Ursuline's Murphy chooses family over football

By BRIAN RICHESSON
VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF
YOUNGSTOWN -- Dan Murphy had to choose between football and family. The decision was a no-brainer.
"It comes down to my family or my profession," said the former Ursuline High football coach, who resigned Monday. "I'm always going to go with my family because that's the most important thing to me."
After two seasons with the Irish, Murphy, 30, chose to take one year off from football to spend with his family. He and his wife have a 1-year-old son and another child on the way.
"This was strictly a family decision," he said. "Ursuline has been good to me. The toughest part about leaving is leaving the kids because they were great."
Murphy said he began to make up his mind in the last couple of weeks. He declined, however, to detail the specifics of his family situation.
"I didn't want to wait any longer," he said. "I wanted to be fair to the kids and the school."
In Murphy's first year, he led Ursuline to an 8-6 record and a berth in the Division IV state semifinals. The Irish finished this season with a 5-5 record.
"I don't know if expectations were so high [this season] because we had quite a few young guys," Murphy said. "The kids played hard, but the breaks didn't go our way. That's part of life."
With Ursuline's football program having one of the area's high-profile head coaching jobs, outside pressures sometimes can become a factor. Murphy said that wasn't a problem for him.
"There was no pressure," he said. "Nothing more than anyone else has anywhere else."
Off-season
The last football duty Murphy will handle for Ursuline is organizing the off-season weight program.
"My biggest concern is this good group of kids we have," he said. "I want to make sure they're taken care of and it's business as usual when the new coach comes in. I want [the new staff] to inherit a program in working order."
Murphy plans to get back into football. Where exactly, it's hard to say.
"That's going to be a tough adjustment," he said of his time off. "That's what the summers and falls have been all about for me -- football."
But remember, he's only 30.
"I have a lot of years left," he said.
richesson@vindy.com