CHARLOTTE. N.C. — A football coach and his quarterback always have a special bond, but at Harding University High, it's a deeper, more meaningful one.
Sam Greiner started coaching the football team in 2015.
He said, right away, the athletic director told him some of his star players weren't eligible to play, including quarterback Braheam Murphy.
Murphy says he went home and cried for two straight days because he struggled with his grades and a place to live.
"Sometimes I'd stay at my friends' house,” Murphy said. “Me and my sister would have to stay at my friends' house. We'd go back and forth. Basically. I wasn't in a stable home."
Greiner first noticed this when he dropped Murphy off at different homes.
"Eventually, he just opened up to me and he was like, ‘Uh, I have to stay with my sister from place to place,” Greiner said. “I didn't know what to do at the time."
Greiner said that after talking to his wife, they decided to take Murphy in.
Two years later, Murphy is still living with the Greiner family.
He started getting straight As in school and found comfort in his faith.
Murphy earned a scholarship to the military academy at West Point.
Harding capped off its season with a North Carolina High School Athletic Association 4-A state championship.
Cox Media Group
