Airport girls soccer coach Keith Morris has amassed over 300 wins and led the Eagles to multiple regional championships, but the coach with over 20 years of experience recently made the difficult decision to step away from the sidelines.

Morris has coached Airport’s women’s soccer team since 2002. He is also the head of the school’s mathematics department and continues to serve in that role.

“It’s definitely hard to retire. I love these girls. They’re great kids,” Morris said. “I’m going to miss the kids and the parents. I love the parents, I love the training, I love the games, I love the competition. I’m definitely going to miss it, although I’m sure I’ll probably be training until I’m finally retired from teaching.”

Morris has decided to step down and devote himself full-time to teaching and his family. His children are preparing for college and after years of late nights, he now has more free time to spend with his children.

“I’m looking forward to spending more time with my family,” Morris said. “I miss (coaching) already, but I’m looking forward to spending time with my son and daughter before they hopefully go off to college here soon, just to make some memories with my family.”

Morris’ coaching career, like many coaches, began with the sport in high school. Morris played at Brookland-Cayce High School in Lexington County. He started at the Airport as a junior coach before eventually being promoted to head coach of the varsity team. He has also coached for some local club teams.

“I’ve had a lot of fun. I love giving back to the community,” Morris said. “I’ve done all the club stuff too, but high school is the most fun for me. That’s for sure.”

Morris never intended to be a high school coach. He began his teaching career at the airport with the sole expectation of doing so.

“I never dreamed of being a coach, that’s for sure,” Morris said. “One of my first years of teaching, I had a lot of female soccer players in my AP Analysis class, and they invited me to come watch them play. And before I knew it, I was sitting on the bench with them, helping the coach. And before I knew it, I was the coach.”

Since leaving the bench, Morris has taken the Airport football team to new heights, reaching his 300th career win in 2023 and leading Airport to multiple regional football titles, including back-to-back titles in 2007 and 2008.

His success spans decades. Today, the Airport football team remains competitive in one of the state’s toughest 4A regions. The Eagles have 15 wins in each of the last two years, including a 2024 season of 16-4-1.

“All of this is not my fault, it’s the kids’ and parents’ fault,” Morris said. “A year and a half ago, it was pretty cool to get the 300th win. I think we had 22, 23 consecutive winning seasons. So that’s pretty cool. Made the playoffs every year except for two. I think one of them was COVID. So it was just a lot. We accomplished a lot.”

Building a program is not easy, especially at a public school. The talent comes from within the country, and at the airport many athletes do not get into soccer until middle school. said Morris.

That’s why Morris spends a lot of time teaching the fundamentals and mentally preparing his group for a competition that may require more talent but less heart.

“I always tell the kids, ‘We may not be the most talented team, but if we play with heart, we have a chance,'” Morris said. “That’s our key. A lot of times we go out there and a team is definitely better than us technically and tactically, but our kids can play with heart and kind of even things out.”

During his time as coach, Morris never left Airport for another position. He cared too much about the kids and the community to go anywhere else.

“It’s almost like a family situation within the school,” Morris said. “We’ve seen a lot of changes over the years, but one thing has basically stayed the same: the students and the teachers are always there for each other, and that just creates a warm place to work.”

Although he won’t be coaching this year, Morris will continue to teach math at the school. He said he will keep an eye on his former team and offered this advice to the next coach.

“I’m not a huge fan of Clemson or Dabbo Sweeney, but when you do something you have to give it everything you’ve got,” Morris said. “It’s tough coaching in high school unless you’re in a really, really good position. You have to build it from the ground up, be dedicated and make sure you give it everything you’ve got and it’s very rewarding. It’s great to see these kids when they have success and help them through the tough times, see the smiles and sometimes tears of joy and also the tears of defeat. It’s a lot of personal relationships that you build over the years that make it worthwhile.”