CONWAY, S.C. — It is a big football recruiting weekend at Coastal Carolina University.
Those recruits were put on hold.
New Chanticleer coach David Bennett will be coming back to Salisbury today and winning football games will be the farthest thing from his mind.
Bennett is returning for a 6 p.m. special worship service at Catawba College to honor Darris Morris, who was shot and killed Friday night on the campus.
Bennett, who won 67 of 84 games while at Catawba, recently accepted the head coaching position at the Division I-AA school. But don’t forget that Bennett was the head man who made the visits to Batesburg, S.C., along with defensive coordinator Richard Kent to woo Morris to Salisbury.
Bennett got the call from new Catawba coach Chip Hester about Morris at 1:30 a.m. After the initial shock, he called Morris’ mother.
“She’s not taking it well.” Bennett said Saturday night. “We’re just praying for her and all the guys in the program.”
Bennett remembers his visit to Batesburg.
“We went down to watch him play basketball,” said Bennett. “It was snowing. There were a couple of other schools from the mountains interested but couldn’t come. So we were the only ones there.”
Bennett watched Morris grow into a star football player and, as he puts it, “a great young man.”
Bennett is planning on being here Sunday with Jamie Snider, Kevin Brown and Curtis Walker, all Catawba assistants who followed him to the beach.
“It’s a tragedy,” Bennett said. “It’s going to be tough.”
So Bennett just closes his eyes and thinks of his star linebacker.
“I just can’t quit seeing his smiling face,” he said.
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