Murphy – Lady Bulldogs alumna Sarah Pullium thought it was going to be a normal Tuesday. That changed when she got a call from athletic director Ray Gutierrez during her shift at Burlington Shoes, who told Pullium she’d been named the N.C. High School Athletic Association Female Athlete of the Year.
Pullium is the first Murphy athlete to win the award. Hiwassee Dam’s Hailey Shope won in 2016, while Hayesville’s Christy Cagel earned the honor in 1991.
“I was just so shocked,” Pullium said. “I had seen Hailey Shope get this award when I was in middle school, and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh that’s so cool,’ and now that I’m getting it it’s unbelievable.”
After going through the process with Shope when he was the Eagles’ athletic director, Gutierrez knew he had to work just as hard to give Pullium a chance to win the award. The committee likes rewarding athletes who played multiple sports, something both Shope and Pullium did at their respective high schools.
Shope played volleyball, basketball and softball winning Smoky Mountain Conference Player of the Year in both volleyball and basketball as well as Conference Pitcher of the Year in softball. She played softball for Kennesaw State in 2017 before transferring to Young Harris (Ga.) College, where she played basketball during the 2018-19 and 2019-20 seasons as well as softball from 2018-21.
Pullium played volleyball, basketball and track and field, then picked up soccer her senior year. She was an all-conference selection in volleyball and basketball, was a three-time 1A state champion in the discus, plus a two-time state champion in both girls basketball and team track and field. She’ll continue her track and field career at the University of North Carolina in Charlotte.
“They’re very, very athletic super talented and they do so many things for their schools,” Gutierrez said. “Hailey won three conference championships while at Hiwassee Dam, had such an impact on the athletic program there. Sarah, same way here.
“I think coaching both of them, they’re both really competitive, they hate losing. They just played really hard.”
Like everything with Pullium, it goes back to hard work. Gutierrez said Pullium’s parents instilled a blue-collar mentality in her, which reflected in all her sports.
In basketball, where Gutierrez coaches the Murphy girls team, he said Pullium wouldn’t always have the flashiest stat lines, but did a lot of the little things you need to win a game. In track and field, she was never satisfied even after breaking records, always looking to get better at every meet.
It’s that mindset, along with chasing after big dreams, that Pullium hopes people took away from watching her compete at Murphy.
“I just want people to know that hard work pays off and it doesn’t only apply to sports,” Pullium said. “If you work hard at something and you’re passionate and aggressive in a good way. You’ll get what you need to get, and you’ll get recognized for what you need to get recognized for.”