Clayton Valley held a ceremony before its season-opening football game, honoring legendary former coach Tim Murphy by naming the field after him.
Murphy was one of the most influential high school coaches in the state, known for his iconic run offense. How did Murphy get to be one of the greats of high school football coaching?
It started in high school where he played strong safety and wide receiver. Then he attended UC Santa Barbara to play strong safety for their program. After his college football career he got his first coaching job at Ygnacio Valley High in 1996. He turned the program around, winning three league titles and one North Coast Section championship.
Then Murphy went to Clovis East High School in the Central Valley. In Clovis he won six league championships and two Central Section Championships. After his time in Clovis he came back to the Bay Area and to Clayton Valley to start his most winning stint, which is crazy to say because he has won multiple championships for both Ygnacio Valley and Clovis.
He spent the last 11 years of his career coaching at Clayton Valley. He led the Ugly Eagles to 10 out of 11 league championships, four North Coast Section championships, three NorCal championships and one state championship in 2019, when they took down Aquinas of San Bernardino, 10-7.
It was that success that led school officials to rename Clayton Valley’s football field “Murphy Field at Gonsalves Stadium.”
In 2019, Murphy won North Coast Section coach of the year. With Clayton Valley in 2014, his team had the most rushing yards in the nation and set the state record with 7,051 yards. The key player was Miles Harrison, who gained 2,709 rushing yards, and who Murphy said was one of the best players he coached. Devin Banks added 773 yards that season.
Bill Morones, the executive director of Clayton Valley, was asked what the impact was of having a coach like Murphy.
“Football is the starting block of school athletics and when we have a good team we see grades go up and we start off on the right foot for the school year,” Morones said.
He added that Clayton Valley is known for its athletics and a big contributor was the success of Clayton Valley’s football team.
Murphy also joined all three programs when they had a losing record and turned these teams into powerhouses and the best team in their leagues. Murphy has also had 10 league coaches of the year awards. He has won 222 games in his coaching career and 16 league championships.
After hearing all this, it’s clear how great of a coach Murphy is. So why did he stop coaching?
He said he had been coaching football basically ever since he got out of college and wanted a break.
“When I graduated from UC Santa Barbara, the Monday after, I started coaching at Ygnacio Valley.”
He still loves the game but wanted to spend time with his family and friends and wanted to be there for his kids. Murphy also thought it was “Tisa’s time”, referring to Nick Tisa, the head coach in his second season leading Clayton Valley football team. This year’s Ugly Eagles are 2-2 after a 34-17 victory over Northgate on Sept. 20.
The big question is will Murphy be back to Friday night lights? He said simply, “Not right now.”
Murphy wants to enjoy his time off. He is still teaching at Clayton Valley and he loves teaching. Murphy did say multiple teams have reached out to him for coaching jobs, but he wants to stay in Clayton Valley and continue to teach.
Photo Credit: Tim Murphy
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