August 31st, 2026 Meeting
Last Week's Speaker: Alexsis Hanske - Faculty Advisor for Moline High School Interact.
Guests: Alexsis Hanske & Hailey Hill, teachers at Moline High School
Haley Greenlee an Opaleena Saller, MHS Interact Club President and Vice PresidentMHS Interact Club President Haley Greenlee and Vice President Opaleena Saller along with faculty advisors Alexis Hanske and Hailey Hill reported on Interact Club's ambitious new 2026 initiative, a service project designed to support families throughout the Moline-Coal Valley School District.
The initiative, called Feed Moline, grew out of the club’s work developing the Maroon Market at Moline High School. What began as an effort to provide food to students has expanded into a broader program aimed at helping families across the entire school district.
Feed Moline’s mission is to create “a Moline where every family has enough to eat, every neighbor feels supported, and every table has room for one more.”
Speaker: Coach Mike Morrissey, Moline High School Head Football Coach
Moline High School Head Football Coach Mike Morrissey joined Moline Rotary Monday, offering members an inside look at the Maroons’ football program, the challenges facing this year’s team and the values he hopes his players carry with them long after their playing days are over.
Morrissey acknowledged that Moline has opened the season 0-2, a start made more difficult by a number of injuries, including several to returning all-conference players. Despite the adversity, he said the program’s approach remains the same: the next player has to be ready to step up.
Rather than viewing an injury simply as a setback, Morrissey said it also creates an opportunity for another young man to compete and represent the football program, Moline High School and the community.
Speaker: Coach Mike Morrissey, Moline High School Head Football Coach
(thanks to Terry Filmer's article text from Facebook)
Morrissey Shares Lessons from the Gridiron with Moline Rotary
Moline High School Head Football Coach Mike Morrissey joined Moline Rotary Monday, offering members an inside look at the Maroons’ football program, the challenges facing this year’s team and the values he hopes his players carry with them long after their playing days are over.
Morrissey acknowledged that Moline has opened the season 0-2, a start made more difficult by a number of injuries, including several to returning all-conference players. Despite the adversity, he said the program’s approach remains the same: the next player has to be ready to step up.
Rather than viewing an injury simply as a setback, Morrissey said it also creates an opportunity for another young man to compete and represent the football program, Moline High School and the community.
The Maroons have faced quality competition and had opportunities in both of their opening games, Morrissey said, but were unable to capitalize and finish. As Moline moves into its conference schedule, he remains optimistic about what the team can accomplish.
“We have some really good kids, some really tough kids,” Morrissey told Rotarians.
Much of Morrissey’s message, however, went far beyond wins and losses.
He discussed the principles emphasized throughout the Moline program, including effort, blocking, tackling, attention to detail, discipline and execution. While some of those concepts are obviously connected to football, Morrissey said the most important lessons apply almost anywhere.
Detail, discipline and execution, for example, are qualities young people will need in school, their careers and throughout their lives. They become particularly important, he said, when adversity arrives and a person is “pushed against the wall a little bit.”
That philosophy is also why Morrissey does not want his players to define themselves solely as football players.
The Moline coaching staff encourages students to participate in other sports, clubs and activities and to take advantage of everything high school has to offer.
“It’s your experience,” Morrissey said. “We want you to get out there and we want you to be a part of other teams and other clubs and other activities.”
Morrissey has also become a respected voice in the coaching profession beyond the Quad Cities. He told Rotarians he has had opportunities to speak at coaching events in Indianapolis, Kansas City, St. Louis, Las Vegas, Detroit and Chicago.
He currently serves as a vice president of the Illinois High School Football Coaches Association and is in line to become president of the organization in two years. That work has provided opportunities to participate in the association’s Hall of Fame banquet and coaching clinic and to spend time with University of Illinois Head Coach Bret Bielema and the Illini program.
Morrissey also shared a little family football humor. He grew up an Iowa Hawkeye fan and his father played football at Iowa, but family connections to the University of Illinois — including former Moline standout Matthew Bailey and Morrissey’s brother-in-law working with the Illini football program — have shifted loyalties in the Morrissey household.
For Rotary members, Morrissey’s presentation offered a reminder that while Friday nights may be measured on a scoreboard, the larger goal of high school athletics is preparing young people for everything that comes afterward.