Each Monday of the fall semester, we’ll be bringing you three different “Getting to Know Them” profiles on coaches, athletic administrators and athletic trainers at Slippery Rock to introduce you to the folks behind the scenes here at The Rock. Next up, we check in with football head athletic trainer and strength and conditioning coach Scott Morrison.  

FAST FACTS
- Fifth year at SRU working as a certified athletic trainer
- Fourth year working as the head athletic trainer with the football team
- Also serves as director of human performance for the athletic department
- Is a member of the President’s Commission on Wellness at SRU
- Bachelor’s degree from Penn State and master’s degree from the University of Virginia

QUICK BIO
Scott Morrison is in his fifth year at Slippery Rock and his fourth working with the football program. He previously served as a regional team leader and the cycling program coordinator for UPMC from 2008-15 and as an assistant athletic trainer at Dartmouth College in 2008. In his role at SRU, Morrison leads the athletic training operations for the football and women’s tennis teams. He also writes and supervises the weight training and strength and conditioning programs and serves as a clinical supervisor for the SRU exercise science strength training interns. 

IN HIS WORDS
Q: What’s the first concert you went to? What’s the most recent concert you went to?
A: My first concert was the Charlie Daniels Band’s Million Mile Reflections Tour in 1979. My most recent concert was Clutch at the Mr. Smalls Theater in Millvale.

Q: What was your first job growing up?
A: Bagel Baker. I worked overnight baking bagels in State College. 

Q: When did you know you wanted to go into a career in collegiate athletics?
A: I just fell into the role actually after having our daughter and returning to college to finish my degree. I was exposed to high level Division I athletics. I liked working with sports that were successful with athletes that were at the pinnacle of their game. It challenged me to perform up to their level and required me to be a high-level performer from a medical perspective. 

Q: What was the last book you read? Thoughts on it?
A: “5th Set for Powerlifting.” It is a creative and proven successful approach to lifting that allows for self-regulation to promote progress. 

Q: What’s your all-time favorite movie? You can give us a few if you can’t pick just one.
A: “A River Runs Through It” because it was the first date that I went on with my wife of 26 years. “Once Upon A Time in the West” is a Sergio Leone masterpiece. Jimmy Stewart plays one the best villains ever. “Into the Wild” is a tragic story of discovery of a modern-day Muir or Thoreau. “Oldboy” (the original Korean Vversion) is incredible. The hammer scene alone is one of the greatest in cinema. “Dogtown and Z Boys” provides a first-person narrative of the evolution of skateboarding.  

Q: How do you relax?
A: Lifting heavy and eating thick. 

Q: What’s your favorite meal?
A: Protein.

Q: What meal/dish/item are you best at cooking? 
A: Kung Pao Chicken.

Q: What’s your favorite restaurant? What do you order there?
A: Street and Company (Portland, Maine). I get the shrimp with butter and garlic.

Q: What was your first car? What’s your dream car?
A: First car was a 1987 Subaru Wagon. Dream car would be a 2020 or 2021 Ford Raptor in “Rapid Red” with leather interior and sunroof. 

Q: What artists and/or songs are on your current most-listened to playlist?
A: For lifting it is a mix of metal with a heavy rotation from Motorhead, Mastodon, Lamb of God and Clutch. For driving it is a mix of REM, Smashing Pumpkins, Screaming Trees, Sonic Youth, Fugazi, Minor Threat and Bad Religion. For relaxing it’s Grateful Dead and Phish.

Q: Favorite current TV show? Favorite TV show of all-time?
A: Current would be “Shameless” and “Ozark.” All-time favorite is “Entourage.” My least Favorite would be: “Breaking Bad” – predictable and plods along like a broken-down horse, “The Walking Dead” – on life support after season three, “Lost” – isn’t it the same thing as “Survivor?” And any serial medical drama – do we really think that is how hospitals and doctors behave? I think the Seinfeld episode with the Junior Mint was more accurate. 

Q: How did you decide on your children’s names or pet names?
A: My wife names the babies and I name the dogs. 

Q: How many and what kind of pets do you have? How long have you had them?
A: We have a 6-year old Greater Swiss Mountain Dog named Sadie. We have had her since she was a puppy. 

Q: Cats or dogs?
A: Always dogs. 

Q: What’s the best advice you ever received and who did it come from?
A: “If it’s not fun, then why do it” was on a Ben and Jerry’s bumper sticker.

Q: What’s your favorite season/type of weather? Why?
A: Season: fall. Type of Weather: cold snow and ice. Why? – I love the cold; it makes me feel alive and I don’t like being hot. When we lived in Maine, we were very active in the winter.  During the winter in Maine, you only have a few options: Visit the brew pubs (in the 1990’s Maine had more brew pubs than anywhere else in the country). Ski. And then snowmobiling., which isn’t something that we tried. Pennsylvania is just cold and wet. This is partly why I wear shorts a majority of the time in Pennsylvania – it isn’t cold enough. 

