As the ground becomes misty and the air turns frigid, Coppell athletics press on. Meet the coaches, what being a coach means to them and their expectations for the season down below.

Boys basketball coach Ryan Murphy

What does being a coach at Coppell mean to you?

The support that you get here is tremendous, it is rare to find a place where you have great support from the academic administrators, the athletic department and support from the community. That was fun as our girls program grew. Once people started recognizing the work, toughness and teamwork that the girls put in, people came out and they supported it, which was cool to see a community rally behind us like that. Now we are trying to do that with the guys’ side. We want to build a product out there that people want to go support them and watch them. When you have good kids that come from good families and do not have any discipline issues, it is just getting them all to play together and play smart. I think that part is what’s fun and unique and special about Coppell.

What do you envision for this season?

We want to build a culture. We win with culture and part of that culture is to be the hardest working team in the gym. We want to be relentless on both ends of the floor. We want to have our identity be defense, fighting and completing every possession. Setting that standard is important right now. Ultimately, we want to compete for a district championship and make a big playoff run. Right now, we want to get good at the things that impact winning and everything else kind of is a product of that. With this group of guys and the direction that we are heading, I think there will be some bumps in the road in November as we all gel together, but I do think that by December we will be starting to hit our stride.

Girls basketball coach Ravyn Terry 

What does being a coach at Coppell mean to you?

Being a coach at Coppell is about community, I would say it is a close knit city in general. It has that small town feel. It means a lot to me to be a part of a district where we can feel close and be part of a community. 

What do you envision for this season?

This is a brand new team and so we are working out a lot of kinks right now chemistry wise, but we are a very capable basketball team and so if we could peak at the right time, find some consistency and embody our identity of relentlessness I think we would have a shot at playoffs.

Swim and dive coach Jon Drori

What does being a coach at Coppell mean to you?

One thing that I try to emphasize to everybody that I talked to is that I don’t coach swimming, I coach swimmers. It is more about man management and getting the most out of the person than it is about swimming, technique and race strategy. Anybody can learn about technique and learn about race strategy through many different ways, but it takes a certain skill set to be able to get the most out of an individual. You have to make sure that you are treating them right, meeting their goals and feel like they are important to you. There are a lot of things that go into making sure these guys feel like they are taken care of, and they have to have that before they can even start thinking about improving swimming.

What do you envision for this season?

There’s already plenty of teams that do not want to race us because some teams care a lot about scores and we do not really care for that. We won two district trophies last year, both second place, so we’re definitely on everybody’s radar in our district for the team to beat. As far as regions go, we are looking to win our first ever regional trophy in 6A this year and it is going to be tough, but I think we can do it.

Boys wrestling coach Chip Lowery

What does being a coach at Coppell mean to you?

Part of being here a long time is that I now have a lot of relationships with the community and family and I have people recommending that their kids come into wrestling. I know how to interact with the community and I have been here long enough that they know that I am here to stay.

What do you envision for this season?

We want to be competitive at the end of the year. We want to have a good showing at the district meet. We want to get kids to the state tournament. At most of our weights, we have some returning wrestlers and we are not going to be putting any first year kids in, so we have high expectations that we are going to have a competitive squad.

Girls wrestling coach Ted Witulski

What does being a coach at Coppell mean to you?

I have been here for 18 years. It is my passion. Coppell has been supportive and we have got great facilities, so I enjoy my time here.

What do you envision for this season?

We are trying to have a successful wrestling season where we get kids excited about being on the wrestling team and finding the next best version of themselves. In girls wrestling, we are focused on practice; we come in, work hard and we are starting to get into some of the competition where we will see how we are as a team.

Boys soccer coach Stephen Morris

What does being a coach at Coppell mean to you?

This is a school where we are getting players who you can win with. It is great for me as a coach, where I get to sit here and anything I can dream up of what we want to work on, we can do because I get those kinds of players. People are willing to invest time, effort, energy and money into being good at whatever it is they do, I just have to figure out our most effective ways to get better. I take a lot of confidence and pride in our program. Every single player, I want them to walk away from our program after their senior year and say, “There is nothing else I could have done to become a better player that I was not willing to do.”

What do you envision for this season?

We ended up losing, 3-2, to Flower Mound in district last year, but that is the team we competed with and we had some good moments with that team. They ended up winning district and losing in the state final, 2-1, in overtime. They are just as good as anybody else in the state, and we are just as good as they are. Hopefully we can get a little bit of a lucky bounce here, train hard and take all the stuff that we can control out of the soccer game, control what we can control and hopefully we end up better than Flower Mound with the win instead of the loss.

Girls soccer coach Craig Able

What does being a coach at Coppell mean to you?

I love this community. This is my 11th year in the district. This is a town where everybody gets to feel that identity and sense of community. That makes this place really special. It is obviously a big 6A Division I environment, so it is the highest level you can be at, but it still has that small town charm and feel, which I am super blessed to be a part of. We have got an amazing community and amazing girls that do fantastic things on and off the field. It is a blessing to get to be here, work with them and build upon hopefully a great year with lots of momentum and success.

What do you envision for this season?

The overall goal is to win state. We believe that that’s a goal that is within our reality and within our capabilities. There has been some shuffling, but we like the girls that are returning from last year, they have done a good job of keeping the standard the way we want it to be. I think the new girls that have come in, have been able to do things at a high level and we are excited about getting it all put together.

Sports photography editor Kayla Nguyen, sports editor Namir Awan and executive news editor Sahasra Chakilam contributed to this report.