Murphy – After a decade coaching in Cherokee County, Murphy High School athletic director and girls basketball coach Ray Gutierrez is moving on.
Gutierrez and his family are moving to Kennesaw, Ga., for better opportunities for his sons, Brayden and Banks. The two boys will be in eighth and sixth grade, respectively, this upcoming school year.
“Our boys are in middle school,” Gutierrez said in a phone interview with the Cherokee Scout. “And I wanted the priority to be them in terms of education and even as far as recreation. I think right now the youth, especially, my kids’ age, that’s not necessarily the priority of some of the leaders in our county.”
In his time at Hiwassee Dam from 2012-16 and at Murphy the past six seasons, Gutierrez took made both basketball programs into some of the best in 1A. He also coached both the Bulldogs’ boys basketball team during the 2016-17 season.
Gutierrez went 269-49 in his time as a head coach, which included two state championships, eight regular season conference championships and eight conference tournament championships.
At Hiwassee Dam, Gutierrez’s teams made the Elite Eight in 2015 and 2016, going a combined 59-4 across those two seasons. At Murphy, the Lady Bulldogs won state championships in 2020 and 2021, with the 2020 title being the program’s first since 1997.
Last season, Murphy went 26-4 before falling to eventual state champion Bishop McGuinness in the Elite Eight. In his six season coaching the Lady Bulldogs, they made it to at least the Elite Eight every year.
Gutierrez also spent the last six years as the Bulldogs’ athletic director, during which Murphy High won seven state championships. He and his wife, Holly, are both Murphy alumni.
Though Gutierrez said he would be staying out of the process of hiring a new athletic director and girls basketball coach, he would like to see one of his assistant coaches, Cody Webb, stay involved with the Murphy girls basketball program.
“I almost like to think him as a co-head coach,” Gutierrez said of Webb. “He has the basketball knowledge, kids like him, he works hard. He has everything that a head coach should have, and he’d be an excellent head coach.”