Homeless Athlete Turns Into A Star Player, With Guidance And Incredible Help From The Coach

Nov 28, 2018 by apost team

Harding University High is located in Charlotte, North Carolina. Back in 2015, their football team was struggling terribly. The record for the team was 1-10, and they knew that changes had to be made soon.

Sam Greiner was the coach that was brought in to try and help the team get turned back around. But he ended up turning around much more than just a football team. Braheam Murphy was the team’s quarterback when Greiner became the coach.

At the time, he was a sophomore. He was excellent on the field, but his grades were becoming a problem that couldn’t be ignored any longer. His bad grades ended up getting him suspended from the team. 

Coach Greiner was shocked by the decision to kick him off of the team. He could not understand why it had happened. He knew Murphy was extremely smart. He had gotten to know Murphy closely and knew that there had to be more to the story.

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Greiner would often drive Murphy home after a practice or a game. Each time, Murphy would have him drop him off at a different house. Greiner became concerned and finally asked Murphy to tell him where he really lived.

It was at this point that Murphy was able to completely open up to Greiner about his home life.

Greiner learned that the boy’s mother had died when he was just 5-years-old. His father had remarried and had another daughter. However, she was born suffering from cerebral palsy, making their home life pretty difficult. Because of these factors, his family often struggled.

By the time Murphy made it to high school, he was almost homeless. He often stayed with his older sister or a friend instead of at his dad’s house. The athlete was stuck in a rut that he didn’t know how to get out of. Greiner realized that he couldn’t let this continue to happen. So he spoke to his wife, Connie, about what they could do to make Murphy’s life better.

They decided that the best course of action was to allow Murphy to stay with them. He accepted. One day, he decided to ask his coach and wife is he could live there permanently.The coach told him that he was allowed to stay for as long as he wanted. Murphy did just that.

While it was an adjustment at first, Murphy soon became part of their family. The generous couple gave up their bedroom for Murphy. He did chores to help out around the house, and he often babysat for their two small children.

Having a stable and loving family helped the athlete tremendously. A supportive family made him want to improve other aspects of his life, such as his grades. He was almost failing when he moved in with his coach and family but soon he began to pull his grades back up. He was almost at a 4.0 GPA when he rejoined the football team.

In 2017, Murphy would be the one to lead his team to victory.

The high school football team was able to secure their first state title in 64 years after Murphy started to lead them. But that wasn’t the only amazing thing that Murphy accomplished. After pulling up his grades and showing spectacular skills on the football field, Murphy earned a scholarship to West Point to play football.

Greiner says that he just wants Murphy to continue to be a success. He wants other people to look up to him. He hopes that he will be able to use the skills he learned in football and apply them to real life issues.

Murphy is more than likely extremely motivated to do his very best at college, on and off the football field. But it would not have been possible without the help of an amazingly generous coach whose only wish was for one of his best players to get back on track.

Murphy now has an incredible future ahead of him, and we simply could not be happier for him. We would also like to say thanks to his coach for being an amazing role model.

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