High School Sports

Wheeling Central’s Adam Murray Seeing Time on Offense

By KYLE LUTZ

Staff Writer

WHEELING -- Adam Murray etched his name into not only Wheeling Central history, but West Virginia history two years ago as a sophomore when he won the Sam Huff Award. The following year, he made history again by becoming the only player to win the Huff Award twice.

The accolades certainly haven't stopped for the linebacker, now a senior for the Maroon Knights who will be going for their third straight Class A state championship Saturday night against Doddridge County.

"His motor has started his freshman year and hasn't stopped," Wheeling Central coach Mike Young said. "I say that because that's a coach's dream. He's a coaches dream in terms of his attitude towards doing what's right, his attitude towards practice as well as games. He's a quality student-athlete and one of the finest defensive players I coached in my 48 years."

During the Maroon Knights postseason run, he became Wheeling Central's all-time leading tackler. He accounted for his 600th during the semifinal game against Pendleton County.

"Coming into high school, I didn't really expect anything like this," Murray said. "I wasn't really sure what high school football was like. My freshman year I learned a lot from Chantz Chambers, a veteran linebacker and Luke Lawrence.

"Those guys taught me everything they knew. They did a great job of leading me and I paid attention and tried taking after and carrying on the tradition of Central with what they taught me from my freshman year to my sophomore year to my junior and senior. I really learned a lot and had a leadership role with the underclassmen."

With all the success that Murray has had on defense, he also certainly has been a key component to the offense too as he has been seeing many plays in the backfield at the fullback position.

"I really wasn't expecting to be this big of part on offense knowing we have guys like Payton Marling and Jalen Creighton," Murray said. "Jordan Waterhouse has been playing really good lately on both sides of the ball and Jacob Rine taking over for Curtis (McGhee III), he's been doing a very great job."

And he's been playing his part in carrying the load as well as blocking. In the second round of the playoffs, he even found the end zone for the first score of the game against Ritchie County.

And with it being a state championship game on Saturday, Young plans on using him.

"With the heart and intensity he plays on defense, we try to give him a breather on offense, but we need him on offense because he is a huge runner and blocker," Young said.

"He leads the way for our running back and blocks down on that tight end spot.

"He's very versatile and he catches the ball out of the backfield. He's definitely a threat on offense and now that we're into this championship game, you're going to see more of him or hear of him more this week."

While it may be new for spectators to see the best linebacker in the state of West Virginia in the backfield for the Maroon Knights, the position isn't new for Murray.

"I've had experience from it from middle school. I used to play running back and fullback all the time," Murray said.

"My freshman year, I was learning the fullback position and the same thing my sophomore year. Then junior year I switched over to guard because we lost a player and we needed the help up front so I decided to do that. So, I kind of have a lot of experience at tight end, guard and fullback. I know the ropes at fullback and I know most of the plays out of it. It's pretty fun."

And with one more game to play in a Maroon Knights uniform, the humble senior knows playing for a third straight championship is all about the guys around him too.

"I give credit to all the guys who stepped up this year and taken the roles of guys like Vinny Mangino, Bray Price and Anthony Robbins from last year," Murray said.

"They come in every week, work hard and go out every Friday or Saturday and get it done."