When Morgan Price enters the mix, you can expect to see some fireworks on the gymnastics mat. Last year, the Tennessee native had posted a 9.9 in the vault routine of overall Super 16 Gymnastics session 1. This season, she set the scoreboard in perfect motion. The evidence came in her camp, Fisk University’s tri-meet at Temple University this month. Morgan scored a perfect 10 in the uneven bars routine on a perfect occasion, during Black History Month. The achievement stood to be a personal satisfaction for her. Moreover, the mark was the first one coming from a gymnast representing a Historically Black College or University (HBCU) in women’s college gymnastics! 

The achievement had a different vibe for a program that had started to compete in women’s college gymnastics in 2023. Obviously, after that, the question came back to searching for Morgan’s motivation in the sport. A simple search dropped the then-coach, Corrinne Tarver’s name, as the key part of her story. As you can expect, Price was all about being full of respect for the coach. A glimpse of this tone was present in her interview given to CBS Mornings last year. In that interview, she was asked about the source of motivation behind her achievements in her second year at Fisk University. 

Morgan Price had only one answer—Corrinne Tarver. In an unambiguous tone, she claimed, “She’s [Corrine Tarver] a really inspiring gymnast as well. So I feel like having her as a head coach is very just honoring, also just to have an African-American coach because I’ve never had an African-American coach ever.” The lines might give too many questions for the fans. But here, let’s take those one by one. 

The first one might come regarding the achievement the host and Morgan were talking about. Well, it was about her achieving the USAG All-Around title on April 11, 2024. The achievement made her the first college gymnastics National Champion, representing an HBCU program. Notably, Tarver had almost similar fame in 1989. How so? During Tarver’s college phase, the Bulldogs were not part of the college gymnastics program. Then?

Before 2022, Corrinne Tarver had no commitments with Fisk University. But she highlighted the Black female gymnasts in some other way during her college career. In 1989, she had bagged the same title Morgan earned 35 years later. Remember. Corrinne was the one who paved the way for Black female gymnasts to dream big in college gymnastics. She boasts of having the USAG title, being the first black woman to claim that. She did that while representing Georgia Gymnastics in the contest. On the other hand, Morgan had her own time in Arkansas Razorbacks before 2023. But her powerful urge to return to her roots made her decommit to the SEC program and join the camp of HBCU in 2023. 

At Fisk University, Price had a like-minded coach in Corrinne and an entire band of colleagues who kept her motivated all along. The result is in front of everyone. But a little evidence will tell that Morgan has had a goal in her mind since her very first day in office, at Fisk University. 

Morgan Price had set her eyes on the apple since the beginning 

One might need potent reasons to leave Jordyn Wieber’s Arkansas Razorbacks. After all, the coach has a record of success, conquering challenges in his personal life and in elite gymnastics. So, there would be hardly any budding gymnast who would say no to the program. However, Morgan Price pulled off the daunting task. In 2022, she made headlines by announcing her decision to leave the Razorbacks. Surprisingly, in the same year, Fisk University’s gymnastics program came into being. Price, in the meantime, changed the ship and joined the program. 

The five-star recruit knew about her responsibility in the freshly minted HBCU program as a prominent name and invested her expertise in reaching that height. In 2023, in her interaction with ESPN, she made this mindset clear. She outrightly said, “We have a lot of eyes on us because we are the first and because we are making history, so it’s just so exciting to be a part of the first team ever.”  Fortunately, she had Corrinne Tarver as her coach and idol, helping her in every way possible. The result of this camaraderie is in the public domain. The fans will continue to cherish that for a long time.