David Gentry got a phone call in 1983 from a colleague he met at a football coach’s clinic he attended. That colleague was Mitch Myers, who had just been fired as Murphy’s head coach.
Myers told Gentry that if he wanted a job in a place that loved football, he should apply. After Gentry applied, he got a call from longtime Murphy booster Dicky Davis, telling him that people in Murphy loved the game, and if he wanted to be in a football town he should take the job.
“I knew Murphy was a football town. I knew they had won some state championships, but I also knew the last few years they had been bad,” Gentry said.
“Edneyville was not a football school. It was more of a basketball school, and I thought about that, and that is the one of the reasons I came to Murphy. I was impressed with Bob Hendrix and Charles Forrister, so I took the job at Murphy.”
Gentry brought Bob Henry with him as an assistant coach; the rest of his coaching staff he inherited from the previous year. Henry only stayed for one year, and Gentry’s line coach that year was Myers. Matt Rogers, who had been coaching defensive backs and receivers, chose to concentrate on baseball, with Gentry bringing up Wayne Watson to replace him in 1984.
When Gentry was looking for a new line coach, Hendrix contacted former Murphy player Benny Scott to see if he wanted to come home and coach the line at Murphy. Scott declined the offer, but suggested that the Bulldogs contact a coach named Bill Gaither.
Gaither took the job and began coaching at Murphy High School. The Dogs went 4-6 in 1983, then 4-5-1 in 1984.
“Gaither told me after the first year that he was good for a half a game,” Gentry said.
The next year, Henry left, and Gentry made a surprise promotion.
“I told Gaither that he was my defensive coordinator. Gaither told me that he had never coached defense before, and I told him that he was coaching it now,” Gentry said.
“He started studying defense and probably became one of the best defensive coordinators in this state. After I named him defensive coordinator, he was worth a lot more than a half a game a year; it was more like eight or nine games a year.”
Watson took over coaching defensive backs. The next year, Rick Heinke became the defensive ends and scout team coach.
“After a couple of years, he went on the phones upstairs, and he was one of the best I’ve ever had on the headsets. He would tell you exactly what the other team was doing,” Gentry said of Heinke. “He would never suggest a play, but he would tell me exactly what the defense was doing, and I could then call a play.”
This staff would be at Murphy for years to come.
“When I came to Murphy, I had some good playersI believe the ’83 team could have beat anybody we played if they thought they could. If they didn’t think they could, they didn’t play very well. The next year we had a good team, but in practice, we had our best receiver, Tony Williams, break his shoulder,” Gentry said.
“During those first two years, they started beating people they had not beaten in previous years. The next year, our sophomore class was loaded with athletes. We lost the first three games but went undefeated in conference. Then we lost to Rosman in the playoffs.”
The Rosman game in 1985 was the loss Gentry describes as his worst while coaching at Murphy.
“We were leading like 18-6 in the fourth quarter, and they came back and beat us. We were better than they were, we just weren’t better that night,” Gentry said. “We did get some questionable calls in that game, but we still should have won it. I believe if we had won that game, we would have had a very good chance to win another state title.”
Gentry would reel off two back-to-back state championships in 1986 and 1987, when they went 29-1. Their only lost was to Swain in the conference championship game in 1987. Murphy would give Swain a beatdown in the playoff game that year.
Those years started a rivalry between not only the schools, but two coaches as well. Gentry and Swain coach Boyce Dietz had a rivalry that will be talked about for the ages.
Murphy and Swain would play the last game of the season for many years that followed, and most of the time that game had a bearing on the conference championship. It would either decide it or put the championship in a tie.
In 1986, the game got so intense that the referees called a timeout and asked the coaches to calm their players down. Dietz went into his huddle, and then went to the Murphy huddle. Gentry immediately went to the Swain huddle.
When asked about that game, Gentry said, “He and I told them that they didn’t need to kill each other in this game, that the playoffs were coming and there would be more football to play.”
Gentry’s staff later included some former players, like Joseph Watson, Eric Laney and Thomas Nelson. Cesar Campana came aboard on the staff as an assistant head coach and stayed for several years.
Laney would leave coaching a few years later, and Gentry would tab Gary Thompson as his offensive line coach, moving Nelson to defensive coordinator. Another former player, Ryan Stiles, came on to coach the defensive line from 2008-10.
James Shope joined the staff in 2016 and coached defensive line until 2018. Gentry credits his staff and players for the success in Murphy.
“It wasn’t so much me as it was my staff and the players we had,” he said.
Gentry had an overall coaching record of 426-197-3. His record in Murphy was 370-122, winning 18 conference championships, 12 regional championships and nine state championships.
He was named 2007 N.C. Football Coach of the Year as well as among 2013 USA Today’s Best High School Football Coaches, 2013 NCHSAA Top 100 All Time High School Coaches to Remember, 2013 National Football Coach of the Year by the National Federation of High Schools, 2014 National High School Athletic Association Finalist, 2017 WNC Sports Hall of Fame and 2018 Western North Carolina Coach of the Year.
In 2019, Gentry was inducted into the National High School Athletic Coaches Association Hall of Fame. He is only one of two coaches in North Carolina to receive the award since its inception in 1996.
Gentry became the all-time winningest football coach in state history when he beat Swain 15-14 in Bryson City. The Swain fans had made a roadside sign that said, “Not tonight coach.” The sign was acquired by a Murphy fan while leaving, and all the players signed it. Gentry still has it in his garage today.
Gentry retired after the shortened COVID season in 2020-21, when he won his ninth state championship. In 2020, he received a 2020 N.C. Football Coaches Association Lifetime Membership Award, which is symbolic of their Hall of Fame.
In 2021, Gentry was ranked 25th by Stadium Talks’ “Greatest High School Football Coaches of All-Time,” and in 2023 the N.C. High School Athletic Association inducted him into its Hall of Fame, rounding out his long list on honors. The coach also holds the unofficial title of G.O.A.T. – Greatest of All Time – among prep football coaches in North Carolina.