
DATE: Wednesday, October 29, 1997           TAG: 9710290521

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY VICKI L. FRIEDMAN, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE                        LENGTH:  107 lines

HONORING HER DAD'S MEMORY VOLLEYBALL STANDOUT DEDICATES EACH GAME TO THE MAN WHO INSPIRED HER.

Melissa Morgan plays volleyball for her father.

No matter the gym, the Great Bridge senior hears his familiar voice with a word of support for her and a word or two for the refs. Only Morgan doesn't see him because he's not in the stands.

He's in her heart.

Harold ``Cubby'' Morgan died suddenly two years ago this November. Now his only daughter dedicates every high school and club volleyball game she plays to the man who instilled in her a relentless passion for the sport.

``Sometimes I'll see someone who looks like him out of the corner of my eye,'' she says, ``and I'll pretend he's there.''

In many ways he is, says Wildcats coach Sheri Lankford. Lankford previously coached girls volleyball at Lake Taylor High School, where she shared a practice floor with Cubby Morgan's boys team. She says Melissa, whose friends often call her Morgan, inherited more than her father's long eyelashes, high cheekbones and willful personality.

``Many of the students looked up to him as a second father,'' Lankford says. ``His leadership has transferred on to Morgan. It's natural. It's a real joy to see when you have a student in high school that has that level of leadership.''

Everyone who knew Harold Morgan called him by his nickname, derived from the old Mickey Mouse Club. Bad knees forced him to give up football at the University of Richmond, so he took up volleyball. Becoming almost religious about it, he pored over rule books, much like his own father, a line judge at the 1996 Olympics. Melissa Morgan grew up watching her dad compete in local tournaments, later joining him in coed ones.

``My mom tells me that when I was four months old I got hit on the head by the ball four times watching Dad,'' Morgan says with a laugh.

Volleyball was more than dinnertime conversation between father and daughter; it became all-the-time conversation. He set up a net in the back yard and taught Melissa how to set, dig and pass.

``Besides Coach,'' Morgan says glancing Lankford's way, ``he was the best coach. My freshman year I was one of the last three people to get cut from varsity. And he made me come in the next day and offer myself as manager. I went in, and as the season progressed I earned a spot on the team.''

In November 1995, Cubby Morgan was 42 years old and seemingly in perfect health. A physical education teacher at Azalea Garden Middle School, on reserve from the Navy, he had passed a physical the last week of that October.

Great Bridge didn't advance to volleyball regionals that year, but Morgan and her father drove to Tallwood to watch anyway. After the matches, Dad told Melissa to pick out a hat from the souvenir stand. Once she settled on one, he mentioned it maybe becoming a Christmas gift if she was lucky. They both laughed it off before saying goodbye.

``I remember I hugged him and said `I love you,' and I was starting to leave when someone stopped to talk to me,'' she says. ``I turned around and could see him standing there and I went back over and gave him a hug. I even remember what he was wearing. Khaki pants, a striped shirt and one of his geeky ties.''

The next afternoon, Melissa had hardly gotten home from school when the phone rang. It was the principal from Azalea Garden. In a calm voice, he explained that her father had passed out during a faculty-student basketball game at the school. While Melissa was trying to reach her mother, a family friend called and frantically told Melissa she needed to get to the hospital. A friend drove Melissa to DePaul Hospital but couldn't stay.

When the doctor came in to the tiny room where Melissa waited alone, she says, ``It was like out of a movie. They said: `I'm sorry. We did everything we could. He passed away.' They said he was alive until like 25 minutes ago, which was as soon as I got there. I just have the feeling he knew.''

Cubby Morgan had one artery almost completely clogged and the early signs of heart disease.

Melissa Morgan felt angry with the world, cheated that her father's time was cut short so abruptly. The remainder of the school year was a blur as she tried to make sense of it. She recalls trying out for Junior Olympic volleyball the day after the funeral. Three quarters through the season, she lost her desire and quit.

She stayed away from volleyball until Lankford was hired to coach Great Bridge last year. Melissa viewed Lankford as a link to her father. Suddenly volleyball took on another meaning. More than spikes, digs and district championships, it became Morgan's connection to her father.

Morgan was an all-Tidewater, all-region player her junior year and she rediscovered Junior Olympic volleyball, competing for Tidewater Volleyball Association on the national 18s team. She will play on that team again this winter, and Lankford will be the coach.

Morgan is not set on any particular college or any one major, listing veterinary medicine, law and teaching as possibilities. Whatever Morgan does, she wants volleyball to be part of the package. That is where she's found peace.

Her family, she says - which includes two brothers, Forrest, 12, and Hunter, 10 - became closer during the hardest times.

``I could have dwelled on this for the rest of my life,'' Morgan says. ``But I stepped over the hurt and I stepped over the anger. I'm pretty content.''

Although Morgan has several keepsakes - a locket, an old sweat suit, a volleyball signed by the Lake Taylor team - none of those replaces playing.

``Playing for him makes me play harder, better,'' she says. ``I know he's up there playing the best game of his life.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photos

IAN MARTIN

The Virginian-Pilot

Great Bridge senior Melissa Morgan holds ball signed by Lake Taylor

volleyball team members who were coached by her father, who died

unexpectedly in November 1995.

At left is Melissa's locket that contains a photo of her father,

Harold ``Cubby'' Morgan, to whom Melissa dedicates each game she

plays.