his dream on the frozen turf at Heinz Field this Sunday, playing for the Pittsburgh Steelers in the AFC Championship Game.

But Morey admits that he might not be one step from his first Super Bowl this week if he didn’t discover his passion for the game on the leaf-strewn fields at Hebron Academy 10 years ago.

“I fell in love with football that year,” said the Steelers’ wide receiver and special teams ace. “When I played that season and we won so many games and we played such an integral part in the school and the community, you couldn’t help but fall in love with football.”

Hebron wasn’t Morey’s first destination of choice. He’d grown up in Marshfield, MA dreaming of playing for Boston College, but the Division I school showed little interest in a skinny receiver who’d been dubbed “Bone Rack” by his best friend, Jim Kelley.

Northeastern University offered Morey a partial scholarship, but Kelley had done some research on Hebron and was considering going there. He suggested his friend accompany him to Maine.

“I felt like if I could go up to Hebron and play well and study hard, it was going to prepare me academically for BC,” Morey said. “When I first took a visit up there, I fell in love with the school and the people. I liked the small-town atmosphere.”

Turning things around

Morey, then 18, knew little about the football program at Hebron before he arrived late in the summer of 1994.

“We were pretty crummy before then,” said Hebron football coach Moose Curtis, who just completed 23rd year with the team. “We were 0-13 the year before and Sean and his friend showed up and we had a couple of other PG’s (post-graduates).”

Morey did a little of everything at Hebron during the 1994 season, playing wide receiver, defensive back, punting, returning kicks and kicking PATs for the Lumberjacks. With Morey, Kelley and former Wells QB Guy Coombs leading the way, Hebron went undefeated and won the New England prep school championship.

“It was probably one of the years playing football where I had the most fun,” Morey said. “Coach Curtis was a pleasure to play for. The people associated with that team and that school and my teammates made it more enjoyable.”

“I always tell my friends stories about the drills we did at Hebron,” he added. “They were just a lot of simple football drills that made me fall in love with the game more than I had ever realized.”

College coaches, particularly those from the Ivy League, fell in love with Morey. The first day of recruiting, Tim Murphy from Harvard dropped by to visit. Not to be outdone, Carm Cozza, the legendary coach from Harvard’s rival, Yale, drove up from Connecticut with his offensive coordinator to talk to Morey.

The coaches told Morey that he would have to earn straight A’s at Hebron to be accepted in their rigid schools. He was determined to do just that.

“I went to all of my teachers and said Listen, I’m going to do anything and everything you need me to do to get an A’, and I worked my butt off and did it,” he said.

“He was such a hard worker and such a solid citizen. He wants to do the best he can,” remembered Curtis. “He was just a feel-good story.”

Morey eventually chose Brown University and went on to have one of the greatest careers in the schools long football history. He caught a record 251 career passes for 3,850 yards and 40 TDs. In 1997, he was voted Ivy League player of the year with after setting a single-season record with 74 receptions.

From Brown to black and gold

Morey graduated from Brown with honors and a degree in organizational behavior and management, but his football career continued. The New England Patriots, under new head coach Bill Belichick, drafted him in the seventh round of the 1999 draft (241st overall), making him the first Hebron alum to reach the NFL since Robert Barth (Class of 62).

He played special teams the final two games of his rookie year, then spent the off-season playing wide receiver for the Barcelona Dragons in NFL Europe, the first of three seasons spent playing football overseas.

The Patriots cut Morey in training camp before his second season, then re-signed him to the practice squad. They worked him at wide receiver and defensive back, though he never saw game action.

They cut him again at the end of the season, but Morey won’t be carrying a chip on his shoulder into Sunday’s game.

“I have nothing but respect and appreciation for those coaches in terms of the time and effort they put in coaching me,” he said. “They helped teach me the nuances of playing wide receiver in the NFL and I got to play for one of the best special teams coaches around (Brad Seely). There’s no animosity.”

Morey returned to Barcelona in the spring of 2001, this time to play defensive back. He remained unsigned with an NFL team during the 2001 season until the Philadelphia Eagles picked him up just before the start of the playoffs. Four days after he joined the team, he made two special teams tackles in a playoff game against Tampa Bay. He didn’t see the field again until the 2003 season, when he was voted the special teams MVP by his Eagles teammates and named to Sports Illustrated’s All-Pro team as a special teamer.

Morey seemed to have found his niche in the NFL, but the hard reality of life in pro football struck again when he was among the final cuts made by the Eagles before the season started. Pittsburgh claimed him off waivers the next day, and he has been a tough and tenacious force on their special teams ever since. During the regular season, he returned seven kickoffs and made 21 tackles on special teams.

“You give your lumps, you take your lumps,” Morey said of playing special teams. “It’s a humbling experience, but it’s what I love to do.”

The Steelers are known as one of the most physical teams in the NFL, and it’s up to Morey and the rest of the special teams to set the physical tone since they’re always on the field first. Many observers believe special teams could make the difference in a game between two evenly matched teams.

“It starts with kickoff coverage,” he said. “The guys on this team run fast, hit hard and they’re real aggressive.”

Pittsburgh humbled the Patriots back on Halloween, 34-20, yet are 3-point underdogs on their home field.

“We really could care less,” he said. “They’re the defending Super Bowl champs. They’re the team to beat until someone someone can prove otherwise.”

Overdue return

Morey has made only one trip back to Hebron, to speak at a football banquet during his senior year at Brown. He has since married Cara, who plays women’s professional hockey player in Canada. The couple has a young daughter, Devan Lynn, and spends much of the off-season in Cara’s hometown of Dorset, Ontario, which is three hours north of Toronto.

“It’s a lot like Hebron in the winter-time,” said the 28-year-old.

“I talk to my wife about (Hebron) so much. I don’t think she believes it even exists. It’s such a Utopian place,” he added. “Another trip there is long overdue. I want to introduce my wife and my family to the people up there.”

When he does return, he said, one of the first people he’ll introduce them to is Edie Pierson, the school receptionist, with whom he still exchanges cards and letters.

He’ll have a lot of other people to catch up with, and thank, he said.

“It played such an important role in my life at an age where kids are so impressionable,” Morey said. “The teachers I had and the coaches I had…you really couldn’t ask for a better situation. I think it’s helped me become a better professional athlete and a better person.”