Q: Why do you wear shorts all the time?
A: I was working for a major outdoor retailer in Freeport, Maine. One of my co-workers bet me that I couldn’t wear shorts for the month of December. I said I would wear them every day until the first day of spring. So, from that point forward, from March 21 to Thanksgiving shorts are required. From Thanksgiving to March 21 shorts are optional.

Q: When you go grocery shopping, are you the “Make a List” person or the “Just Wing It” person?
A: List for my wife and daughter and wing it for me. 

Q: Are you a tech savvy person?
A: Not at all. I have no idea any longer how to set up anything tech. I am becoming the typical old man with tech. I long for the days of flip phones. They were cool and you got a new one every year. The screens didn’t shatter. You could play that snake game. It was such a simpler time. 

Q: Describe your perfect day off.
A: Spending time with family in a remote campground around a fire in the fall. 

Q: Do you listen to podcasts? If so, what are your favorites?
A: Yes, I listen to the Joe DeFranco Industrial Strength Show, Mark Bell Power Project, Elite FTS Table Talk and Unbeatable Mind.

Q: What is your biggest fear?
A: Drowning and Sharks. So, we are planning a trip to Costa Rica to learn how to surf in the future. And Stairs. 

Q: Can you sing?
A: NOPE

Q: What is/would be your go-to karaoke song?
A: The off button. 

Q: You can only eat one thing the rest of your life, what is it?
A: Protein.

Q: Fly or drive for a long trip?
A: Depends upon location. Anything over 12 hours, we will fly.  We lived in Maine for years and would drive a lot to visit family in Pennsylvania. So, we are accustomed to long drives and managing them. Flying can be easier to get places, but there is more stuff that you have to do from security to sitting next to crying babies, to airplane food that makes flying uncomfortable. 

Q: What was your favorite or most memorable vacation?
A: Paris, France in March of 2020. The best time to travel is at the beginning of a pandemic apparently. There were no lines anywhere. We were able to take a nap on the top of the Eiffel Tower waiting for Sunset. I saw the Mona Lisa and was disappointed it was so small. We drove a golf cart around Versailles. I got a ticket for not having a ticket to ride the Metro. I was speechless over the beauty of Sainte-Chappelle. I saw Jim Morrison’s (unfortunately no relation) grave in Pere Lachaise after getting off the plane and being awake for 36 hours. I walked 52 miles in eight days. Public transportation wasn’t crowded. Can’t ever go back because it will be too crowded. 

Q: Where is one place you haven’t visited yet, but you definitely plan to?
A: Yellowstone and Yosemite. The “big country” is any place that makes you feel small. It doesn’t get much bigger than these places. The crowds of Yosemite are kind of a turn off, but to see an area that is unlike any other place in the world is worth it I believe. Yellowstone or Grand Teton are places that have captivated me since I was young. I would still like to climb the Grand Teton, maybe even in winter, to experience climbing a large mountain. I would like to go to Nepal to see the Himalayas and spend time trekking around the highest peaks on the planet.  I have always had a fascination with big mountains and nothing is bigger than the Himalayan Mountains. 

Q: Is a hot dog a sandwich?
A: Not even a food.

Q: Does pineapple belong on pizza?
A: Never. Pizza can have only the following toppings: red sauce, cheese, pepperoni, garlic, mushrooms. I will tolerate others eating sausage, onions and peppers. Ham, pineapple and other hipster toppings don’t belong on a pizza. 

Q: Sheetz or WaWa? Why?
A: Sheetz because I am a Yinzer, even though they are an Altoona based company. Wawa is trash. 

Q: What’s the last TV show you binged watched?
A: “World’s Toughest Race: Eco Challenge Fiji.” I won’t watch season two. It was a made for TV adventure race. I was around teams for the second ever Eco-Challenge in Maine. And not much has changed, to be polite.

Q: Is there a professor you had a class with in college that you still remember? Who and why?
A: I have a number of them actually. Dr. Lauren Kramer at PSU got me into Athletic Training after doing well in an anatomy class. Dr. Jay Hertel, my thesis advisor at UVA, believed in me as a “non-traditional student” to pursue my masters. 

Q: How long can you go without looking at your phone?
A: Depends upon how often Shawn Lutz is calling me. 

Q: What was the last app you downloaded on your phone? What is your most-used app?
A: Last app was DuoLingo to learn Greek. Most-used is Band for communication with the football team. 

Q: What’s one game show or reality show you could go on that you think you could win?
A: None, I would be voted off or removed very early on, if I even made it past the screening process. 

Q: Retirement destination?
A: Local cemetery. 

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