Q&A: Murray talks growing up in Valdese, coaching hoops at East Burke and Draughn

Jerry “Jay” Murray Jr. played basketball and baseball through the Valdese Parks and Recreation Department as a child, and he also participated in football, basketball, baseball, and track and field at Valdese Junior High School before playing football, basketball, and baseball at East Burke High School, from where he graduated in 1984.

Murray then found success as a local high school basketball coach after his playing days ended, spending more than 30 years on the sideline. In doing so, he followed in the footsteps of his father, Jerry Murray Sr., who coached at Valdese High School (girls basketball, football), Morganton High School (JV football, girls basketball, track), and EBHS (wrestling, football assistant) during his lengthy coaching career.

After over a decade and a half as an assistant boys basketball coach at EBHS, mostly under Rick Ogle, Jay Murray replaced Ogle as the head coach of the girls team in 2000 and remained in that role for eight seasons. The Appalachian State University alumnus was also the head girls hoops coach at Draughn for nine years beginning with the Lady Wildcats’ inaugural season in 2008-09.

Also Draughn’s athletic director from 2012-17, Murray’s overall record as a head coach was 232-214, with his teams reaching the North Carolina High School Athletic Association state playoffs on 11 occasions. And he made strong first impressions at both schools, guiding the Lady Cavaliers to a 20-8 record and a sectional final appearance during his debut season at his alma mater before leading the Lady Wildcats to a 24-5 mark (16-0 in Southern Piedmont 1A/2A Conference play) and the third round of the postseason in his first year at the helm.

Furthermore, this past May, Murray was the emcee during the Valdese Sports Hall of Fame’s first-ever induction ceremony. He also served as a presenter, welcoming his father, his prep football coach Danny Williams, and longtime EBHS girls basketball coach Judy Keever into the 13-member class.

Murray discussed various topics with The Paper last week. Here’s some of what he had to say:

Q: When and how did you get started in sports?

“I started playing in Valdese when I was in about the fourth or fifth grade. We had a pretty good youth basketball league that was teams from Valdese only. It wasn’t like they do now with the Burke County league. We had like four teams and it was not a super long season, just about three or four weeks in the winter, but it was all your buddies at school. You got to see them and brag, pick on each other, and so forth. I lived a block from the gym, so I just walked to games and walked back home.

“In late spring they did the same in baseball. We had four local teams there in Valdese, and 10 or 11 players was the most you had on each team, so everybody played. It wasn’t like you went and sat on the bench. We didn’t have enough to field that many teams, so we got in a lot of playing in just a few weeks, and the same thing there, everybody would wear their hats at school and get to pick on each other when they won. We’d usually play like a week or two into June and then we’d be done.”

Q: How did you get into coaching?

“I knew what it was like having been around it, so I kind of always had that urge to follow in the footsteps of my dad. When I first started, it was actually the first year after I graduated, my freshman year in college. Coach Ogle, who was the basketball coach at East Burke, allowed me to come sit on the bench and help him during games on weekends and during the Christmas tournament when I was home from Christmas break, and I would also go to practices and help.

“I continued to do that for the next two or three years while I was at Appalachian, and the second year after graduating high school I came back and would help the football team on game days. Coach (Sam) Wilkinson and I would usually be the ones that went up in the booth, and I would help spot stuff and keep some stats for Coach (Wayne) Fletcher. I continued that throughout the years while I was in college.”

Q: After many years as an assistant boys basketball coach at East Burke, you became the head coach of the girls basketball team in 2000. What do you remember about that job?

“It was a situation where there was a lot of talent. Barbara Helms had coached some of the girls when they were freshmen and sophomores, and then Coach Ogle took over for one year before I got the job. There were a lot of juniors, but Katie Gravel (Stilwell) and Stephanie Brendel (Hatley) were seniors, so there was a good pedigree there and a good confidence in winning. They’d had a really successful year the year before, so I knew they were a very good team and I knew I’d have a chance to be successful right off the bat, which we were.

“I can remember that at the time I had been an assistant with the boys for many years, and even coached JVs for four or five years there on and off. When I took the job there with the girls, I basically told them, ‘I’m gonna coach you as a basketball player. I’m not gonna coach you any differently than I would boys. I’m just gonna coach you as a basketball player and you’ll have to adjust to that.’ And they didn’t seem to have any trouble with it and adapted right to it.”

Q: You eventually moved over to Draughn when that school opened in 2008. How excited were you for the opportunity to build a new program, but also what were the challenges of doing that?

“It was exciting because we were all starting the programs for the first time, and to me that was a special situation. Not everybody gets to build the foundation for the programs. Other schools that I coached at somebody had been there long before, Judy Keever for example at East Burke, and that was a situation where I was gonna get to start that program.

“As far as challenges, of course the number of players was totally different. At East Burke we had to go through tryouts and we had to make decisions, and some players just didn’t make the cut, you couldn’t keep everybody. Whereas at Draughn you might have one or two players that if they weren’t gonna get to play a lot maybe they could be a manager, but there wasn’t the same number with a smaller student body than I was used to at East Burke.

“But there’s a lot of good things with that too. When you have lower numbers then more people are gonna be able to participate, and that’s probably the biggest reason I got into coaching was I felt like there were a lot of things that I learned on the athletic playing field that you can’t learn in a classroom, experiences and things that would help me in my life. And I thought what would be a better way than to be able to teach that to some young adults, and they could learn some things that they can’t in a classroom but they can in sports.”

Q: You mentioned how well your first year at East Burke went, but your first year at Draughn was also very successful. What do you remember about that first year with the Lady Wildcats?

