The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

Field lacrosse star Morris humbled by newest opportunity By Jon Kuiperij BEAVER SPORTS EDITOR 41 · Friday, December 9, 2011 OAKVILLE BEAVER · www.insideHALTON.com Mikey Morris doesn't have much to be bashful about when it comes to lacrosse. The 19-year-old Oakville native is currently ranked third among senior high school field lacrosse players by ESPN. And he's spent the last four years at Salisbury Prep School in Connecticut, where he was recruited to play lacrosse and received a full-ride scholarship worth in excess of $200,000. But after his latest accomplishment, accepting a scholarship from NCAA Division 1 field lacrosse powerhouse Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Morris couldn't help but feel a little humbled. "There are kids here at Salisbury that are here for school, get straight A's, want to be a doctor, are trying to go to Johns Hopkins and are getting denied," Morris said earlier this week. "They're mad at me. They're like, `How the hell are you going there?' "I don't know. It's ridiculous the type of opportunities you can get from playing lacrosse. I feel so fortunate, I can't even explain it." Johns Hopkins has won 44 national field lacrosse titles in its history, including nine Division 1 championships. The Blue Jays field lacrosse squads are the school's only clubs that compete in Division 1 (the rest of Johns Hopkins' teams play in Division 3), something that appealed to Morris when he was making his decision. "I had five schools at the top of my y list," , said Morris, , who consid- ered offers from Virginia, North Carolina, Notre Dame, Syracuse and Harvard, "but once I went on my visit, I knew right away. "When I went to Johns Hopkins, one of the pitches the coaches told me was at every other school, lacrosse is probably sixth on the list. At Hopkins, lacrosse is number one, and all the money gets pumped to the lacrosse team. They get treated like the football team, per se." Box lacrosse skills paying off Morris developed his game as a youngster in the Oakville Minor Lacrosse Association. He credits his passion for the sport to former coach Rob MacDougall (who designated a five-year-old Morris as the mascot nearly 15 years ago when MacDougall brought a team he coached to a tournament in B.C. ) and older brother Geoff, as well as former Oakville Buzz player Garrett Ince -- who attended Salisbury and then played at the University of f Virginia. Morris said he continues to benefit from the years spent playing box lacrosse in the OMLA. The attack player, who had 20 goals and 14 assists for Salisbury this past season, is particularly known for his swim move and low-to-high shooting style. "I hear all the time (I) do things (they've) never seen before," Morris said. "All these American kids have never seen the stuff Canadians can do... We're used to an in-close environment in Canada (with box lacrosse), and when you get so much more room in the field game there's just so many options." PHOTO SUBMITTED HEADED TO HOPKINS: Mikey Morris (right), pictured in action with the Salisbury Prep School field lacrosse team, has committed to play for the Johns Hopkins University Blue Jays next season. Morris was ranked third among high school field lacrosse players in the U.S. by ESPN. HT coach says GHAC deserves two spots Continued from page 40 U11 Venom wins Great Lakes hoops tourney The Oakville Venom under-11 girls went undefeated in four games to win the top division title at the AAU Great Lakes Invitational basketball tournament recently in Rochester, N.Y. Oakville whipped Oswego 46-7, Transway 50-9 and EBA Blue 46-12 in its first three games, then earned a 45-36 win over CYP1 in the final. Tori Cramm, Madison Trpcic, Christina Morra, Aleyxa Gates-Julien, Aryn Sidhu, Adriana Picone, Gwen Berendt, Freya Morrison, Payton Hughes, Rachael Catahan-Niles and Arianne Soriano play for the Venom. Mike Hughes, Brandon Trpcic and Glen Julien are the coaches, and Giovanni and Lisa Morra are the managers. g Trevon McNeil, Logan Mackenzie and Paul Bray are the key returnees from last year. Shakeel Ellis and Regis Ivaniukus round out the starting five, while Christian Douglas, Jamal Fisher and Nick Ernest are expected to contribute off the bench. Both Trinity and Loyola qualified for OFSAA last year because the Golden Horseshoe Athletic Conference was granted two spots at provincials, thanks to Hamilton's St. Thomas More earning silver at the 2010 tournament. With the Hawks coming off that silver-medal showing at the AAAA competition earlier this year (Loyola's silver in 2010 came at the AAA tournament), Saulez is optimistic GHAC will once again send two teams to provincials. "I think the region deserves it," he said. "Just because we made it last year, there's no guarantee we'll get back there this year. The hardest part might be getting out of our region again." -- Jon Kuiperij VENOM VICTORIOUS: The Oakville Venom under-11 girls won the top division at the recent AAU Great Lakes Invitational basketball tournament in Rochester, N.Y.