Baseball: McMurtry takes over VC baseball

Kevin Foote • kfoote@theadvertiser.com • July 1, 2009

New football coach Craig Beverlin won’t be the only new head coach on the boys’ side at Vermilion Catholic during the 2009-10 school year.

Danny McMurtry has been hired as the new head baseball coach, replacing the outgoing Brad Topham after nine years at the school.

While McMurtry may not have the decades of experience that Beverlin sports, he does bring a pretty intriguing, traveled past to Vermilion Catholic as well.

After playing for the UL Ragin’ Cajun program in 2002-03, he worked as a graduate assistant under Tony Robichaux for a year. After leaving Lafayette, he coached at Siena in New York, then Monmouth in New Jersey, followed by a stint at Okaloosa-Walton in Florida, before most recently working at Mercer for two years.

Since leaving UL, McMurtry has served as a pitching coach and recruiting coordinator at each stop.

Eventually, McMurtry decided to return to Louisiana.

"It just came down to looking at myself in the mirror and making a decision of whether this is what I wanted to do with my life," said McMurtry, who is the brother of former UL softball All-American Becky McMurtry. "I just decided that coaching high school ball will allow me to reach the kids in a better way."

Once that decision was made, McMurtry knew he had one final class to take in order to be certified to teach in Louisiana. After completing that goal, he applied for the head baseball opening at Vermilion Catholic and got the job.

"It’s been a pretty easy transition," he said. "I was able to meet with the players and then I jumped right into the (American) Legion program. It’s been really good.

"From what I’ve learned, baseball is a big sport in Abbeville, so the expectations will be high. I think we’ll have the players and the expectations to do good things in the playoffs here. I’m excited about that."

At a small school like VC, McMurtry will be also be coaching football. He said he’ll enjoy the challenge.

Despite being known as a baseball player and coach, McMurtry actually said that football was probably his best sport, but that "there weren’t too many colleges looking for a skinny 6-2, 160-pound kid."

McMurtry played quarterback and free safety in high school in Nebraska.

"Honestly, football’s always been my favorite sport," McMurtry said. "It’s going to be a new challenge for me. I’m really looking forward to working with coach Beverlin. That’s going to be a positive. He’s going to be able to teach me things that I can carry over to the baseball field."