Southlake Carroll High School head coach Kevin Murphy has been “reassigned” from his post after 20 years with the program.
The news came down last Tuesday, when members of the Carroll swim & dive community were informed that the Carroll Independent School District (CISD) Administration “had decided to move in a new direction” away from Murphy as head coach.
The move comes amidst a bevy of personnel changes at Carroll, including the non-renewal of two principals, laying off a basketball coach and reassigning a choir director. This has led to students, parents and teachers gathering outside the school in protest.
SwimSwam reached out to Carroll ISD last week after rumblings of Murphy’s dismissal surfaced, but were told they “do not typically make public comments on these (personnel) topics.”
Hired in July 2005, Murphy has had an illustrious career at Carroll that has included winning 15 Texas UIL state championship titles.
This past season, the Carroll girls’ team placed 2nd to Keller High School at the UIL 6A State Championships, with Georgia commit Marin Clem leading the way with state title victories in the 50 and 100 freestyle. The Carroll boys’ placed 12th in the team standings.
Among the notable swimmers coached by Murphy are Jack LeVant, a 2019 World Championship medalist and former Stanford Cardinal, and current Vanderbilt swimmer Kate Heintz.
He’s also helped guide the next generation of swimmers through his summer program, the Timarron Tigersharks, which he’s led since 2006. The program helps swimmers aged 5-17 learn the basics of competitive swimming and allows them to compete at local meets.
Murphy reportedly sent a heartfelt thank-you email to his swimmers, their families, and those who have supported the program throughout the years on May 1. On May 3, swimmers and parents stopped by the pool to bid farewell to Murphy.
A lengthy social media post/tribute sent out by Murphy’s Facebook account (but written by someone else) details Murphy’s career at Carroll and some of the issues he’s dealt with in recent years:
None of these would have been possible without this man right here. The TAGS Championships banners definitely would not have been won. In fact when Coach arrived in 2005, the NTN coaches told him that the club wasn’t big enough to win TAGS. He told them that was ridiculous because you only need 24 good boys and 24 good girls to fill out all the relays and you can be in the top 5 every season. From 2005 to 2018 or 2019, (whenever they remodeled the pool) Coach worked at the bottom of the program with all the entry level kids and gave them an opportunity to have fun while learning the basics of competitive swimming. He also did stroke instruction with 40 out of 43 of the age group kids that swam at TAGS in 2010 at The Woodlands Short Course TAGS (so much for accusations of him not being a stroke technician) Back then, we had the best Age Group coach NTN has ever had in Coach Heather Maher. There has not been a decent Age Group coach since Audrey Cormack pushed her out by lying to the administration about her. In addition, around the second or third year, Bill Christensen told Coach that he had never taken sprinters to Junior Nationals before. When Coach asked Bill about the USRPT(Ultra Speed Race Paced Training) Coach Christensen told him that it was just what Coach was already doing but with active rest in between. That is exactly how Coach has been able to take some kids to state who only swam High School. (Approximately 15 non-club swimmers) Furthermore, when the pool was remodeled, it was Coach Murphy who began preparing for alternate pool space 5 months before the remodel occurred. Without him, neither the HS team, nor NTN would’ve had anywhere to practice. Not a single person (coach or administrator) told him thanks for his work in arranging for everyone to swim without interruption.
To clear some air over the 2022 debacle in trying to hire a new NTN head coach, it must be known that Travis Kiser was encouraged by his former HS coach to apply for an assistant coach position. Coach Murphy never intended for Kiser to be the head coach. He was an assistant making $35K at Gardner Webb College and he could come here and make $56K as an assistant NTN coach. Coach Wallace or Coach Heather Maher as a Head USA Coach would’ve immediately brought the program back to life. But CISD Administration let people who knew NOTHING about swimming make the decision and consequently, Travis was swallowed by the cabal of parents who were determined to “get Murphy,” thus, a combat Marine veteran was treated horribly after quitting his job in North Carolina and moving to Texas.
The last three years have been torture dealing with an administration influenced by unscrupulous people convincing them they were the swim experts and that the 98,000 HOURS Coach Murphy has in the sport of swimming were insignificant. If only they had listened to Coach, the district’s $1.5MILLION investment over the last three years would have at least paid for some substanceby having a successful USA team filling the empty lanes that have existed for this time period. From 2006 to 2022, (32 seasons) NTNconsistently took between 20 and 40 swimmers to TAGS. The last 5 seasons, NTN has taken only ONE kid to each of the last 5 TAGS.
It’s been a great 20-year run. Coach Murphy has put his heart and soul into serving the community while a small group of selfish parents have worked tirelessly to run him off. Shame on them for taking the opportunity away from kids who’ve literally been waiting years to swim FOR HIM as Southlake Carroll Dragons.
