Gail Murphy

Gail Murphy built Denison women’s soccer into one of the premier programs in all of NCAA Division III from her arrival in Granville in 1997 until 2022. A two-time NSCAA Regional Coach of the Year honoree, Murphy is one of the winningest active coaches in college soccer.

Before Denison, Murphy spent four years at Southwestern University in Texas, where she took a first-year program to a top-10 regional ranking in just two seasons. While at Southwestern, Murphy was selected as Coach of the Year by the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference. Murphy then made the cross-country switch to Denison, leading the Big Red back to regional and national prominence. The Ohio Collegiate Soccer Association has twice named Murphy its Coach of the Year (1997, 1999).

From 1983 to 1991 she coached Los Alamos High School in New Mexico, where her teams played in the finals of the state tournament five times, winning three championships. She began her college coaching career in 1991 as a graduate assistant at Smith College in Massachusetts.

Murphy earned her bachelor of science degree in physical education from the University of New Mexico in 1983 and her master of science in exercise and sport science from Smith in 1993. Murphy remains an assistant professor on the faculty of Denison’s Department of Health, Exercise, and Sport Studies.