Platte County graduate helps Power Team spread its dual message of strength and faith
Jerry Keuhn
Citizen Staff
For former Platte City resident Jamie Morrison, a chance to come home gives him the unique opportunity to mix business with pleasure.
Morrison, 40, now lives in Frisco, Texas but spends much of his time on the road with The Power Team, a motivational group that travels the world spreading an inspirational message to children and adults alike. The Power Team will be performing at the Wilson Center for the Performing Arts in the Platte County High School in Platte City March 11-14, with each performance to begin at 7 p.m. The cost to attend will be a $2 freewill donation. Members of the group will also perform during assemblies at some local area schools.
Morrison, six-foot, four-inches and 250-pounds, is a 1988 graduate of Platte County High School who went on to play football at Northwest Missouri State University in Maryville and Missouri Western State University in St. Joseph. He can bench press more than 400 pounds, once shattered a backboard during practice for the Platte County basketball team and studied exercise physiology in college. His athletic background eventually led him to The Power Team, an international non-profit organization with headquarters in Dallas. The Power Team, with a current staff of about 20, formed in 1976 and members of the group have performed over 30,000 school assemblies in more than 40 countries. Morrison has been with The Power Team for 12 years and he said it has given him the chance to see the world.
“I’ve been to Israel, South America, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, England and other parts of Europe, Canada, the Bahamas, every state in the United States but four and once even performed at a private show for the king of Swaziland (a very small country in the southern part of Africa),” said Morrison, who was back in town a few weeks ago in preparation for the upcoming Power Team performances. “My Mom (Mary) worked for the Platte County school district for more than 30 years and when I came home I got to see a lot of teachers I had and a lot of people I knew back in the day.”
While in town, he gave a small performance and presented a devotional to a Fellowship of Christian Athletes group at the Platte City Middle School. He showed the middle school students a few of the athletic feats that he and a group of 3-4 other members of The Power Team will perform during the Platte City shows, such as breaking a baseball bat with his arms and behind his back and tearing a license plate and a deck of cards in half. Other feats the members of The Power Team perform include blowing up hot water bottles, breaking blocks of concrete and ice, lifting telephone poles, ripping phone books in half and much more.
“Some of what we do is strength and technique, and some of it is just brute strength,” Morrison said. “Our purpose is to impact local school students and adults with a positive message and exposure. We share our personal stories and paint a picture of the choices people make and the consequences of those choices. We talk about the tough issues that people face including drugs and alcohol, suicide, violence, peer pressure and abuse, and how to find healthy alternatives.”
Morrison said over the years he has seen a lot of different things happen while performing.
“Once we had a guy who walked down out of the crowd and gave us a gun after a show,” Morrison said. “He had hid the gun under his shirt and told us he was going to kill himself, but after watching The Power Team changed his mind. A Power Team show is not just about entertainment, but also about impacting lives in a positive manner.”
Morrison said The Power Team has been voted as America’s top school assembly program by CNN and as a not-for-profit organization, the Power Team often works with school districts to make the assemblies affordable.
“What we do is expensive, with food, hotel and travel expenses and of course, all the materials we just destroy,” Morrison said. “But we know that with school budgets being what they are today there are a lot of things that get cut first, such as the DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) program. We have lowered the price we charge and depend on local businesses to help sponsor us.”
Morrison encouraged Platte County citizens to attend the shows and hear the powerful message.
“I would really love it if people come out and support what we do, it’s not just entertainment,” he said. “I also ask people to support the organizations that supported this and helped bring it here.”
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