Colorado State University Athletics
Afternoons With Morry
4/15/2005 12:00:00 AM | General
What can you say about a person who impacted so many lives? A coach who touched countless athletes? A man with a pet pig?
Morris Arbini, or Morry, coached diving for 19 years. During those years he went from watching kids wear neon colors to see people use the word ?bling.? Seeing a dive go from graceful, and beautiful to being more mechanic. Arbini has seen it all and now that his eyes are going he thinks its time to call it quits.
?My animals need me and I need them,?Arbini said. ?I just want to do things that are mindless.?
Mindless. For a man who coached 18 high school all-Americans, who coached all three sports at Rocky Mountain High School, who coached a NCAA national champion during only 2 years as head coach, it?s hard to call anything he does as mindless.
?Morry?s personality: Cool, calm, collective on the surface and a competitive ornery devil underneath,? Erin Shumway, a former CSU diver, said.
That?s Morry.
John Mattos, CSU?s head coach of swimming, described his personality as relatively quiet, extremely patient, and very empathetic. The same man he described jumps off the platform at a training camp in Arizona to get his players motivated.
?It wasn?t that he was an overly demanding coach,? Mattos said. ?It?s that his very presence commanded respect.?
When asked if he will sleepwalk over to Moby pool out of instinct Morry replied that he wouldn?t walk, it would most likely be in a car.
?I?ll probably go to Wal-Mart and end up at CSU,? Arbini joked. ?My car just might automatically head up there.?
Morry reflected on Lori Vigil (who he remembers as Lori Anderson) and Shumway?s success on the diving boards. He stated how he didn?t remember them as individuals but as a team.
?I always remember people in three?s or in groups, never as one,? Arbini said. ?I wanted them to be a team. Sometimes it worked, sometimes he didn?t,? he laughed.
How can a man give up 19 years of his life to help others? Morry had an answer as to why he stayed so long.
?To pay off my motor home,? Arbini said, being himself.
Should have expected such an answer from this coach. Mattos gave the true insight to those who might think Arbini was serious.
?He?s a great man who gave a lot of himself for very little monetary gratification,? Mattos said.
?He always asked what he could do for me and the program not what I could do for him.?
Morry, Morry, Morry. Retiring after an amazing coaching career that impacted so many and still humble. At least he is leaving knowing the program was in safe hands.
?We have been good friends all these years,? Arbini said referring to Mattos. ?I turned to him when he needed advice and vice versa. I do not think there is a better man than him.?
Always kind, always sincere. Even to his many rivals over the years he has been a friend. From Stan Curnow, to Jeff Huber, to his own NCAA Champion Jay Larew, he says he respects them all.
?He always said if you weren?t having fun doing something it wasn?t worth doing.? Shumway said.
That?s good. Morry had fun with everything he did. Even an interview. When I told him I heard a lot about him he responded with ?Bad gets around does it??
When he was born on September 4, 1934, he was not born with diving passion, believe it or not. Instead, the passion grew in 1964.
?It wasn?t my favorite sport,? Arbini said. ?I did it for a few bucks to coach kids. Then it just became in my blood.?
What if it hadn?t? What if he was lackluster towards the sport? So many young students may have not achieved their goals. He always had the same advice for his athletes and it would be the same advice he would give today.
?Set your goals, whatever they may be, and go after them,? Arbini said. ?Not everyone is a superstar. Those who do well earn it, it is not given.?
One of those athletes, who he says is his favorite, was Jessica Garrison.
?She did a good job without having college talent,? Arbini said. ?She set her goals and after going after them; she achieved them. She has everything, brains, beauty and extremely good athleticism.? And in true Morry fashion he added ?If this offends or upsets anybody, I?m sorry, but tough, it?s the truth.?
How does he manage to do it? It has to be a gift. Just like his coaching intelligence.
?There is not another diving coach in the country with more experience, knowledge, and year of coaching under their belt,? Shumway said. ?He will be sorely missed at CSU and we all wish him the best.?
It?s still in my mind. I can?t get it off. The nerve he had. He thanked me for interviewing him. Does he have no idea that is I who was privileged?
?He?s still grazing,? Arbini said talking about his pet pig. ?He is 14 years old now, getting up there. He?s a real good pet.?
Just envision it. Morris Arbini relaxing on his porch on his immense farm. Reading in the shade on a spring day looking out and seeing his animals roam. Staring at his pet pig. There is no doubt he earned it though.
?Diving has been his passion for decades and it shows in every athlete he touches,? Shumway said.
Look around the nation today. It?s hard to find a coach who wasn?t influenced by Morry. A diver who his advice did not ring any bells. Watch the Olympics and you?ll see Kimiko Soldati on the diving boards, the man who talked her into diving? Morry.
?I enjoyed all the good, the bad, the happy, the sad,? Arbini said about each of his players over the years.
This man even has skills to rhyme. Maybe he?ll be somewhere in Kansas one day on in his RV on a random road trip and I?ll get to say ?hi.?
?I?ll miss you,? Arbini said as his last words to all those who have come to known him over the years.
Morry, that?s an awful kind gesture, but the truth is you are the one who will be missed.
The 2005 Colorado State Swimming and Diving Banquet
Where: University Park in Fort Collins (Colorado Room)
When: Sunday, April 24th, 2005 at 5:30 p.m.
Tickets: $25 per adult and $15 per child (under 12)
Please RSVP by sending us an e-mail or call (970) 491-7242.
By Jose Alejandro Rosales CSU Athletic Media Relations Intern
