Hi-Line Sports: An AD's Perspective: Dennis Murphy, Havre High

Chris Peterson

Havre Daily News

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Over the years at Havre High, there has been one fixture when it comes to athletics and that is Dennis Murphy, the long-time activities director at HHS.

Yet the man known simply as Murph was a big part of Blue Pony athletics long before he took over as activities director. At one time, he was the head coach of both the girls and boys basketball teams and in 1997, he coached the Ponies to the Class A girls state championship. Murphy’s 1997 team may have been his best, but in his more than 10 years on the sideline, he had a number of others that made it to the state tournament, and two that finished runner-up as he coached the HHS girls to the championship game in both 1991 and 1995.

However, Murphy’s success has not been limited to coaching. As an administrator, there’s little doubt that he is among the best in the business. During his tenure, he has been nominated for the National Athletic Director of the Year Award on multiple occasions. The Ponies have also won state championships in football, girls basketball, wrestling, swimming, tennis and golf during his 15 years as the AD.

But when asked about the teams he has watched win state titles, Murphy said it was too difficult for him to think of one particular team that stood out, saying that each one had special meaning to him.

“Every state championship team is very special because you have to work so hard to get to that level,” Murphy said. “So it’s hard to compare because there isn’t any championship team that didn’t work hard to get to that level. And as the AD, for me, that’s a bonus when we are winning championships.”

Murphy also said that while on-field success is nice, his athletic department has goals that are much more far-reaching.

“Seeing them compete and mature into human beings that are going to be great citizens in our society — that’s the biggest thing for me,” Murphy said, “because high school athletics, it’s memories. But it’s also preparing you for life, which is what I think our coaches, school district and our community are doing for our students and that’s what’s really important.”

Of course, when you do something long enough, you are going to see some changes and in his time as the AD at HHS, Murphy has seen plenty of them. From the coaches to the players, the world of high school athletics is not what it used to be.

“I would say probably one of the things that has really changed is the coaching field itself,” Murphy said. “There are not as many coaches now as there was. Fifteen years ago, there was a lot of older coaches and they were mentors to the younger coaches. Now, you can come in with little experience or even no experience and get a job. So I think that’s one of the biggest things that has changed. We just don’t have the number of quality coaches like we used to.”

Along with finding good coaches, Murphy said it’s also harder and harder to get kids involved, which hasn’t always been the case.

“Fifteen years ago, activities, sporting events were a source of entertainment,” Murphy said. “Nowadays, kids have so many other avenues for entertainment. Whether it’s Xbox or their cellphone, it’s easier for them to reach that gratification or that excitement without playing sports, so I think that’s one of the changes we have seen.”

While participation overall may be down, the fact is, the kids that do participate in sports, reap the rewards.

“I think there are a lot of positives about participation in sports,” Murphy said. “It teaches you how to deal with time management and commitment and working for something that’s bigger than yourself. It helps prepare kids for life after high school. Also, our kids that participate in sports are academically very strong. We track our kids academically all year and our GPA for our student-athletes is actually very good, over 3.0. It’s a proven fact that kids that are involved in activities are better students in general. So it’s important for our kids to be involved in activities whether it’s speech and drama, Skills USA or on the football field. If they are involved, they are gaining skills that are going to help them when they get out into the real world.”

In addition to his role as an educator, Murphy’s job is also to make the activities his students participate in better, and when it comes to Class A athletics, his voice is both respected and influential. And when talking about changes, some of the biggest since Murphy began in his current role have been in Class A. Over the years, the number of teams has been reduced, with many dropping to Class B due to dropping enrollment numbers.

Havre, which had 517 students in the spring of 2015 according to the last data published by the MHSA, has seen its numbers drop. It had 541 in 2010. But, it remains one of the bigger Class A schools and should remain in that classification for the foreseeable future. However, with so many other schools facing the prospect of change, there is an increasing amount of uncertainty about the future.

“Class A is kind of the conference that could be a dying class,” Murphy said. “Most of the Class A schools are between 500 and 600 and are never going to get to Class AA. But the bottom schools keep dropping off to Class B, which is 340, so we are not gaining anybody, but we are losing people.”

One solution that is gaining traction is bringing up some of the bigger schools in Class B, up to the Class A for everything but football.

“Football really drives things,” Murphy said. “Because it’s such a numbers game. Most schools can put five basketball players together, but it’s hard to put together 11 football players. So there are some exciting changes that will be coming in the next couple of years and that will give some stability to conferences throughout the state of Montana. Stabilizing conferences is one of the goals. It will be different for Montana schools to maybe be in a football conference in Class B and in Class A for everything else, but we will get used to it.”

In addition to those changes, Murphy is also hoping to see some other changes in Class A sports. One change in particular he would like to see implemented, is a combined Class A state basketball tournament, meaning both the boys and girls tournaments, which are now played in separate locations, on different dates.

“Obviously, you are tearing up your fans and unifying it would allow your fans to come and watch your team,” Murphy said. “When you are doing what we are currently doing, when it’s basically three weeks of tournaments, that’s a big drain financially. It’s also draining on our students academically, socially and emotionally. If you combine it, it puts the teams in the same venues. That way people are traveling two weeks instead of three weeks.

“The crowds are also great,” he added. “Last year, we had a great divisional when we went to the Eastern A. The Class AA and Class B have been doing a combined tournament and have shown that they can get good crowds and get good crowds for both genders. So I think it’s time for Class A to get there. I think we are probably a year or two away from getting there, but it’s time for us to get to that stacked tournament.”

Another change that could be on the horizon in Class A, when it comes to football, is making the transformation to two 10-team divisions, complete. Currently, there are four conferences structured into the Eastern A and Western A divisions. Yet, for all intents and purposes, the Northwest A, the Southwest A, the Central A and the Eastern A, make up four different divisions in terms of playoff seeds and schedules. This idea would change that. Browning, which is currently part of the Central A, and the Eastern A Division, would join the nine teams from the Southwest A and the Northwest A, to form a 10-team Western A. On the other side, the remaining Central A teams would move into the Eastern A.

Each division would play a nine-game, round-robin schedule and unless a 10th game is approved by the MHSA, which Murphy said is possible down the road, it would eliminate all inter-conference play, meaning rivalries such as Havre and Whitefish would no longer exist.

But, with the MHSA re-examining the current classification system, the changes to Class A football, which Murphy estimated were about a year away, may not be permanent and instead, part of a larger restructuring of high school sports in Montana.

“Browning wants to go to the west,” Murphy said. “If they do that, there would be 10 teams in the west and 10 teams in the east. That would also make a 9-game schedule for football, at least for one year. I know the MHSA is looking at reclassification of some schools based on enrollment. The population for the state of Montana from 1995, those are the numbers we are currently using for classification. The executive board is going to make a hard decision on that in September, so again there could be some changes to Class A.”

Whatever those changes may be, all Murphy and the Ponies can do is what they have done, which is continue to adapt and try to adhere, as best as possible, to the long, storied tradition of Havre High athletics.

Editor's Note: This is the third story in a four-part series on the challenges and changes local athletic directors are facing today. For the final story, see next Monday's Havre Daily News.