A Model of Consistency, Success, and Loyalty
1/21/2011 12:00:00 AM | Softball
Jan. 21, 2011
By Kyle D. BassSpecial to Rolltide.comCourtesy of the NFCA
In the modern era of sports, the coaching profession is now often perceived as a position of fame and exposure. It has become a profession with tremendous turnover and a diminishing understanding of the concept of loyalty. Perhaps the greatest concept of coaching that seems to be forgotten, is that coaches are supposed to be educators and developers of young individuals.
With people putting such an emphasis on winning in athletics today, the average coach overlooks some of these roles. Coaching is a difficult profession with many different aspects and responsibilities. Many people do not realize the amount of work and preparation that is necessary to become a successful head coach in every area of the job. However, new NFCA president and current University of Alabama softball coach Patrick Murphy is one person who has proven himself successful at putting quality teams on the field and molding young individuals into respectful role models for generations to come.
Murphy started his coaching career at an early age, earning his first coaching job the summer after his freshman year in college. That summer, Murphy became the head coach of a little league team in Fayette, Iowa. While Murphy's first gig may not have brought the attention and exposure of his current position, it may have been the one that prepared him for the stresses of coaching a powerhouse program in the Southeastern Conference.
"I remember that I used to bribe [my players] by saying I would do cartwheels across the field if they got eight or more hits during the games," said Murphy. "Needless to say, I did a lot of cartwheels that summer."
Following an eventful career in the little league ranks, Murphy graduated from Northern Iowa in 1988 and began coaching in the Iowa high school system before attending graduate school at Southwestern Louisiana (now known as University of Louisiana at Lafayette). Here, Murphy would be presented with the chance he needed to prove that he would one day become a successful collegiate coach when he was offered an assistant coaching position for the softball team.
Murphy said, "They needed someone, and I just happened to be at the right spot at the right time." He added, "to begin with, it was just a part time job. However, it became a full time job and I started staying and recruiting in the summer and one thing just led to another."
The opportunity at Southwestern Louisiana jump started Murphy's career and began a path that led to his hiring at the University of Alabama in July of 1998. He made a quick impression on the Alabama program, leading the Crimson Tide to their first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance that following season. Accomplishing that feat has now become automatic in Tuscaloosa, with Murphy leading his team to appearances in the NCAA tournament every year he has been there.
Now entering his 13th season as the head coach of Alabama, Murphy has compiled one of the most impressive coaching resumes in college softball with six Women's College World Series appearances, two Southeastern Conference championships, six consecutive 50-plus win seasons, and eight top ten rankings. Murphy has also coached more than 60 All-Americans, 77 academic All-SEC selections and seven academic All-Americans proving that he develops his players in the classroom as well as on the field.
However, the accomplishment Murphy feels most proud about is the fact that he has been able to build the Crimson Tide into a championship program over the years.
"Something I am really proud of is the chance I have been given to see this Alabama program grow from the beginning to where it is at now. I have been lucky to be able stay put for 15 years and see the development of this program. One thing that is very rare in sports today is loyalty," said Murphy. "We have been lucky to have coaches who have stayed loyal to our program and a program that has been loyal to us and allowed us to build this program the way we really wanted to. I am so proud that I have been able to see it grow from the beginning to the point we have reached now."
Recently, coach Murphy took over as the new president of the National Fastpitch Coaches Association. Murphy sees this as a great opportunity and believes that his coaching career has prepared him well for the new challenge.
"First off, I just want to say that it was a great honor to be named President of the NFCA. I consider it one the highest honors of my entire career. With everything that is involved in coaching today, from the sport promotion, the marketing, the service to the community, I feel that coaching gives you lots of experience in so many different areas. All of those kind of roll together into one with my position, and I just hope to bring a little bit of everything that I have learned to the organization and help it grow."
Murphy is taking over the position for Carol Bruggeman, and he plans to build upon the direction and goals of the former NFCA president. He is quick to acknowledge the great job Bruggeman has done with the NFCA, but he still sees plenty of room for growth and great opportunities to improve the organization. Like Bruggeman, Murphy believes that membership growth of the NFCA is one of the most critical components to improvement.
Murphy said, "First off, I want to say what a great job Carol Bruggeman from Louisville has done. One of our main goals under her was to grow the membership of the NFCA, and I want to continue working on that goal. We want to get as many people as possible to join and become members. There are still a lot of people out there that do not realize that this organization is here and what benefits it can offer."
Also, Murphy stated as a second goal that he would like to expand the awareness of the NFCA to other companies and professional organizations. He acknowledges the progress that has been made over the years, but he believes the organization has the possibility to make an even bigger impact.
"We want to make ourselves more aware to more companies in the sporting goods industry and more media outlets. We have come a long ways in such a short time, but we know that we can go even farther. We always want to expand the sport of softball. There are a lot of levels and lots of kids playing softball these days, and we want to take advantage of that and keep growing the sport."
While these goals may seem to be extensions of previous plans, Murphy also has new ideas to help the recruiting process in softball. He hopes that better tournament formats will allow coaches to see more softball prospects. This will allow more high school players to gain the exposure they deserve while trying to obtain scholarships to continue their playing careers.
"One thing we hope to do is we definitely want to try and create a better tournament format for recruiting. I would love to find a better way to format tournaments for more exposure. We feel like that is one of the biggest things we would like to tackle. We are hoping to come up with a good model for college coaches and summer ball coaches. We have been doing lots of research, but hopefully we can come up with a good format that the majority of the people like and hope to test it out."
As for his overall vision for the direction of the organization, Murphy reiterates the importance of growing the sport of softball. Murphy believes this is possible, but says that people have to realize the importance of the NFCA and the part it can play in this growth.
"We want to keep trying to grow the sport of softball across the entire country. To do that, we have to start at the lowest level possible and go up from there. The more people that we can get involved with the sport, the better it is. We want the situation to be so that when one team wins, everyone wins. We need to get more coaches to join our organization and recognize how much the NFCA can benefit them. One thing that is really neat about this organization is that it is for the members. The NFCA is a non-profit organization, and revenue-wise everything goes back to the members that are in the NFCA."
While Murphy may be new to his position as president of the NFCA, he is profoundly experienced when it comes to being successful and knowing how to lead a group of motivated people. The sport of softball and the NFCA have made great strides over the years, and it is easy to see that this success will continue with Murphy taking over his new role.
