Murphy – Bulldogs football head coach David Gentry is retiring after 36 years.
WLOS’s Chris Womack was the first to report the news. Gentry later confirmed he was retiring in a phone call with the Cherokee Scout.
“I’ve been 50 years as a head coach and I’ve accomplished everything I could possibly accomplish and most people never accomplish,” Gentry said. “I’ve been very fortunate to accomplish all these things, these records, these goals, being put in the Hall of Fame. It’s a good time to go.”
The all-time winningest coach in North Carolina high school football history, Gentry won 426 games in 47 years as a head coach in North Carolina, 366 of which came at the helm of Murphy. Before becoming the head coach at Murphy, Gentry was the head coach at Chatham High School in Virginia from 1971-73 and at Edneyville High School, his alma mater, from 1974-82.
This past season, which was shortened and moved from the fall to the spring due to COVID-19, the Bulldogs won 10-1 and won the N.C. High School Athletic Association 1A state championship. It was the program’s 10th state championship, and ninth under Gentry.
Gentry said going into the season he was pretty sure this was going to be his last year, and he’s been thinking about retiring “for a long time.” The way the 2020-21 season ended only solidified his decision. Murphy won four hard-fought games to win another state championship, including getting revenge for a regular season loss at Robbinsville in the 1A West Regional final.
“The way it turned out was perfect timing for me,” Gentry said. “You went out as a state champion, you can’t go out any better than that. You beat the only team that beat you in the regular season and you snap their (24)-game winning streak, that was good. A state championship was even better.”
To not distract from his team’s accomplishments, Gentry kept his decision private until Monday. That’s when he informed his team and coaching staff before making it official the next day. No replacement has been announced yet, though Gentry said he would like to see it be someone already associated with the program.
While he won’t miss the two-a-day practices under the brutal August sun, Gentry said he’ll miss the kids most of all. With a lot more free time, he’s likely to travel more with his wife and adjust to not being on the sideline when Friday nights in the fall come around.
“I’ll stay busy, and I know it’s certainly going to be different,” Gentry said. “But I think we’ll make a go of it.”