David Gentry arrived at Elon University in fall 1964, and he was behind the co-captain at halfback. They played the Wing T.
Gentry would make that offensive scheme a staple at Murphy High School while he was head coach, but as a freshman at Elon, he played mostly as a kickoff and punt return specialist. Gentry thought he would get the starting job at halfback when the co-captain broke his shoulder during the first game of the year against Emory & Henry, but the head coach at Elon was not fond of starting freshman, so the job was awarded to a junior defensive back.
“We played Guilford and beat them, and then we played Appalachian State, which was the preseason favorite that year. After I returned a kickoff for a touchdown in that game, they started giving me a few snaps at halfback. I caught a TD pass,” Gentry said.
“After that score, a Boone reporter came up to me and asked me if I was from the mountains, and I told him yeah. He said, what happened that you’re not at App(alachian State)? I told him they didn’t want me. Western (Carolina) didn’t want me. The only one that wanted me was Elon.”
Ups and downs
About that time, Gentry got put back into the game and scored his third touchdown on a running play.
“I thought I had won the starting job. I practiced all week as the starter, but on Friday the running backs coach came in and told me that I wasn’t going to start against Camp Lejeune. He told me that the Camp Lejeune boys were pretty tough, and they didn’t want to get me hurt. I was disappointed and all,” he said.
“The up-back was getting killed the whole game, and they eventually knocked his teeth out. Those guys didn’t care how many yards you got, they were going to kill you every play, so I was kinda glad I didn’t start that game, but I did get to start most of the rest of that season, and we won the conference championship.
“My worst disappointment was against Western. We went into that game undefeated. We had just been informed by the NAIA that if we beat Western, we were in the playoffs. For three quarters, we could do no wrong. I had scored twice, but had one called back and with nine minutes to go in the fourth quarter we were ahead 20-0.
“Western started passing and their quarterback didn’t miss. Western scored twice to close the score to 20-14. With two minutes left we got the ball, and all we had to do was to get a first down. During the kickoff return, I got bit in the pile, and I hit the guy that bit me. So instead of a first and 10, we had a first and 25. We picked up 23 yards on three plays. We punted, and they went down and scored, beating us 21-20.”
‘Wanted go be a coach’
Gentry broke records in kickoff and punt returns, had the longest TD pass play of 89 yards and that year Elon went 8-1-1. He said he didn’t do a whole lot more due to a knee injury at the start of his sophomore season.
“I was still good enough to play but not as good as I was my freshman season,” he said.
Then there was work off of the playing field.
“I had got into a little of academic problems, and I figured out that I better get my act together. During that time, I got married and had my first child, Stephanie, after my sophomore year. I had to concentrate on doing the academic part of it,” Gentry said.
“Red Wilson became the coach at Elon during my junior year, and I had to stop school for a year and get a job. Coach Wilson asked me to scout for him, and he paid me a little bit. I went back to school to finish my education and coached the junior varsity team at Elon and scouted for the varsity team.
“That’s when I really started learning how to coach football. I learned how to do the mental stuff.
“He would really get those kids ready to play. He would get the best out of his team without running them in the ground. I really learned a lot from Red Wilson. That’s when I decided I wanted to be a coach.”
Working as an assistant
Gentry’s first job after college was at Morehead High School as an assistant coach in 1970.
“We were going along and getting beat. After three games, I told head coach Kittrell that I thought we could get more out of our offense. He got a little pissed ‘cause he was the one calling the plays, and told me why don’t you just do it then, and I told him, OK, I will,” Gentry said.
“I took it over, and the offense started moving. After a few games, he started pulling my duties back in, I guess because I was making him look bad. That’s when I decided I didn’t want to be an assistant coach, so I did one of the stupidest things I have ever done. After six games into the season, I quit my job. There I was married with two kids and no job.
“I went to Chatham County, Va., and things just fell into place. I had been an assistant coach for one year and a JV coach in college for one year. I really didn’t have a good resume, but the principal was from Elon, so I got hired. They had just fired the last coach for going 0-10 and when I took over the last three years, they were 3-27, but I had to start somewhere.
“I didn’t have great athletes, but I did have one 6’8” tight end who was good, and we went out and won the first three games and I was king, but we ended up 4-6. The second year I was there, we went 5-5, and that was the first winning season at that school. I coached there one more year, and then I went to Edneyville.
“I loved those kids there. You always had to have practice at 7 p.m. because most of my players were working in tobacco fields all day long.”
Back to Edneyville
Gentry got a call from his alma mater, Edneyville, and was offered the head coaching job there. He took the job in 1974.
“Our first year we missed playing Murphy by one half of a game. Polk finished one half game ahead of us. When I first got to Edneyville, they didn’t reclassify every four years and things got out of whack. We were playing in the 2A division and we were a 1A school. We only had 230 kids. We had some lean years at Edneyville from year three to year five but we started getting better and we got reclassified to 1A,” Gentry said.
“Joe Morrow was my principal, and we did good finishing first in ’75 and ’82 and second only to Cherokee in ’74, ’78, ’79 and ’80. My last year there, some of the sophomore kids’ parents got up a petition to remove me as head coach. It didn’t go anywhere, but my sophomores didn’t come out and I only had 15 players.
“My JV coach, Jerry Brackett, had a good JV team and I had to pull up some ninth-graders. I ended up with 16 players and after the second game my best player had to quit due to health reasons, and I had 15 players. I got a little down and my players could tell, but one of my players, Pat Lancaster, told me, ‘Coach, it’s going to be all right,’ and I thought to myself, ‘If he thinks it’s going to be all right, what am I doing here down in the dumps?’ ”
Relief came the next day, when a parent named Norman Hartsook approached Gentry and told him his boy and a group of other players, the sophomores, wanted to come out. Gentry told him he would think about it.
The following day, Gentry said, “I made an announcement that football tryouts were open without any penalty. I got 13 kids to come out that day. We ended up having a great season and beat Hayesville in the playoffs that year.”
At the end of that school year, Gentry was hired as Murphy’s head coach. And a dynasty began.
Next week: Coach David Gentry at Murphy High School.