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In Memory of Graham Morin
November 23, 2001 It was a year ago on November 25th that the Morin family, USA Everett Wrestling and Washington Wrestling in general suffered a huge blow when Graham Morin passed away in the prime of his life. Graham was a three time Washington State High School Champion, a USWA All-American and a NHSCA All-American. He grew up wrestling with the "Sons of Thunder" wrestling club in Bellingham, and his father Phred is still involved with the club and wrestling, even though his son has passed on. The family became involved with USA Everett wrestling in the mid-90's. Graham and other kids from the Bellingham area would make the 130 mile round-trip drive to Everett to practice 2-3 times a week during freestyle season. The first time I ever remember seeing Graham was when he beat Tyson Springer of our club in overtime for the state high school title as Sophomores. At the time I was disappointed that Tyson lost as I had been watching him for several years and knew he was from our club. What I didn't know was that Graham was also with the Everett club as he was quiet and kept a lower profile. It wasn't until the next year in practice that I noticed this kid wrestling who was exceptional. I asked someone who "that kid wrestling is" and they told he was Graham Morin and "he was the guy who beat Tyson." He went on to win 2 more high school titles and wrestled Tyson again in the finals as seniors and once again it went right down to the wire with Graham winning 10-8. I watched one or two other matches between the two and they were always incredible bouts. Those two will forever be tied together in my memory because of those battles. He went on to earn a scholarship to Cornell University in New York. His parents were very proud of their son and things were going well for him at Cornell. Out of the blue, Graham died on November 25, 2000. It was found that he had a cardiac abnormality that had gone undetected all these years of competing. It was a crushing blow to his family and to everyone that new Graham. Graham may be gone but his memory lives on. The Washington State Wrestling Coaches Association and the family of Graham Morin are jointly sponsoring a new wrestling scholarship for Washington high school seniors. Information can be found by clicking the following link: Scholarship News Release. The board of USA Everett Wrestling has voted to make a $100.00 contribution to the Washington State Wrestling Coaches Association Scholarship fund this year in his memory and encourage other clubs to donate what they can as well. I will be sending a personal contribution along with our club check and would challenge others to do so on an individual basis. You can send $100.00, $500.00, $10.00 or whatever you feel you can afford. Let's all do what we can to honor Graham's memory. The following link is to a picture of the 1999 Washington State Juniors team that went to Nationals. In the picture is Graham and two other friends of wrestling that we have lost, Mike Hess and Tom Shaw. |
