Seattle Sounders’ rookie Jordan Morris will learn by doing — and playing

Jordan Morris was ready to pay his dues.

The young forward chose to begin his professional career with hometown Seattle knowing full well that the Sounders had three international-quality designated players at his position: Clint Dempsey, Nelson Valdez and Obafemi Martins.

“I look at that as exciting,” Morris said in January when his signing was announced. “It’s a chance for me to learn from these great guys who have gone through great experiences playing at some of the great leagues in the world. … I know that I’ve got to come in and work hard and earn everything. ... Of course I want to be on the field, but there are such great players in front of me.”

Now scratch that.

Martins has transferred to the Chinese Super League, but Seattle’s new 4-3-3 formation has remained. So, when the Sounders open their eighth MLS season at home Sunday against Sporting Kansas City, the starting forwards won’t be Dempsey, Valdez and Martins — but instead Dempsey, Valdez and Morris.

The rookie won’t dip his toe in as a reserve, but rather dive in headfirst as a starter. And coach Sigi Schmid believes that can be a good thing.

“Playing time always helps you, as you’re getting on the field and getting minutes,” Schmid said. “But part of it is we’re still trying to learn everybody’s strengths and weaknesses in how we play. There are times when Clint’s going to drop underneath and find the ball a little bit, and in those moments Jordan has to become that second striker for us. … But that’s just going to take time to understand.”

General manager Garth Lagerwey — who originally envisioned all four forwards sharing the roster all season — accepts that we’ll never know which blueprint would have served Morris better.

“We were in that world; we aren’t anymore,” he said. “This is the world we’re in. We said all offseason we want to get younger, and part of getting younger is empowering those younger players and saying we believe in you and we’re going to put you out there and we believe you’re going to get better over time. Part of it on the younger players is saying, ‘OK, now it’s not just fun off the bench. Now there’s responsibility. And now I have to prove I’m worthy of that responsibility.’”

Morris always seemed mentally prepared for either path: learning by watching or learning by doing.

Yes, he understands that MLS and the Sounders represent a significant step up from the Pac-12 and Stanford. But this is no ordinary college player stepping up to the pros.

He remained at Stanford for three seasons — at least one more than Schmid thought was necessary. The decision provided not only another season of growth, but a national championship.

Along the way came duty with the United States national team. And while playing with some of the best players in the country and against some of the best players in the world, Morris didn’t see anything to make him think he would be in over his head.

“Of course they’re great players, but I feel pretty comfortable,” he said. “… There’s some really, really, really great players in the league that I’m excited to see how I stack up against, and it’s always fun to kind of give yourself a challenge. It will be a cool learning experience. And obviously you never know how it’s going to work out, but hopefully it works out well.”

Things have tended to do that over Morris’ first 21 years.

He’s the son of Leslie and Dr. Michael Morris, who is team medical doctor and orthopedic surgeon for the Sounders. He has three siblings, including brother Christopher, who played soccer at Seattle Pacific from 2009-2012.

Jordan grew up playing baseball, basketball and soccer. When he was 13, his club coach at Eastside FC told him it was time to commit to one sport.

Morris chose soccer.

“I just loved it more,” he said. “I played for a more competitive team. I was following my brother — he played soccer — so that was kind of what led me to that. I’m glad I made that decision.”

Any calculation of a possible professional career didn’t come until about three years later, when Morris started noticing that he could do things on the pitch that other players couldn’t.

“When I was 16-17, I went through my growth spurt,” he said. “I gained a little bit of speed, and that’s when I realized I could make a difference in a game, kind of affect a game in the way that hopefully I can. I think at that time I went through kind of my chubbier stage and into a little bit of a growth spurt. That definitely helped out.”

Morris’ potential and his career also grew. At the Sounders Academy in 2013, he scored 28 goals in 32 games on his way to winning the U-17/18 U.S. Soccer Development Academy Player of the Year Award. At Stanford, he won the Hermann Trophy, awarded annually to the most outstanding college player in the country. Jurgen Klinsmann began inviting him onto the national team. Then it was on to an international tug-of-war, with Morris ultimately turning down German club Werder Bremen in favor of Seattle, where his MLS career is about to begin.

“I’m not going to set goals in terms of how many goals should he score, or how many goals should he be involved with,” Schmid said. “It’s a constant situation of growing and adapting. … Even though he’s been at college and with the national team, the national team is small snippets of time. It’s a week here, 10 days here, to maybe four days here and there. But now to be able to sustain it over a period of time is a little more difficult. But he’s a player who works hard. He’s a quality player. … He’s a player that will make his way.”

This story was originally published March 5, 2016 at 4:31 PM with the headline "Seattle Sounders’ rookie Jordan Morris will learn by doing — and playing."