The post addressed the “2022 debacle” where a rift between Southlake Carroll and the North Texas North Nadadores (NTN) resulted in a number of swimmers, including NAG record holder Maximus Williamson, move from Carroll and NTN to Keller High School and the Lakeside Aquatic Club.
Prior to his time at Carroll, Murphy was the head coach at Bryan ISD (Bryan, Texas) from 2001 until 2004, and before that, he spent 15 years as the head coach at Moore Public Schools (Moore, Oklahoma) from 1986-2001.
The reassignment comes around the same time as another UIL 6A powerhouse, Keller High, had head coach Jamie Shults resign.
Here’s a little piece of advice for all the managers and coaches out there that don’t already know. When you take over a program, or start a new year, the very first thing you must do is identify who the “program killers” are in your group. They’re the ones that complain about everything, gossip, sew division, and generally think they can do everything better than you can. Regardless of how good that player/swimmer is (or how good their parents think they are, more importantly), you cut that swimmer and family out of your program as fast as you can, like the cancer they are. Your success doesn’t depend on you doing that, your survival does.
All three of these… Read more »
History and truth reveal that one person is not strong enough to push back against the lies and defamation that exist in Southlake, Texas:
The NTN Program killer changed the name of the pool. Quote from official records:
“The autopsy report of (The Athlete) indicates the sole cause of (The Athlete’s) death was drowning…There was no other medical reason for the death. (The Coach) was assigned to supervise (the athlete). If (the coach) had done (the) job, (The Athlete) would not have drowned. As a coach and an acting lifeguard, (the coach) was not fully attentive to lane 7.” (CISD November 2016; 7:4)
“When (the athlete) was finally pulled from the water, the AED could not be used, because… Read more »
A tribute loses its credibility when it is written by your wife, takes credit for success and shifts blames on others for failure. All I have heard from NTN parents is Bill Christensen built NTN into a successful small but exclusive club. Not the HS coach.
Not in the “in crowd” but impacted by NTN fiasco. All NTN coaches quit, petitioned to CISD to save NTN, Travis showed up as new NTN head coach at Wyrick/Murphy called meeting, didn’t give much clarify nor instill confidence. Some parents already heading out the door. Then came the “rec” level swim group plan with “trust the process” by Travis, more parents rushed out to secure spots in surrounding clubs. Finally when the “Futures”… Read more »
I’m going to go ahead and defend myself after years of dealing with this fall out.
I have never coached a rec level swim team. Prior to NTN I coached 6 years at the D1 level (TAMU and Gardner-Webb) and 3 years with the Aggie Swim club working with one of the Top female sprinters in the state at that time.
I wouldn’t know how to.
The group plan that all of the parents threw a fit about was directly copy-pasted from the Sarasota Sharks Website and tweaked a little.
I was never given a chance.
I hope every kid achieves their goals and to be honest I’m happy not being in the swimming community anymore. I wish you all… Read more »
Wow! I have given you more credit than you deserve. After 9 years of coaching experience (including D1), why would you plagiarize swim group plan from another club’s website? Wouldn’t you create your own plan tailored to the composition and abilities of swimmers at NTN? Where did you plan to copy the training plan from? No wonder Maximus’s mom decided you shouldn’t be coaching his son. Even your ex-HS coach who encouraged you to apply didn’t think you are equipped to be the head coach but didn’t stop CISD admin either. At least that is what I learned from the FB post. Wish you all the best in your current endeavor.
So you think everything, in every program, in every practice, is 100% unique?? The syllabi at your kid’s schools are copy pasted and tweaked (that might blow your mind).
Everyone does this in every profession
Here’s an example that EVERY swim practice has: warm up, main set, warm down. Eddie Reese didn’t just wake up and create that…
I had been told by parents and coaches that the grouping of swimmers before I got there was based on favoritism so I went for a generic group plan. I didn’t know what swimmers I would have on deck so I generalized. I still have the documents I created for the end of the first full month that made more specific… Read more »
The swim community is cutthroat and absolutely nuts. This is a sport for youths but the parents always find a way to ruin it. They seem to think they have all the answers on how to train and run a team, but they are living vicariously through their children. In doing so, they are really just trying to manipulate the system to tip the scales and favor their own offspring. They burn the kids out early and run off great coaches in the process. They need to keep out of it and teach kids that hard work pays off and it doesn’t happen over night. They have no patience and fail to trust the process.
If swim community is cutthroat, you obviously haven’t experienced any other sports. Love swim because it is an objective sport. Coaches’ favoritism and bias/ruthless parents have the least impact on swim. Burnt out is a real issue in swim bc of the training intensity of the sports. That’s why good coaches matter A LOT. Beyond the skills/technical expertise, the understanding of swimmers’ emotional and physical tolerance/limit makes a good coach.
