June 15, 2008
Ex-scholastic star hopes to get idea on track
By KEVIN CALLAHAN
Courier-Post Staff
Morris Corsey is a dreamer. He wants to build an indoor track in South Jersey. Call it the "track of dreams.
" "We want to help promote track and field in general," said Corsey, the coordinator of the South Jersey
Track Club, "and help save some lives."
The club, which includes several hundred former runners and supporters, wants to build a multipurpose sports
complex with a 200-meter indoor track. Corsey and club members are discussing ways to raise money and
gather interest in the idea. "I'm trying to plant some seeds out there," Corsey said about the indoor facility.
"I really want to talk it up."
Corsey, 65, believes he is not dreaming. "We have all these organizations here in South Jersey and all these
colleges and if there was any way all these different groups and colleges could pull together and build one
complex . . .," he said, "I really think that would be possible."
Toms River recently opened a sparkling indoor track, he noted. "No doubt it could happen," Billy Wright, the
athletic director at Pennsauken High School, who has been involved in South Jersey track over the years, said
of Corsey's aspiration. "The right people have to get involved. Toms River was able to do it."
Philadelphia area colleges at Haverford, Swarthmore and Widener and the University of Delaware also have indoor
track facilities, Corsey noted. "It seems we are surrounded by states who have one or two indoor tracks and
we don't have any," Corsey said about South Jersey. Corsey, a former track star at Deptford High School, hopes
the complex will include a creative arts center and a state-of-the-art technical learning center.
"As a public school district doing it, that might be a real stretch, but Toms River did it," Wright added.
"It would be nice if a corporation would buy into it."
Jim Camburn, the meet director of the South Jersey Track Coaches Association, said the Toms River facility
cost $5 million. "If I had an extra $5 million, I'd build it myself," Camburn, a former track coach at Paul VI High
School, said about the idea of constructing a facility in South Jersey. Camburn scheduled five indoor meets
for the association just this past year in Toms River. "They have something there almost every day," Camburn
said about Toms River. "According to their people, they will pay it off in five years."
In addition to track, Toms River hosts wrestling, volleyball, soccer and lacrosse inside the building.
High school and colleges rent out the facility by the hour. Like Corsey, Camburn dreams of an indoor facility
in South Jersey. "I'd quit my job to run it," said Camburn, the director of student services for the Buena
Regional School District.
Over the years, Camburn has seen drawn plans for indoor facilities to be built in South Jersey.
It just hasn't happened. "If someone had the money to make the initial investment . . .," Camburn said.
Camburn and Corsey both believe an indoor facility would pay benefits beyond reducing track times.
"What it would do for the kids would be unbelievable," Camburn said.
And that is what keeps Corsey dreaming. "Everyone has a calling. Mine seems to be in track," Corsey said.
"It is everyone's job to find what their calling is and to go out and share with other people."
The club started in the early 1960s. Corsey was the club coordinator from 1988 to 1997, but his wife,
Carole, took ill. "I had to give it up when she was struggling with cancer," Corsey said about his wife, who
was involved in the club before she died. "Then, I picked it up this year. I want to reconnect with all the
alumni members to try and bring them back together in the organization."
Corsey's second wife, Shirley Olivia, now shares his dream. "This is like a lifelong dream for him," she said.
"He just cares for the kids."
Corsey, a retired chief engineer at the Golden Nugget (now Hilton) in Atlantic City, graduated from Deptford
in 1963. He was a thrower but specialized in the discus. He held the school record for throwing the discus
for several years. He competed in the discus in masters competitions until 1998.
Now, he is trying to throw a protective net around South Jersey youths by seeking to build an indoor track.
"The most significant thing is to be instrumental in getting kids out of the house, to keep them from going
out on the streets and to help them become better citizens," Corsey said.
Reach Kevin Callahan at (856) 317-7821 or kcallahan@courierpostonline.com.
