The folks at Cathedral High School just hit the lottery.
The hoop lottery. The life lottery.
Cathedral, a small Division 4 high school in Boston’s South End, hired Lawrence’s Jaycob Morales as its new boys varsity basketball coach over the weekend.
They have no idea what is about to hit them.
Heart, character, grit, a will to live and an intensely competitive hoop mind … Cathedral got it all in Morales.
“I’m excited, hoping to win a lot of games as a head coach, but I’m more excited to help these young men grow in life,” said Morales. “I’m so ready to connect with some of these kids on the court and off it.”
Morales’ first head-coaching job at the varsity level is long overdue, even as his 31st birthday approaches this month.
The Central Catholic Wheaton College alum has immersed himself in hoop and the development of kids since his playing days ended.
Currently employed at Austin Prep, where he is the Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Morales’ story is one of pain, anguish and personal triumph, growing up on the streets and athletic fields of Lawrence and on the courts at the Boys and Girls Club.
In December of 2002, at age 10, he endured a catastrophe that no child should ever face, falling through the ice in the Merrimack River.
Four of his best friends died that day. It’s an event that shaped Morales, one he would rely on through his entire life.
At Central and later at Wheaton, he attacked athletics with a fierceness that few have ever matched.
“I just always grew up with the philosophy, playing with heart. It’s something I carry with everything I do,” Morales said. “My heart is what guides me. It’s what drives me every day.”
Morales’ unrelenting desire to pick up the first down or win a championship on the court tells only a shred of his story, though. I think back over a decade ago, during his college days, when he came back in summers to work for then Central coach Rick Nault in his summer camps.
Jaycob was the guy at those camps, the magnet for every six-or-seven year-old in the place. He made every kid in the joint feel like a little Jordan. They had no idea he was the biggest of big men on campus, a two-sport legend at Central. To them, he was just the college kid who put a smile on their face at camp.
Didn’t matter if it was a Boys Club kid from the city or some suburban little brat. Jaycob was so into them.
Real. Pure. Caring from the heart.
He makes you know — not just feel but know — that you matter.
And that’s what Morales will bring to Cathedral.
“I definitely know I can relate to a lot of these kids I’m coaching. I definitely can see eye to eye with them because of where I come from,” Morales said. “They’re going to learn some life lessons along the way.
“I think the experience, growing up, what I’ve been through, has always made me want to help kids. I had a lot of people that helped guide me, kept me on the right path, allowed me to get my education. If I can do that for as many kids as I can, I’m happy to help.”
On the court, Morales brings years of personal training and springs/summers on the AAU circuit with him as experience. He also served as Duane Sigsbury’s top assistant at Austin Prep, so he knows the turf in the Catholic Central League.
Will Cathedral be successful on court? Who can be certain in these times, but the guess with Morales pulling the strings is, yes. Absolutely, yes.
Cathedral has already won.
“Jaycob is a man who is relentless in making the most of every opportunity that is presented to him,” said the former Raider coach Nault. “He’s a builder of young men and cares about his players on and off the basketball court.
“He has always been a winner and will find a way to have his program develop that same mentality.”
Sounds like a perfect match.
To paraphrase a line from Jack Nicholson’s “Joker” in the classic 1989 Batman:
Just wait till they get a load of Jaycob Morales.
Follow Hector Longo on “X,” the social media platform formerly known as Twitter: @mvcreature