This is about kids and kids have a voice on who they want to train with. Let’s start with someone they can trust to help them improve before asking them to trust the process blindly.
It’s about the kids?
Here’s a direct email quote from an NTN parent.
“Also, I’m not sure why “Being with teammates and friends is important” has to ever be mentioned as a goal for any level of swimming.” Kro.M.
The fact that you are still bitter after all these years and shifting blames on parents instead of taking accountability clearly proves NTN dodged a bullet.
You were not given a chance??? You had 3 chances and you blew all of them.
1.meeting – convince parents/swimmers you were the leader that would deliver results.
2. plan – produce swim group outline tailored to NTN (not copy paste)
3. Made a scene at Futures championship – argument with existing NTN coaches, USA swim officials and refused to leave the deck when you had no credentials?
I can only imagine how distressing it must be for the NTN Futures swimmers who qualified for the meet. After a season of dedicated… Read more »
I’m not bitter, y’all are a toxic waste dump. There’s no hole that I’m in or ever put myself in. North Texas seems to be dodging a lot of bullets these days.
How do you expect any coach to want to be there after this past month?
To your three points.
1. You mean the meeting that was supposed to take 15 mins that I stayed three hours after to speak with each individual parent and make notes on each of their concerns.
2.Tailored groups for NTN? You had groups with 3 swimmers in them.
3. Existing NTN coaches…. There were none. I have those emails too. Are you referring to Dan Balint who threw a fit that… Read more »
Funny thing is that it was Murphy’s idea to privatize NTN and they stole that out from under him as their own idea and announced it the night before they reassigned him
One of the absolute best to ever do it. A high school coach who was one of the winningest ever in a state that produces the best in the sport. Unapologetic about high school swimming, and successful with young people. Loved by many. He will be hugely missed by those who know the sport.
He has positively touched many, many lives during his 20 years. He has more fans than enemies. He treated the JV kids like they were on a National Team. He will be missed. Thank you Coach Murphy
Do the water time math a swimmer spends with his USA Swimming coach and the time spent with High School coach and then tell me who is responsible for their long term success. Murphy like Eubanks at Frisco ISD think USA Swimming is a feeder to high school swimming. Look at the results. NTN, Bill, Stuart, and Dan won those HS State Championships. Not Murphy. When they left Murphy was on his own and the results speak for themselves. He didn’t know USA Coaches had to be certified to be on deck. How clueless of USA Swimming is that. Look at the 5A and 6A State Championship top point scorers then look at where they swim for the majority of… Read more »
Kids want to swim high school. If they didn’t, they wouldn’t.
They sure do. Their parents and coaches sometimes convince them that they don’t, but I’d estimate that 98% of swimmers would prefer to find a setup that allows them to represent their school. Their non-swimming social peers don’t care when they qualify for Sectionals, they do care when they qualify for the high school state meet, and that means a lot to teenagers.
It’s on the adults to figure out how to make it work.
Best statement ever. As a parent we sat through countless HS swim meetings where both the coach and one very vocal parent disparaged all club coaches. Our club coach never said negative words about HS swimming. From the very first freshman meeting where we were met with “I know you club swimmers will think you don’t need to come to practice…” Our swimmer made every HS morning practice and all of the club practices…but quit HS after 2 years when the coach started having “a captain” run/write the practices. Then there was more abuse from the remaining club athletes who stayed with the HS team……who said “you’re ruining our relay” Two years of that drama was enough for our swimmer.… Read more »
Kids do want to swim high school, but do not be the pawn in a high school coach’s game of Which Program is Better. Really good high school coaches recognize the need for balance and work WITH club coaches to ensure the best for the club/high school athletes. And really good club coaches recognize the need for good relations as well.
Getting the adults to get along is so frustrating at times. And everyone likes to lie about how they get along. There is a large Texas team who says all the right things, but then works to block kids from swimming high school. One coach even bragged about how they do it. And the high school coaches who manipulate the kids the other direction is sad. Kids do want to swim high school. It should be a good experience for them. It shouldn’t be that hard to facilitate that, and when adults are secure enough to work together and not let egos get in the way, good things happen.
You’re absolutely right. I have coached both, and been on both sides of it with several different clubs and high schools. I’m not here to defend Coach Murphy, I don’t fully know the situation, but there is one club in particular that this has been a struggle with.