“That was another special situation where many of the players came from East Burke and had played for me, some of them three years already, so they were fourth-year players coming in who knew the system, they knew what I wanted to do, how I wanted things done. It wasn’t like me going to Mecklenburg County and starting a first year as a head coach with 14 girls that have no idea what this guy’s gonna do and what he wants, so that was a big plus. A lot of things that you have to do with a brand new program I did not have to do because so many of the players came with me.

“It was a nice run, and they really came together. I had a couple freshmen on the team, some that had played JVs at East Burke that were coming up, and we even had one player that I had cut at East Burke two or three times who made the team at Draughn. She got to be a part of it and did a wonderful job for us.

“It was really exciting to have that success early, but along with that comes the question of are you gonna be able to maintain this. So that was always hard too, not being able to have the same amount of success each year.”

Q: What did you enjoy about your time as the AD at Draughn?

“I’ve always been a big planner throughout my life. Even when I was a kid I’d plan out my day ahead of time, so with being around sports as much as I had and loving sports as much as I do, I enjoyed being able to have a part in all the different sports and working with the coaches.

“During my time as an AD, we had it set that no matter which sport you played in, if you played it for four years then you would be playing in a new uniform sometime during your four years. We had it spaced out where certain sports got new uniforms this year, and the next year different sports got new uniforms, so within four years everybody had cycled out new uniforms.

“Something else I really enjoyed about being AD is the fact that I tried to improve facilities somehow each year. One year in football we got a new ticket booth window put up, the next year we got speakers moved, one year we got a taller fence put up at the softball field. So I enjoyed as an AD being able to look and try to foresee a future plan that I wanted to work toward and slowly see things going toward that way.”

Q: One of your former players at both East Burke and Draughn, as well as an assistant under you at Draughn, was Liz Taylor. After you retired from coaching in 2017, she took over the Lady Wildcats’ hoops program. What characteristics does she have that make her a good coach, and how proud are you of the job that she’s been able to do?

“I knew when she was a player that if she wanted to pursue that then she would be a good coach because she was like a coach on the floor. She was the point guard when she played for me, and there were a lot of times when she knew what the defense was and she knew what I wanted her to run against it and I didn’t have to tell her, she went ahead and made the call herself. And she always had that desire to teach the game. When she was a senior, I think she did her senior project with a basketball camp, so I knew it was something she wanted to do.

“I can remember my son (Peyton Murray) playing youth basketball in Drexel. I saw Liz and Brittany Yancey, another player, playing before my son’s team played, and I would say they were probably 8 or 9 at that time. I went after the game and talked to them, and I can remember them sitting there listening to me talking to them about how I enjoyed watching them play and hoped they stayed with it, and then lo and behold she (Taylor) ended up staying with it and playing for me later.

“I know she’s been around the game, she played a lot of travel ball, and she really enjoys the game. Her ability to be a team player as well as a leader on the floor, I knew it would help her in coaching. She’s done a good job with that as far as being able to get other players to understand the different types of concepts that she’s wanting them to do.

“I still talk to her. She’s receptive to me coming and seeing her and talking to her about things, and she’ll ask questions. I enjoy being around that still in some facet. Also, with my son there coaching at East Burke (as a girls basketball assistant), he asks me a lot of questions, so I get to kind of keep a little taste of it in my mouth when they’re asking and I’m trying to give them information.

“Liz has done a really good job as far as making it a situation where kids can enjoy playing. Whether they’re winning or losing, they enjoy playing for her.”

Q: Earlier this year you got to be involved with the Valdese Sports Hall of Fame and its inaugural induction ceremony. In addition to your father who was one inductee, I know that you played football for the late Danny Williams and were also very familiar with Judy Keever, who passed away recently. What do you remember about playing for Danny, and also what are your memories of Judy?

“Danny was the type of head coach who demanded so much. We knew what he wanted and how he wanted it done, and I always remembered when I was coaching how important it was for me as a player to have a coach that was up front and let you know what he wanted. There wasn’t a lot of wishy-washy stuff with Coach Williams.

“Coach Keever always seemed to have her girls prepared. Her teams were very fundamental, and all of the players enjoyed playing for her. No matter if they were 20-0 or 0-20, they enjoyed playing the game and playing for her.”

Q: What are you up to these days in retirement?

“I moved up here to Lake James, so I do some fishing and I usually play golf twice a week with coaches that I’ve coached with and some other people that I grew up with. But we also go to football games on Fridays, Coach (Scott) Lambert and myself and some other people that coached with us, we look and see some real competitive games and try to go all around the area and see most of those teams play. And I do the same thing during basketball season. I try to go to a lot of Draughn and East Burke games to see my son coaching and to go see Liz.

“I do see my mom and dad more now. Those last few years when I was doing athletic director, coaching, and teaching, I pretty much just had to ignore them because I didn’t have time for them. And I told them when I retired that I was gonna eat a meal with them every week while they were still on earth. Right now I usually go eat lunch with them every Thursday and spend a little time with them, and I am really blessed that I can still see my parents. Both of them are still alive and they’re both good mentally, and I can go be with them for a little bit and tell them how much it meant to me to have them as parents.

“I’ve also got two granddaughters through Peyton, and I try to see them and spoil them. And I take care of myself a little bit better. As you get older, you’ve got to do things a little differently. I try to lift and work out some, so I’m probably in better shape now than I was the last few years when I was coaching because I didn’t have the time then and I’ve got the time now.

“I’ve done little projects that I never would’ve done before as well, like taking outdoor furniture where the bottoms of them have rotted out, I got online and watched videos about how to fix that, and refinished those. I never would’ve done that while I was coaching. So it’s a different lifestyle.”

NOTE: Excerpts of this Q&A were edited for brevity and clarity.