Murphy – When he got into coaching, Thomas Nelson knew he wanted to provide the same thing his coaches provided for him.
“Somebody that they can talk to if they needed anything they knew I was here for them,” Nelson said of his coaching philosophy. “Someone that would be honest with them and tell them the truth.”
After spending the last 14 years as the Murphy football team’s defensive coordinator and the last five as head coach of the softball team, Nelson, who also teaches physical education at Murphy Middle School, will be starting a new chapter at Union County High School in Blairsville, Ga., this fall. At Union County, he will be the co-athletic director, associate head football coach, and also be in charge of the strength and conditioning program.
With Nelson’s son, Micah, playing football at Western Carolina and his daughter, Grace, graduating from Murphy and heading to Catawba Valley Community College to play volleyball in the fall, Nelson said this felt like the right time to make the move.
“Just the amount of how much things cost and things like that, it just made it better for the family for me to make this move right now,” he said.
As defensive coordinator, Nelson has helped Murphy win five state championships since 2010, including one this spring. He coached his daughter and her teammates in little league softball up through high school.
This year, the Lady Bulldogs finished 14-2 and advanced to the Elite Eight of the N.C. High School Athletic Association 1A playoffs for the first time since 2011. Nelson said he wanted to thank softball assistants – Phil Bowman, Michael Seabolt and Bill Goebel – for taking on a bigger role this year this spring while he also had to balance football and softball duties.
As a coach, Nelson is known for being an intense competitor, but also making sure the kids he coaches become better people off the field. Grace Nelson said he made sure to teach lessons that could be applied off the field as well.
“He always just tries to instill lessons in us that are way deeper than softball,” Grace Nelson said. “He always tell us not to put our head down, keep our head up, be confident in what we’re doing – a lot of stuff that helps young girls.”
Nelson showed his more fiery side on the football field. He has been a part of what he calls head coach David Gentry’s “second coaching staff,” as most of the current group of assistants have been together for 15 years.
“I’ve been around this business quite a long time, and you cannot demand respect, but you have to earn respect,” Gentry said. “And Thomas Nelson earned the respect of our kids, coaching staff and community. His knowledge, his leadership, his commitment to excellence is going to be hard to fit somebody in his place.”
For athletic director Ray Gutierrez, Nelson was what he wanted to see in coaches at Murphy. Most of the coaches for the Bulldogs are Murphy alums, and Nelson found the sweet spot of wanting to win while also caring about what kids were doing off the field.
“To have good coaches and them also be good people, you can’t beat that,” Gutierrez said. “We’re going to miss him dearly.”