By Staff Sgt. Deborah Lockhart, 50th Space Wing
Air Force News Service
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - After moving from project housing to a higher income city when he was 9 years old, Morris Thomas, now a 50th Space Wing Safety Office staff sergeant at Schriever Air Force Base, started a new school and was thrown into a world of discrimination and prejudice.

“I was made fun of a lot for either being poor or being black,” Thomas recalled, noting he was told he didn’t belong at the school.

“More specifically,” he said, “I remember my sixth-grade teacher told me I ‘should have just stayed in the projects where I belonged.’”

Early challenges

While trying to deal with this adversity, Thomas started getting into fights, was suspended from school, and was even put into handcuffs once or twice.

“I was in a very dark place and seeing nothing but violence most of my life; I reacted the way I thought I should have,” Thomas said.

Luckily for Thomas, his school’s wrestling coaches took notice.

“My story would have likely ended there if I hadn't found wrestling,” Thomas said. “Coach (Kevin) Mattarelli and the Edwardsville Wrestling Club coaches saved me from myself.”

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