New life for former Central coach

SPRING HILL — Hal Murrell has insisted he wasn’t seeking another gig when he wrapped up his 14-year Columbia Central tenure at the close of the 2017-18 season.

But he’s not arguing with the chain of events that led him to the helm at Dickson County — where, after one year as an assistant, he has the Cougars at 16-1, ranked No. 8 in the current Associated Press Class AAA statewide poll and undefeated in an ultra-competitive District 11-AAA following Tuesday night’s 60-30 win at Spring Hill.

“It’s been refreshing,” said the 50-year-old Murrell, who won 236 games at Central with a 2010 state tournament appearance. “It’s a totally different environment from where I was coaching. The kids have bought in, the kids have worked hard, and one thing we really do have is support. They travel and follow us everywhere we go. … It’s nice to have that support. It allows you to just do your job and coach.

“Winning and losing cures and magnifies everything, (but) my stress level right now is nowhere near where it was, and I think a lot of that has to do with my environment — where I am, the people I’m working with, the kids I’m coaching.”

Following his 2018 resignation, Murrell accepted an assistant coaching role under Jason Tigert at Dickson County. This past offseason, Tigert left his alma mater to take the head coaching position at Franklin.

“I think he was the perfect guy for this bunch,” Dickson County athletics director Jay Powlas said. “I don’t think we could have gotten anybody else that would have been this perfect a personality, coaching, knowing the kids, what buttons to push. I think some of that comes from being there last year, but a lot is just his personality.

“It wasn’t a hard transition.”

Winn Gramling, one of the team’s 13 seniors, agreed.

“In the summer, it was kinda rough,” said Gramling, one of three double-digit scorers Tuesday. “I was excited about going into my senior year with 13 seniors and Coach Tigert, the coach we’d had for three years. But getting Coach Murrell, a guy that had been there for a year and had known our group of guys, has been really good.

“Our practices are a little different. I think he holds us more accountable, especially about our shot selection. People take bad shots, but he’s really adamant about us going through our offense and getting the best shot we can.”

The success is tough to argue. A Jan. 11 loss at Montgomery Bell Academy stopped a string of 13 straight victories (including a 71-53 win over Spring Hill on Dec. 6), and the Cougars answered with consecutive league wins over Franklin, Summit and the Raiders (5-11, 0-9).

“They play hard, and they’ve got experience,” Spring Hill coach Jimmy Young said. “With 13 seniors, that lends itself to guys doing what needs to be done. And they’ve bought in to what Hal’s teaching them. He’s put his style in and they’ve done a pretty good job. It’ll be interesting to see how far they can go.”

Right now, Murrell’s trying to tamp down that long-range look.

“We’ve got a long way to go,” he said. “We’re off to a great start, but everything we’ve done up to now is on film. I told them about a week ago, it’s harder to stay here than it was to get here. The sooner we realize that, the better off we’re going to be. It’s not me. I’ve got a busload of seniors that have worked their tails off. We’ve caught some breaks, but you’ve got to be lucky sometimes, too.

“Tigert left the keys in the ignition to a pretty nice ride. I’m just trying not to mess it up.”

? Second-half fade costly: Trailing by only two points at intermission, Spring Hill’s girls lost contact in the third quarter and fell to a 61-46 loss to the visiting Lady Cougars.

“That’s one of the best teams in our district, and we’re definitely in one of the tougher districts,” Lady Raiders coach Matt Horton said after his team slipped to 7-11 (2-7) with its first defeat in its last three outings. “There’s been a lot of improvement from when we first played them. It’s just part of the process of learning how to win. Good teams aren’t going to roll over for you. You’ve got to beat them.

“I’m definitely proud of the effort. We’re moving in the right direction. I think it’s a mental thing. They came out in the second half and turned up the intensity, and we didn’t respond. It takes four quarters.”

Spring Hill, which lost 68-39 last month at Dickson County (9-5, 7-1), trailed 29-27 at the half but scored just four points in the third period. The visitors extended the margin to 41-31 and pulled away in the final eight minutes.

Ricole Alderson scored a game-high 18 points for the Lady Raiders, with Prairie Stedman and Sierra Stedman each adding 11. K.K. Curtis led Dickson County with 12 points.

???

Dickson Co. girls 61, Spring Hill 46

DC 16 13 12 20 — 61

SH 15 12 4 15 — 46

Dickson Co. (61) — Maddy Geisler 7, Cady Roberts 7, Ashley Jackson 3, K.K. Curtis 12, A.C. Milam 6, Sierra Morgan 9, Hanna Ingram 10, Emily Jackson 7

Spring Hill (46) — Katherine Carter 4, Ricole Alderson 18, Elizabeth Davis 2, Sierra Stedman 11, Prairie Stedman 11

3-pointers — Dickson Co. 6 (A. Jackson, Curtis 2, Milam, Morgan, E. Jackson), Spring Hill 0

Dickson Co. boys 60, Spring Hill 30

DC 10 12 15 23 — 60

SH 4 7 14 5 — 30

Dickson Co. (60) — Jett Carter 2, Brock Holley 3, Cade Purvine 3, Winn Gramling 14, Ty Beasley 3, Jaden Davis 17, Tucker Purvine 3, D.J. Stacy 15

Spring Hill (30) — Ty Bryant 3, Max Phillips 6, Jaylan Rucker 2, Landen Secrest 2, Alex Rose 12, Elijah Armstrong 2, Jayden Davis 3

3-pointers — Dickson Co. 9 (C. Purvine, Gramling 3, Davis, T. Purvine, Stacy 3), Spring Hill 5 (Bryant, Rose 4)