In the world of sports, many participants have fallen victim to the perils that scatter the athletic landscape. Yet there are a few who persevere and come back for more.
John Morton, Trinity junior and goalie for the men's soccer team, is one of those unique athletes. After observing him on the field for just a few plays, one can see that Morton plays with heart and is driven by a love of the game.
Facing a recent injury to his hand, Morton is still fiercely driven to block every attempted shot, pain and all. The injury, consisting of a broken thumb, occurred a few days before the Duke's match against North Carolina, but Morton has remained the starting goalie, with little to no drop off in performance.
"As long as the doctor says I can play, I'm going to play," Morton said. "Sometimes [my thumb] will feel like it is hurting, but with all the adrenaline for the games, I have not been affected too much."
Throughout the previous years of Morton's soccer career, there have been similar spurts of disappointments, but he has taken them all in stride.
Morton began his soccer career in St. Louis, Mo., at the age of four. He continued to play throughout his early childhood and got his first taste of playing goalie when he was eight years old. During a lop-sided game, Morton's coach substituted him in for the starting goalie. That day paved the way for Morton's goal-keeping career.
"I was given the opportunity to play goalie and I just took it," Morton said. "I kept at it and have always liked it."
Morton continued to improve his game throughout middle school and high school, and although he worked hard and came through with countless key saves, Morton never received any major recognition and never was picked for the top regional teams.
"I was never one to 'wow' people and impress them," Morton stated. "I guess I was just playing the game and I was fine with it."
Then, in Morton's senior year of high school in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., he suffered a severe injury that amazingly led to an improvement in his play. Morton had his face shattered during a game and had to undergo surgery to have his face rebuilt. Fortunately, the injury healed very quickly and in a matter of 4-5 weeks, Morton was back on the field.
"It was pretty bad, but actually, I came back playing better than before," Morton said. "I guess I needed a little break."
Morton persevered through his accident and went on to the world of college soccer. Before coming to play for the Blue Devils, Morton played at UNC-Charlotte for a year before deciding to leave. Contrary to Duke soccer strategy, Morton's previous team did not play the whole game-offensively and defensively-but rather tried to steal the game with hard work when the defensive end was not quite in control. Also, Morton was not allowed to play to his fullest because his time in goal was split with another goalie. Simply put, Morton wanted to go somewhere he could play and the Blue Devils were willing to let him do that.
He came to Duke last year and started 17 games in goal for the Blue Devils, making 76 saves in over 1500 minutes played while registering a 1.33 goals-against-average, good for fourth in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
Now, one of the integral parts of the Duke soccer team, Morton is the team's everyday goalie and is the final line of defense on a usually spectacular unit. Morton has recorded 10 shutouts in the team's 11 wins this season and boasts a 1.19 goals against average in 13 starts. Morton refuses to take the credit for his superb numbers, instead sharing the glory with the rest of the Blue Devil defense.
"[The defense and I] work in tune," Morton said. "It is like we are a unit."
The six goals surrendered in Duke's last game against Virginia was certainly a setback to a proud Blue Devil defense, but Morton hopes to help the squad recuperate in time to tackle its remaining opponents en route to an NCAA tournament bid.
Considering all of the adversity and difficulty that Morton has had to overcome personally, there is no doubt that he is certainly qualified to inspire Duke to return to championship form.
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