Texas high school swimming is broken and doing a disservice to many. The season is way too long and conflicts with the entire USA swimming short course season. The kids do love representing their high schools but often do it at the expense of their own goals, life balance and sanity. Across the state, the schools play by different rules. Many high schools allow club swimmers to train at their clubs and represent their high schools but other schools force them to practice as early as 5 am five days per week, then many swim doubles with club in the afternoons. That is too much! The kids are pawns in a game of egos between coaches and differing philosophies. They… Read more »
Agreed. If TX and UIL followed a true 3-4 month season like everywhere else in the US, senior swimming, overall, would be better in TX. The majority of Gold medal clubs are coming from areas with an actual season. TX, with 5 LSCs, will produce 1; and maybe 2 every few years.
Kids in TX are swimming more than is even allowed by NCAA D-1 athletes. It’s ridiculous. And with collegiate swimming changing due to NIL, it’s really time to rethink how to put athletes in the best position to be successful. Something has to give.
Lastly, and this was mentioned, swimmers can only compete in 2 individual events in high school, and the times are only official at, maybe,… Read more »
As someone who is really close to this issue it goes way deeper. Started when a kid died at practice from negligence, then escalated into extreme favoritism with swimmers, and when I say extreme I’m talking about a coach texting swimmers and their parents at night telling them their kid won’t succeed under a new coach and quitting at Futures to only coach Maximus, talking about you Dan Balint. As well as having a coach resign but ask to run age group activities until the new coaches arrive, only to have that coach join the staff of the club down the road with a group of age group swimmers in tow, Andrew Warwick and Walter Rumans.
The parents in… Read more »
It is true that some parents there are ruthless…There was no negligence, no crime. The coach never left the pool deck for coffee, and the athlete was not underwater for six minutes. This is the big lie that grew the rot that exists.
Are you saying there was no negligence when a swimmer died in a pool where coaches and lifeguards were on deck?
No credible athlete or coach wants to swim where an athlete died, and a coach was scapegoated. Here is the truth: The athlete experienced Sudden Cardiac Death, which is different from cardiac arrest.
Nearly 30% of Sudden Cardiac Death (SCD) cases in the pediatric population remain without a conclusive cause of death after a comprehensive autopsy examination:
Sudden Cardiac Death in the Young: State-of-the-Art Review in Molecular Autopsy – PubMed
Every year in the U.S., all heart electrical activity will abruptly stop for approximately 100-150 young athletes, which, according to the Mayo Clinic, “…is the swift and not expected ending of all heart activity. Breathing and blood flow stop right away. Within… Read more »
Unfortunately, my swimmer was in the National group at NTN under Dan when this all happened. Dan and Audrey conspired to take down Murphy. It’s as simple as that. The kids in the National group swam 11 times a week (doubles M-F and then again Saturday morning).
The club swimmers swam with their clubs every afternoon and on Saturday. Murphy ALSO allowed the club kids to leave 2 mornings a week and swim club. So he was only asking for 3 out of 11 practices a week. That seems incredibly reasonable to me.
This was about the desire for TOTAL control by the club coaches. If the club coach gets 8 practices and the HS coach gets 3,… Read more »
Exactly, some of these coaches are the type to jut out their chest when somebody compliments one of their better swimmers. Coach Murphy is the type of coach to get embarrassed and throw the credit back onto the kid. Just a shame to see a true, humble servant get mistreated and slandered by people who are guilty of the same exact things that they accuse him of. In the words of Coach Murphy, “a coach is only as good as the athletes they get to work with.”
And Walter Rumens even got a job cleaning pools for Cormack’s husband while Cormack left him on the clock at the aquatic center. All but one NTN coach were cheating on their hours, having it changed in the computer by Cormack. These coaches weren’t run off by Murphy, they got caught stealing from the school district, and chose to resign. The former Aquatic Director knew, the next Aquatic Director knew, and the Athletic Department knew. Lots of money lost to the District. Swept under the rug. Their exit blamed on poor pay and Murphy.
WOW!!! Not sure were this person got all this information about Coach Murphy and his career. But it sounds like the school district did the right thing by letting go. It was either his way or the highway. Everybody else in the wrong, except him.
Sounds like a control freak!
Feel like this is pretty accurate. Bully would be another appropriate term, and you’ll find people who worked around him when he was at Bryan who say the same thing. Yes, he did some good. I fully believe the high school only parents who tend to zealously defend him generally had a good experience with him. But when I saw the headline, my first thought was someone finally stood up to him. Also think it’s funny that another coach defended in the statement was also very hard to get along with. Talk about two peas in a pod.
If you’re talking about Kiser I think that’s an inaccurate statement. I don’t get to swim for him but everyone who I’ve met who did or worked with him has nothing but good things to say about him.
Not talking about Kiser.
He is lucky to have his name associated with Kate Heintz
How did she even get a mention….
Correction: Coach Murphy coached at Timarron since the summer of 2006, not 2019.