A coach's story: Gary Murphy has nearly 600 wins, no team to coach

Mainbar for April 29, 2012 package of stories about high school coaches in the Ozarks getting fired.

Remembering a phone call he received about four years ago, former Nixa High School girls' basketball coach Randy Towe recently phoned a former rival when he heard the successful coach had been fired.

Because, when Towe was let go by the Nixa school board in 2008 after another nice season in a long and successful career, Marshfield's Gary Murphy had been one of the first to call.

When Murphy was sacked last month by the Marshfield School District after almost 600 career victories, it was time for Towe to return the favor.

"We started talking and we started finding out, that (the situation was) identical; it really was," Towe said. "Sometimes you wonder, what do they really want? Gary's whole coaching career ... With his intensity, his style; why is it the wrong way now?"

A staggering amount of coaching upheaval has struck the Ozarks prep sports scene this spring, alarming coaches and parents of players past and present.

Chain of command differs by district

Accompanying sidebar for "A coach's story," from April 29, 2012.

As a high school coach, there is very little recourse in fighting for your job.

You play out your season, get evaluated by your administrators and annually face a school board vote that determines whether you will be welcomed back.

In smaller towns like Marshfield and Crane, the tightrope clearly is more daunting.

"In smaller communities, a lot of the decisions are made just by school boards," said Bill Brown, who has coached Parkview's boys' basketball team for 10 seasons after two years at Class 2 Richland. "One of the biggest positives, with (Springfield Public Schools), your immediate supervisors have a lot more say (in a coach's evaluation).

"I can honestly say I haven't met all of our school board members."

Column: Never another like DGB

Published March 12, 2012.

Dorial Green-Beckham wouldn't say for sure if he represented Hillcrest High School for the final time on Saturday night in the Class 4 boys' basketball state championship game at Mizzou Arena.

But after the 55-42 loss to Soldan International Studies, it sure seemed like it. And he certainly does not have much to gain or prove in winning a few more state track and field medals.

"It might be my last time representing Hillcrest," the senior said after rattling the rim a couple times and doing the best he could to deliver another state title to Springfield.

The Decision: Star likes being 'close to home'

Published Feb. 2, 2012.

After a tumultuous upbringing, which included foster homes and an adoption a little over 13 months ago, relationships are important to Dorial Green-Beckham.

That partly explains why the No. 1 football recruit in the nation stayed close to home Wednesday, announcing that he will attend the University of Missouri.

Green-Beckham, in a packed gymnasium at Hillcrest High School and on live television nationally on ESPNU, picked the Tigers over finalists Alabama, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas.

"Just to be home," Green-Beckham said about important factors in his decision. "To be close to family members and have everyone come out to support me."

Coach's legacy touches many

Story published on July 10, 2011.

There are scores of reasons why Stephanie Phillips' fight with cancer resonated with so many. The tree of her basketball playing and coaching career branched out throughout the area and state, crossing nearly every path in the current hoops community.

And the story of Phillips' fight and, ultimately, a young life taken too soon, touched thousands she never met.

Although the fight inspired and she was mourned by many, it's those closest to the former Kickapoo High School girls' basketball coach who still deal with the loss front and center every day.
Phillips died from colon cancer a year ago today after a nearly three-year fight.

Friends' hail Phillips' strength, kindness

Stephanie Phillips, a beloved coach in the Ozarks, died on a summer Saturday night. My colleague, Michael Stacy, and I heard the end was near on a Friday afternoon and canceled our plans for the weekend to stay by our apartment complex. Because she was terminally ill, we had a lot of the legwork done already. When we received the news, we hunkered down in his apartment and made the tough phone calls. We were the source for information and rememberances, set up a tribute page for later in the week and solicited response from the community, which was well received. We shared a first-place award from the Missouri Associated Press Managing Editors for our work. Published July 12, 2010.

Joe Atkisson said the secret to the success of the Kickapoo High School girls' basketball team over the years was not great talent and certainly not luck.

It was its tough, fair and loving leader.

From observing and practicing against the Lady Chiefs as a member of the scout team, Atkisson saw firsthand the interaction Phillips had with her players.

"She handled each girl differently," said Atkisson, who graduated from Kickapoo in the spring. "We had players that were good, but the coach made the team. She was very driven and wanted to win, but she also was very caring."

Calm before the recruiting storm

Big-time recruit in Springfield. Published: Aug. 8, 2010.

Major-college football prospects often spend their summers flying around the country meeting with coaches and working out at university football camps to boost their stock on the recruiting trail.

But Dorial Green-Beckham, a potential five-star football recruit following a monster sophomore year at Hillcrest High School -- All-Ozarks in football and basketball, state champion in basketball and gold medalist in the 100 meters and triple jump at the state track meet -- had what John Beckham, his adoptive father and coach, called "a fairly boring summer."

Save for a high school football team camp, a travel-team basketball tournament in Arkansas and a trip to Florida with the family, Green-Beckham stayed primarily in southwest Missouri.

"I ran and all that; hung out and went up to school to catch a couple balls," Green-Beckham said last week. "I was working on my hands and catching the ball.

"But I mostly just stayed here and worked on all the things here."