Rachel Morris’ voice cracked.
Memories so powerful and so heart-wrenching rushed back into the forefront of Morris’ thoughts. More than year has passed since Devin Adair died, yet the impact he left remains constant each time Morris dons an Oregon uniform and steps onto the volleyball court.
Morris, a freshman for the Duck volleyball team, nearly left the sport behind. Years of playing club and high school volleyball had left her worn out.
Adair’s words brought her back.
“Devin kept telling me, ‘You need to play volleyball. You need to do this. You need to go and play Division I. You’re good enough. You can do it. You can be the starting setter somewhere,’” Morris said.
The energetic freshman knew Adair growing up in Manhattan Beach, Calif. Adair was childhood friends with Morris’ brother, Jordan. As years passed, and they grew apart, Rachel Morris and Adair grew closer.
Four years separated the two in school, but it didn’t matter. Morris considered him an older brother. Adair, who like Morris attended Mira Costa High, had dreams of playing NFL football. He began his college football career at El Camino College in California and as a junior transferred to Tulsa in January 2006. He participated in spring drills and was expected to push for the starting tight end job in the fall.
But within a week of going to the hospital for the flu, Adair, 21, passed away. The official cause of his death on April 28, 2006 was necrotizing fasciitis, more commonly known as flesh-eating bacteria.
On the Friday that Adair died, Morris received a call that Adair was OK. He was being brought out of an induced coma and having a CT scan.
Hours later, another call, this time wondering if Morris was OK and if she’d heard that Adair had died. Morris needed confirmation. She resisted calling her brother, knowing he’d know for sure, before finally giving in and learning Adair, 21, had passed away.
But Adair’s message to Morris never died: “You could play in the Pac-10.”
“When he died, it kind of lit a light in my head and was like ‘I need to do this,’” said Morris of playing college volleyball. “So it’s not only for my family, but for him too.”
Finding the right school
Morris, then 16, had been playing club volleyball since she was 8 years old. She needed a break.
“And then I just didn’t think I wanted to do it anymore so I started looking at schools that I just wanted to go to,” said Morris, who applied to Oregon, Florida State, Ohio State, Arizona and Arizona State, among others. “I just wanted to be at the school for the atmosphere and whatever graduate stuff they had and majors and that kind of stuff.”
In her junior year of high school, Morris played on a less competitive club team that reenergized her. She sent letters to the colleges she applied to saying she was interested in playing volleyball.
Oregon offered Morris sports marketing and various other sports-related programs, including sports medicine and sports management, which would allow her to stay involved with athletics when her volleyball career is over.
Plus, she and her father, Phil Morris, were drawn to coach Jim Moore.
“He is a very warm and fuzzy guy but he is a no-bones, brass-tacks volleyball man so even though he will nurture you, if you’re not pulling your weight you’re going to elicit his ire so to speak so he’s had that yin and yang thing,” Phil Morris said. “The good cop, bad cop thing going.”
Oregon benefits
Morris struggled at first in her adjustment to Division I volleyball.
“In the beginning, it was tough because, obviously, the game is much faster and the girls are so much better and so much more competitive,” Morris said. “But now that we’re into the season and all that kind of stuff it’s so much easier.”
Morris says Moore is one of two setters he depends on, along with Nevena Djordjevic. Morris is second on Oregon with 391 assists to Djordjevic’s 688.
“Without question, I think in the last month Rachel has improved more than anybody. Rachel has stepped in and done some very good things,” Moore said. “She’s setting well, she’s playing defense well and I’m thrilled to death with as well as she’s playing.”
Well-known father
For many, Phil Morris is most well-known for his role as Jackie Chiles on Seinfeld, the popular comedy starring Jerry Seinfeld. For Rachel Morris, there were subtle differences growing up with a father who is an actor. Instead of going to the office on take your daughter to work day, they went to the set.
“People ask questions. They’re like, ‘Oh, your dad’s an actor. What’s he been in?’ I’m like, ‘I don’t know. He’s my dad.’ But other than that it’s normal, which is weird to say and weird for people to hear but for me it’s always kind of been normal,” Morris said.
What he did for a living never really set in, she says, until he took her to the Black Entertainment Television Awards her sophomore year of high school. She saw rap artist Snoop Dogg there and sat next to Paris Hilton.
“I was like, ‘Oh, this is kind of cool. This is what my dad does,’” Morris said.
Morris, outside of some modeling as a young child, chose sports instead of following her father into acting. They lived in Manhattan Beach, Calif., away from the Hollywood spotlight, and Phil Morris, in his own way, subtly shielded his children from the often harsh world of entertainment.
“It’s hard for kids to understand the value of life when they see the glitz and the glamour – the money – (people) treat celebrities different, especially in America,” he said. “We’re a really celebrity obsessed mentality and I didn’t want them to be overwhelmed with that.”
Morris has a lengthy list of acting credits, including voice-overs, and currently appears as John Jones, Martian Manhunter, on “Smallville,” the television show following a young Clark Kent. Occasionally, Rachel Morris receives calls from classmates when they see her father in one of his many television appearances, including his small role as Prof. Scott Burton on “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.”
Chiles, the lawyer based off Johnnie Cochran, was famous for his catch phrase “I am outraged,” as well as his use of the adjectives “Fabulous, Stupendous, Outrageous!” Fans were drawn to the character, and during Morris’ latest visit to Eugene, fans recognized him in The Duck Store and began reciting memorable lines from the show.
The character, who Morris says wasn’t a straight Cochran imitation, mixed a little Cochran, hustler, pimp, street corner preacher and other characters Morris has seen throughout his life. The year before the character came about, the nation had been inundated with the O.J. Simpson trial and Cochran was a central figure.
“As much as I thought it was a car accident wreck of a trial, you can’t take your eyes off it,” Morris said. “Every day you’re watching this man, Johnnie Cochran, extricate this other man, O.J. Simpson, out of this web of crime. As much as I didn’t dig it, he was a genius.”
Rachel Morris, though, knows Phil Morris for his real-life role as her father, who with his flexible schedule, is often able to watch her volleyball matches. Two weeks ago, Phil Morris and Rachel Morris’ mom, Carla, visited when Oregon hosted the Arizona schools. He also stayed for the Oregon football team’s 24-17 win against visiting USC.
“He’s my biggest supporter,” Morris said. “It helps me a lot when he’s here. It relaxes me even more just knowing that there’s somebody else that’s in my family who’s here to support me no matter what.”
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