Metamora’s Murphy wins CSM Girls Golf Coach of the Year

Metamora girls golf had plenty of fun breaking a record this year.

Then they broke it again. Then they did it a third time. Then a fourth. 

The best season in Redbirds girls golf history culminated in a third-place finish at the Class 1A State Finals, leading Metamora head coach Morgan Murphy to be named Clutch Sports Media’s 2026 Girls Golf Coach of the Year. 

The Redbirds returned all of their impact contributors from a 2025 campaign, where they fell one stroke shy of qualifying for state. With a veteran group that continually improved throughout the season, Metamora made sure they’d get to state this time.

Murphy’s Redbirds started the postseason by winning the Class 1A Metamora Regional title with a program-record score of 309 at Metamora Fields Golf Club. From there, they won the Class 1A Cambridge Sectional title with a 352 to qualify for state, where they carded a score of 674 across two rounds and tied Breese Mater Dei for second place, but lost a scorecard tiebreaker to take third. 

Metamora’s highlights during the regular season included winning the Sam Wells Tournament in Champaign, placing second at the Metamora Redbird Classic and third at the Livingston County Invitational and the Mid-Illini Conference Tournament. The Redbirds broke their 18-hole program record multiple times, as well as their 9-hole record. 

Murphy coached a Redbirds team that featured four Clutch Sports Media Girls Golf All-Area honorees, including first team selection Addie Mitchell, second team selection Gillian Tyra and honorable mentions Piper Crispen and Natalie Zimmerman. He becomes the second coach to win the award after Normal U-High’s Greg Dennis won it in 2025.

Hear more from Murphy about his season and career in our interview with him below. Some answers have been minimally edited for clarity. 

What have you looked back or reflected on in the weeks since the season ended?

“I would say the biggest thing that comes to mind is just the improvement that I have seen with the girls from last year compared to this year, and just kind of some of the little things that they were doing,” Murphy said. “Because we have a few golfers that have only been playing for a few years and seeing the improvement there, especially in their short game, the things that they were doing, it was great to see.”

“And then on top of that, I mean, just seeing some of the leaders that we've had the past couple of years, and seeing more of the consistency on the course was great. I know one of my seniors this year, Gillian Tyra, she was one that I always knew was capable of playing really well and this year she definitely put it together more consistently and it was great to see her have some of the scores that she did this year.”

What’s your coaching background?

"This is my third season as the golf coach here at Metamora,” Murphy said. “I also coached, I want to say, four years of boys golf at Eureka College. I also coached football for a lot of years, I was at Eureka as a football coach from [2009] through [2021]. I've coached track, I’ve coached wrestling, I've coached girls' softball, I’ve coached lots of different things. I dialed back once I went from football to wrestling to softball for quite a few years and it was a lot.”

What made the team so special this year?

“One thing that I appreciate with this group of girls was how much they enjoy playing golf and how much fun they have doing it,” Murphy said. “They were constantly trying to work on things to get better. They're very coachable. I know quite a few of them have swing coaches and things like that, and they're constantly working. But for me, last year we missed state as a team by one shot and then we didn't lose anybody, so everybody was coming back. So looking back, it was mainly we should get better, we should at least qualify for state, and then all of a sudden some of these scores started happening.”

“Addie Mitchell, her nine hole scores were coming in anywhere from 36 to 39. Gillian [Tyra] is in the upper 30s, right around 40, and then we started shooting some 18-hole scores where some of the other girls were starting to throw in some scores that were really good. At the Redbird Classic at the beginning of the year, we shot 336, which was the lowest 18 that we had had since I was coaching. And then all of a sudden, we shoot 155 for nine holes, and that's the school record and then we shoot 321 at conference and that was a school record, and the next week, we shoot 309 at regionals. What they did there was fantastic and that was kind of one of those where things had kind of evolved where it'd be great if the girls could make it to state as a team and then it turned into ‘Well, it'd be great to make it to day two as one of those eight teams that make it to day two of state’ and then it turned into ‘Hey, maybe we can be in striking distance of the top three. Of course they did that and then they had an amazing day two at state where they made a great push and were even tied for second and unfortunately lost the tiebreaker.”

What keeps you motivated to coach?

“I would say I just I've always enjoyed competition and then to be able to coach a group like this one that enjoys competition as well, but not only that, but on the golf course, just kind of competing with yourself and the course,” Murphy said. “But they just had that competitive edge, and I appreciate that. And when you've got a group that you know they want to be competitive, they want to get better, they want to go out there and do the best they can for their school and their family, that's what makes it easy as a coach is when you can go out there and you can have a group like that that wants to be competitive, wants to learn, and wants to do well.”

Aside from winning, what’s a fun memory you’ve had with the team from this past season?

“It for sure had to be — and I've never been a part of this and I don't think any of them have either — on the way home, we got an escort into the town and around the square from the fire department, and it was very fun,” Murphy said. “The girls really enjoyed it and I don't think they stopped yelling for the entire 15 minutes that we were doing. And then afterwards, we got to go into the stadium here at the school and had our regional championship trophy, their sectional championship trophy, their third in state trophy. A lot of people from the community and their parents came in and the girls got to speak, and that was a lot of fun. That was kind of when a lot of that hit home that these girls just won third in state. 

What’s a piece of coaching advice you’d give?

“Just be able to create a rapport with your athletes and make it fun,” Murphy said. “Probably the best thing I was ever told and what I try to do is I just try to make it fun. If they're enjoying being there, they're going to try hard.”