Freshman Bison football player DeMarcus Murphy was baptized Saturday Aug. 25 in the presence of the entire Bison team.
Murphy, recruited from Bentonville, Ark., arrived on campus Aug. 10 to meet the team for the first time. The Bisons’ Head Football Coach Ronnie Huckeba said the team spent a lot of time together at fall camp before school started, getting to know each other quickly.
Assistant Coach Dr. Clay Beason, Murphy’s position coach, said that in their position groups they had talked about maturing, discipline, success and honoring God.
“I think [the discussions] have been really meaningful to these players mainly because they are coming from other players,” Beason said.
Murphy said he had friends and family back home that had talked to him about baptism and sparked his thoughts on the subject. He said his mother was a major influence in his decision, just by talking with him and encouraging him.
When Murphy decided to get baptized, he asked Beason to be the one to baptize him. The two of them sat down and talked about the decision to be sure it was what Murphy wanted. When he said it was exactly what he wanted they found a time between pictures and scrimmages to go to the pool.
Immediately following team pictures, everyone hustled to the pool for the baptism. After he was baptized he said everyone was hugging and congratulating him. Murphy said it felt great to have his team support him and be there for his baptism.
“I felt like I was important,” Murphy said. “It truly meant a lot to me.”
Beason and Huckeba both said that events like this remind them of why they are coaching.
“You get so busy with football…” Beason said. “You’re just going and going and feel like I’ve got to do something to make us better on the field. And then you get a guy who makes a decision that really matters and it just puts things back in perspective…you know that’s why you’re a coach. It’s not to win ‘X’ amount of games. It’s to change lives.”
