Marlon Morris spent three seasons as Trinity’s head coach. (PJ Ward-Brown/Randolph record)
TRINITY – Trinity is amid a coaching change for its football program.
Marlon Morris stepped down from his role as head coach after three seasons.
“It was kind of a surprise,” Trinity athletics director Robert Mitchell said. “He decided it was best not to stay as coach.”
Trinity was 9-16 in three seasons under Morris. The Bulldogs had back-to-back 4-6 seasons after a 1-4 mark in the pandemic-reconfigured 2021 spring season.
“We’re going to give it a few weeks and see how the next month goes,” Mitchell said Monday of hiring a replacement. “It’s still fresh now and we want to see what openings we might have (on the school staff).”
Within a few days of word spreading about the vacancy, Mitchell said about a dozen potential candidates made contact with him.
Trinity’s 2023 team could have up to 30 seniors. Mitchell said there were good roster numbers for the junior varsity team last fall.
Morris, also a social studies teacher, was defensive coordinator in 2019 before he was named head coach in March 2020 shortly after the start of the pandemic. The High Point Central alum previously had been on the coaching staff at Ledford.
Morris replaced Brett Andrews, who had been coach for five seasons.
Morris’ first season as head coach was the 2021 adjusted spring season because of the pandemic. Trinity ended a 17-game losing streak that March.
“I think he did a great job during the pandemic,” Mitchell said, “because that was tough for everybody.”
In 2022, the Bulldogs won four of their first five games, but ended the season on a five-game losing streak and were the last-place team in the Piedmont Athletic Conference. Except for a one-point loss to Wheatmore, the other PAC defeats were by 31 or more points.
“It was definitely a rough ending,” Mitchell said.
The problems were compounded by injuries. Senior Dylan Hodges, one of the team’s top two-way players, suffered a broken collarbone in the third game of the season. Injuries mounted, with quarterback Dominic Payne missing the last two games with an ankle ailment.
With changes at Asheboro and Providence Grove, it means three of the seven football-playing schools in Randolph County will be under the direction of new coaches this year.
