Former Charles Henderson baseball star Jackson Murphy has moved from the baseball field to coaching, starting his career at the minor league level. 

Murphy was a star catcher at CHHS, earning a .398 batting average as a senior with seven home runs, seven doubles and 37 RBIs. He was ranked as the 10th best prospect at catcher in the State of Alabama coming out of high school and was selected as an Alabama Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) All-Star. He also helped CHHS win a state championship as a freshman.

“The environment was so great to come up in, (head coach) Derek Irons was such a great leader,” Murphy remembered of his CHHS career. “We had a great group of guys that were hungry for the same goal and the fans and parents were so supportive of the team and the talent. It was incredible.” 

Murphy went on to start his college career at the junior college (JUCO) level, playing for Coastal Alabama Community College. As a freshman he earned 27 RBIs and hit .284 before transferring to the University of New Orleans following his sophomore campaign. There, he boasted a .286 batting average in 2020. He scored 11 runs and tallied five RBIs. 

“There’s a group of guys I still talk to every single day that I played with at JUCO and from New Orleans,” Murphy said. “We were winning teams at both places. In JUCO you have to fight through adversity a lot and that makes you stronger. At New Orleans we had a great group of draft picks on our team and the living experience in New Orleans was great. We played Power 5 baseball teams all the time, so it was a really great experience.”

Murphy finished up his college career at the University of Auburn at Montgomery (AUM), earning a .310 batting average with three doubles, three RBIs and seven runs. He also tallied 85 putouts with six assists and a .968 fielding percentage on defense. 

Following his college career, Murphy played overseas, even earning All-Star honors in the Baseball Bendesliga league in Austria. 

“We were playing guys from Korea and Japan and Australia and Venezuela,” Murphy said of playing overseas. “It was great, the travel was really good. I got to see the world and got to play ball and be in a professional atmosphere, too. They really took care of us and treated us well. I would really encourage any player over here that has the opportunity to take it if they can.” 

During the offseason, Murphy has had a chance to catch for some elite major league pitchers during his time in baseball.

“I’ve got to hang out in spring training in West Palm Beach (Fla.) between the Marlins, Astros, Nationals and Oakland A’s. I got to catch for Max Scherzer, Framber Valdez from the Astros, a bunch of Oakland A’s guys. The batting practice groups at those facilities were guys like Trea Turner, Brandon Donovan from Enterprise, Paul Goldschmidt. It was really cool.” 

Murphy returned to America to briefly play minor league baseball at the independent level before deciding to move into the coaching world.

“I was 26 years old and the minor league world started shrinking after COVID and was only shrinking more after that,” Murphy recalled. “At my age and everything I wanted to get into coaching. My skillset is catching and my mentors have all been catching coordinators in the big leagues and being around those guys all the time really made me want to get into (coaching).” 

Murphy said that coaching has always been a goal for him.

“Every kid’s dream is to play in the major leagues but times have changed and there’s different aspects of the game you have to take into account,” he said. “I never doubted my abilities but I knew from the coaching side of things, I wanted to get into that and felt like I would able to do that.”

Murphy had plenty of help from his mentor, Eddy Rodriguez, the former catching coordinator for the Florida Marlins and Los Angeles Angels.

“He’s kind of invented some new things with how we catch and the way we go about things as catchers,” Murphy said of Rodriguez. “Without him, I wouldn’t be here in this position now without the knowledge he passed on to me.” 

Murphy is entering his first season as the Bullpen Coach and Catching Coordinator for the Ogden Raptors in Utah of the Pioneer League. The Pioneer League is an MLB partner league that has Double A level competition. While Murphy is just getting into coaching, he’s got longterm goals for himself, as well as short term goals. 

“My goal is to impact the players, first and foremost,” he said. “If you impact the players, I think the rest comes with it. I want to do my job and do it well and go on to the next thing, whatever that may be. I could see myself in a bullpen role in the big leagues someday, that’s the longterm goal.”