2013 Kevin Morin  Milwaukee School of Engineering.jpgKevin is the son of Ayrest and Birdella Morin and the third oldest of seven children. His brothers Keith, Kenny and Kent and sisters Karen, Kathy and Kim were all raised in Greenfield, WI and were all involved in athletics. Kevin became interested in wrestling when his oldest brother Keith started wrestling in high school and would come home from practice and show moves to his younger brothers in the living room. During those days there were no kids club wrestling programs and Kevin firmly believes that this experience gave him a great advantage over others. He continued to follow Keith to practices and matches and knew at a young age that he was hooked on the sport of wrestling.

At Greenfield High School he was a member of four conference championship teams and his senior year team finished 5th in the State tournament which was (and remains) the Hustlin' Hawks highest finish. Kevin finished second in the WIAA state tournament his senior year and was a state champion in Freestyle his junior and senior year and a Greco-Roman state champion his senior year. He finished his high school career by earning All-American honors in both Freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling were he finished 4th and 5th in the nation respectively.

Kevin attended Marquette University and wrestled for Hall of Fame coaches Barney Karpfinger and Larry O'Neil. A four-year starter and lettermen and a two-year captain at this NCAA Division I program, Kevin was a National Catholic tournament champion and a two-time runner-up in this tournament. He was All-Regional when Marquette competed as an independent college and wrestled against other prominent independent colleges such as Penn State, Notre Dame, Drake University and others.

Upon graduation from Marquette, Kevin began his professional career at Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE) and he has continued to work there for the past 35 years. Within months of beginning at MSOE he was casually approached about any interest he had in starting a wrestling team and he enthusiastically offered to start the program - immediately. At that time the university was just developing its athletic programs and had neither the student interest nor the facilities to start a wrestling team that soon. Thus the idea was shelved for about twelve years at which time Kevin was again approached (this time seriously) to start a wrestling team. By then his personal situation had changed significantly as he and his wife were the proud parents of four young children and Kevin declined because he did not feel he had enough time to raise his young family and also coach a college team. Therefore MSOE started a wrestling program without Kevin's involvement. Midway through the third year of the program the Athletic Director came to Kevin in his role as Director of Human Resources at MSOE and asked for his help in hiring a replacement coach to take over the team for the remainder of the year. Realizing that it would take a few weeks to find a new coach and that would effectively end the season for the team, Kevin said he would take over the coaching duties for the rest of the year and after the season a permanent coach would be hired. But after that half of the season, Kevin realized that finding a new coach was not necessary, as he was committed to building the MSOE wrestling program and would continue as the head coach for the next twenty years.

When he took over the team there were only four wrestlers and Kevin affectionately called them "the faithful four". Kevin worked hard to recruit more student-athletes and the squad sizes increased each year and during Kevin's fifth year as head coach the team had fifteen wrestlers and won the university's first conference championship. MSOE teams would go on to win six conference titles during his tenure, win 101 dual meets and crown 48 individual conference champions. Kevin also coached two NCAA All Americans (including MSOE's first male NCAA all-American in any sport in Matt Huset), eight NCAA National tournament qualifiers, 28 National Wrestling Coaches Association Academic All-Americans and three College of Sports Information Directors Association (CoSida) Academic All-Americans. Morin has coached ten teams that were nationally recognized for their academic excellence including four teams that won the award for having the highest GPA in the nation among NCAA Division III wrestling programs (the 2002-2005 teams). The 2004 team had a 3.73 average grade point which was the highest grade point average ever recorded by any NCAA wrestling team - in any division.

Although a coach that does not seek individual attention, he has been honored many times by his peers over the past twenty years. Kevin received Conference Coach of the Year six times and was a four time recipient of the Wisconsin Wrestling Coaches Association District 8 Coach of the Year Award. In 2002 he was chosen as the NCAA Division III Great Lakes Region Coach of the Year and in 2004 the National Wrestling Coaches Association honored Kevin with the Bob Bubb Coaching Excellence Award which is presented annually to one coach from each division of collegiate wrestling. The award is intended to recognize a coach who "epitomizes the qualities and characteristics of a role model and mentor for developing young student-athletes". Despite these awards, Kevin is most proud of the MSOE wrestling team's 100% graduation rate among seniors that participated on the team.

Kevin thanks all of the MSOE wrestlers that he had the privilege of coaching for building the program from its humble beginnings and calls them the role models that other college student-athletes should follow. He also thanks the many MSOE colleagues that have supported the team and the other MSOE wrestling coaches that also worked hard to build the program, especially long-time fellow coach and friend Mario Trafficante. He is grateful for his extended family and especially fellow coaches and brothers Keith and Kent for their support. But most of all he thanks his wife, Debbie, and children Matt, Melissa, Micaela and Mike for their endless love and support including those many days when he was gone while coaching the sport that he loves.