SAN DIEGO, Calif. There have been dozens and dozens of outstanding coaches who got their start as Gardner High athletes.

From their own alma mater are former Wildcat hall of famers like Walt Dubzinski, Steve Hancock, Sally (Raduazo) Johnson, Howie Klash, Ed Kozlowski, and Bob Wojtukiewicz among many. As well as present coaches like Pete Gamache, Ken Pelletier and Lynn (Cormier) Sayarath.

Locally, Narragansett had John Jasinski and Pete Duprey, while Oakmont boasted Art Hurd, Dave LaRoche and Bill Wyman, and Wayne Hancock at Cushing.

And, yet, one of the most successful coaches of them all headed all the way to the West Coast to achieve her fame.

Jane (Cormier) Morrill, 1982 Gardner High graduate and Wildcat hall of famer in her own right, has become one of the winningest coaches in the history of the Golden State. Her field hockey teams at Scripps Ranch High School in San Diego have amassed nearly 500 wins and captured 11 division titles.

A standout three-sport Gardner High athlete, she excelled in field hockey under coach Sally Johnson, played softball for George Caron and was the point-guard for one of the greatest Gardner High girls basketball teams of all time coached by Steve Hancock,

The 1981-82 Wildcats concluded the only unbeaten season in local basketball history, winning all 18 games they played, including the 1982 District E, Division 2 title. It was one of the first teams inducted into the Gardner High Athletic Hall of Fame.

A Gardner High Hall of Famer, she was co-captain of the team which also headlined fellow hall of famers Pam Cutting, Terry Kanozak, Kirstin Johnson and Sandy Deacon, as well as Lisa Mara, Karen Hulette and Helen Gemborys, among others.

Unfortunately, that winter was one of two where state championship games were not held due to Proposition 2 budget cutbacks, so one will always be left to wonder if that could have been a state championship team.

That was heartbreaking for us, because we all started playing together when we were very little, Morrill said. It would have been great to see how far we could have gone.

The crew began their basketball careers together as fourth graders, and progressed under the watchful eyes of Hancock, who had many of them in class at the Elm Street School. Later, they hit the tournament circuit coached by Gardner Junior High principal Joe Bishop.

He was so tough on us, but we won a lot of tournaments with him, Morrill said of Bishop.

Growing up in a family where team sports were a way of life, she is the daughter of Omer and Jen Cormier. Her dad is the longtime sportswriter with The Gardner News, while her mom the former Jeannine Boucher was voted the Best Athlete in her senior class at Gardner High.

We were always very competitive, having seven brothers and sisters, she said, the youngest girl of the family. We played football; we were the Chestnut Street gang, and I was a running back. Wed play against different neighborhood teams in their backyards.

After high school, Jane attended St. Anselm College where she played softball, soccer and ran cross country, and also ran the Boston Marathon all four years.

Unsure of what she wanted to do when her college career was over, she began coaching field hockey at Gardner High with her former coach Sally Johnson. Then that winter, she applied for a coaching job at Southbridge for the girls basketball team there.

As Southbridge, she led the 1989 Pioneers to the District E, Division 2 title beating Oakmont for the championship, 61-52.

I realized I was doing a lot of counseling while I was coaching, so I thought I may as well make some money counseling, she said.

Later that year, Morrill moved to San Diego to get her Masters in Counseling from National University and she never left.

In 1993 she was named field hockey coach at Scripps Ranch High School where she began a career unmatched in the state of California. Her squads have won a total of 11 California Interscholastic Federation titles in 15 appearances, including her latest last fall, and her career record is an amazing 489-81.

From 2002-04, Scripps Ranch won an incredible 69 straight games over a three-year stretch. In addition, in 2003 her goalie Haley Exner was featured as a Sports Illustrated Faces in the Crowd when she set a national record by recording 67 career shutouts, eclipsing a mark held by Walpole, Mass. goalie Christine Buckley.

Morrill has also coached six different athletes who were chosen Player of the Year in the CIF.

Despite retiring after the 2016 season, the coach who succeeded her took a job as an assistant at Indiana University, so Morrill stepped up last fall to fill the vacancy.

I had a two-year hiatus, but I was still behind the scenes as a GM as I called myself, said Morrill, who is also the head counselor at Scripps Ranch.

She attributed a lot of her success to the youth programs around the San Diego area and helping the athletes develop a love for field hockey when they get to the middle school level.

I have some of my alumni who do clinics with the middle school, she said. A lot of kids start playing soccer and baseball when theyre four-years old, but when they start field hockey in middle school, they love it because its all so different and theyre not burned out.

She has been married to her husband and Southbridge native Sean Morrill for 24 years and they are the parents of two sons. Connor, 22, played baseball, soccer and golf, and is an Economics major at UC Santa Barbara, while Jack, 19, is in the Bachelor of Fine Arts program majoring in acting at Elon University.

In whatever spare time she has, Jane enjoys playing golf, watching New England sports and reading.

And in those moments where she draws upon her experience in order to proffer words of inspiration to spur her teams on to victory, Morrill recalls her high school days and especially the ones spent on the Wildcat hardwood.

Quite honestly, I try to emulate Steve (Hancock) because he was such a motivator, she said. I try to motivate these kids to win. I have fun with them, but they want to play to win. I tell them, Why do you want to go out there and do this every day and not win? They want to win and weve developed a winning culture here.

(Do you have a suggestion for a future Where are they Now segment? Please contact Mike Richard at mikerichard0725@gmail.com or in writing Mike Richard, 92 Boardley Rd. Sandwich, MA 02563)

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Where Are They Now?: As a player, as a coach and no matter the coast, Gardner High Hall of Famer Jane (Cormier) Morrill has a lot to celebrate - The...