Morgan Looks to Lead Tide Back to Oklahoma City
2/4/2007 12:00:00 AM | Softball
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. ?? Freshman softball player Charlotte Morgan got a taste of what it would be like to play in the Don E. Porter Hall of Fame Stadium and now is eager to lead the Crimson Tide to its third straight appearance at the Women's College World Series.
Morgan advanced to the Amateur Softball Association 2006 Gold National Championships with her team, the Southern California Athletics, this past summer. The stadium they played in at Oklahoma City is also the annual site of the Women's College World Series, a place Alabama has been to four times, including three of the past four seasons. Morgan has experienced success in the tournament over the past two years, leading her team to a 6-2 record this past summer and hitting four home runs during the tournament in 2005.
"We didn't get to play in the stadium the whole time," said Morgan. "We kept getting put on other fields. Finally we got to play in the stadium and it was pretty amazing, especially when they play the music. I was lucky because I got to play first and pitch and I realized that I needed to work towards getting back there again, only for the World Series which is even bigger."
Charlotte along with her father, Chris Morgan, and stepmother, Margaret Johnson-Morgan, traveled in the families' new RV to the gold national championships. Following the tournament, they had one week before Charlotte started school at the University of Alabama so they drove to Tuscaloosa to move her in.
The family has always been close as Chris, a softball coach for Sudden Impact 16-under, also coached Charlotte from the time she was 10 years old until she was 15. Even though he wasn't her coach while she played for the under-16 and under-18 teams, Charlotte says he still remained her hitting coach but she would not let him coach her pitching as she had a separate pitching coach, Bill Allen.
"I always got an attitude with him when he tried to correct my pitching, but he learned to just let me go eventually," said Morgan.
Charlotte has always been really close with her family. Growing up, she was part of a large family in southern California. She has three brothers and two sisters. For the most part her family is all still located in California. Her stepsister, Jayme Johnson, has moved to San Francisco in the northern part of California. Her stepbrother, Shawn Johnson, lives in Orange County about 45 minutes from her parents. Her sister, Jenna, lives with her husband 15 minutes away in Perris and her brother, Anthony, lives with their mother, Lori Morgan. Her other stepbrother, Bryan Johnson, is the only sibling not in California. He is currently in the U.S. Army and is stationed in North Carolina. His unit is scheduled to be deployed for Iraq in July. Charlotte was born in Riverside but lived in Moreno Valley for most of her life. Moreno Valley is about 60 miles east of Los Angeles and about 100 miles north of San Diego. She wishes she could be closer to her family, but she still keeps in touch with them on a regular basis.
""It is hard," she said. "I am a big family person so being away from my family is probably the hardest thing. I try to keep in touch with them and my mom calls me every day. My dad is real busy with softball so we try to talk whenever we can."
Being away from home for the first time has been hard on Charlotte. Like many college students, she tends to get homesick at times but she is happy that she has a great supporting cast to cheer her up.
"The coaches can tell sometimes when I might be a little homesick so they will come talk to me," said Morgan. "Brittany Rogers is also always there and really the entire team has been great to talk to because they have all been through it too. They know exactly where I am coming from, especially Chrissy (Owens) who is from Miami which is a lot like southern California."
Charlotte also has a friend from back home who was put in a similar position last year and can offer good advice. Prince Hall, a redshirt freshman on the Tide football team, is also from Moreno Valley and was real homesick last year. He was thinking about transferring but got acclimated and turned things around to become a freshman all-american in 2006.
"He knows what I am going through," said Morgan. "I can hang out with him and he keeps me positive. It has been kind of hard, but I am getting used to it now."
Her family is planning on coming East at least twice during the season. Charlotte said her father is planning on traveling to San Marcos, Texas for the team's opening weekend at the Century-Tel Softball Classic. He is also thinking about coming in late March or April. Her mother will probably be coming the first week in March and the last week in April.
"I am used to playing with my dad at every game," said Charlotte. "It is going to be a big adjustment not having him there in the stands for every game."
Not only does Charlotte miss her family while she is in Alabama, but she also misses the variety of things to do in Southern California.
"I love how out there you have so many options close by," said Morgan. "There is always something to do in different towns. You can go somewhere 30 minutes away and there will be something totally different. You can go to either the beach or to San Diego in less than an hour. Here you can't do that without going for a long drive."
Some of the things she misses in particular are going to the beach, to amusement parks, the variety of shopping and going to a nearby lake to go jet-skiing. One of the things she really liked to do was go to Los Angeles to "The Alley", a fashion district downtown.
"I would go with my mom and sister for the day," Charlotte said. "There are tons of shops where I could get clothes cheaper than I could back home. It is amazing how much I could get for a little amount of money."
She also really liked going to the beach. She would go with family or friends and take a volleyball or football. They would have barbeques during the day and sometimes at night she would have bonfires on the beach with her friends.
"There is a lot of things to do," said Morgan. "There are a lot of shops, so it is good to just walk around. It is real beautiful out there with a lot of great scenery."
When asked about what one of the things she would do first when she went back home Charlotte said, "I would see my mom and dad and try to spend time with my nephew. I would also see my cousin Greg. We are only a month apart in age and did everything together our whole life. He lives 30 minutes away and would drive down to hang out, maybe shoot pool or something."
Charlotte does not have any regrets in her decision to come to Alabama. In fact she almost gave a verbal commitment right away after her unofficial visit to the campus but her father talked her into keeping her options open because people sometimes make the wrong decision.
"I loved the coaches here and I didn't feel the same connection with the coaches at other schools I went to," said Morgan. "I knew I wanted to come here, especially when the coaches wrote me and sent cartoon drawings of each coach that were colored in. They made everything personalized instead of saying they wanted me to come in a type letter which a lot of schools do. They actually took the time to sit down and write me. That caught my eye. I am a real big family person and they treat their players like family."
Even legendary UCLA coach Sue Enquist had good things to say to Charlotte about the Alabama coaching staff.
"I went to visit UCLA and told Coach Enquist, who I think is one of the greatest college coaches ever, that I was heavily thinking about going to Alabama and she had really good things to say about the coaches here. She told me she didn't think I could find a better group of coaches."
Now as the first player from California to sign with Alabama softball, Morgan will make her Tide debut next weekend in San Marcos, Texas at the Century-Tel Softball Classic. She is competing for the No. 2 pitching spot and is expected to be a great hitter as well for Alabama in the future.
