{"id":8836,"date":"2020-10-24T16:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-10-24T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maderatribustg.wpenginepowered.com\/?p=8836"},"modified":"2026-05-13T18:27:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T18:27:12","slug":"murphy-can-t-wait-for-torres-athletics-to-start","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/murphy-can-t-wait-for-torres-athletics-to-start\/","title":{"rendered":"Murphy can\u2019t wait for Torres athletics to start"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Although his athletes are communicating with their coaches via the Internet, Matilda Torres Athletics Director Jordan Murphy can\u2019t wait for the time for his athletes to come on campus to see the athletic amenities.<\/p>

\u201cI can\u2019t wait for athletics to get started and get kids and the community on campus to see our beautiful facilities,\u201d he said.<\/p>

Murphy, a 2005 Madera High School graduate, is ready to show off his gymnasium and state-of-the-art pool, as well as a football stadium in a couple of years.<\/p>

\u201cThe gym is amazing,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s massive. The sound system is incredible. We want to host a lot of tournaments and competitions. We can put in eight mats with two more in the wrestling room. We want to bring people out to our facility. If CIF wanted us to hold something here, we would be more than happy here. We have an Olympic-size pool with a great warm-up pool. We have 16 lanes in a state-of-the-art facility. It\u2019s just amazing. It\u2019s terrible we\u2019re in the times we are in because the community and kids can\u2019t see our facilities. You can post a video and do an Instagram feed, but it doesn\u2019t do this campus justice.<\/p>

\u201cWe\u2019re working on the football stadium. The field turf will be put in in the next couple of weeks. Then, they will work on the track and then the bleachers. Next year, it will possibly still be in construction. We are looking for it to be completed in our third year.\u201d<\/p>

Unfortunately, under current orders from the state, Madera Unified students aren\u2019t on campus and that includes Murphy\u2019s Torres athletes. However, Murphy believe that could be a positive in the long run with athletes getting more detailed instruction from their coaches.<\/p>

\u201cRight now, with our coaches, we\u2019ve been doing a lot of Zoom meetings with our kids,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s cool to see the coaches communicate with the kids in that way because they get to see the kids, personally. They get to know the ins and outs of that kids. When they get on campus, they will have that relationship, already. The coaches get to break it down. Take football, for instance. You can break a play down and have the kids ask questions. It\u2019s not too fast. When you\u2019re in season, you have to go. Right now, it\u2019s kind of mellow. If the kids ask a question, you can take the time to break it down so they fully get the play and what they have to do.\u201d<\/p>

Murphy said some sports have begun practicing \u2014 football, cheer, girls basketball and cross country \u2014 but they are doing so under the Madera Unified School District\u2019s guidelines.<\/p>

\u201cEveryone brings their own water, practices are only an hour and we make sure all precautions are taken,\u201d Murphy said. \u201cThey wear their masks when they come to practice. Anytime they start physical activity, they can take off their mask. Coaches wear their masks at all times unless they are demonstrating an activity. They will be away from the athlete. When we are done with practice, we don\u2019t get into a huddle for a break. They stay six feet apart. We also monitor the parking lot to make sure kids don\u2019t gather up. They stay separated and wait for their parent or guarding to pick them up. We don\u2019t practice every single day. As we continue to go, more teams will get involved with that process. There\u2019s no indoor activity so some sports are holding off until they get the okay. They are all doing the Zoom workouts.\u201d<\/p>

In the first year, Torres will have a freshmen and frosh\/soph combined teams for most sports.<\/p>

\u201cFreshmen and sophomores this year and every year, we will add a class every year.\u201d he said. \u201cWe will be freshmen and junior varsity in all sports, except football where we will be just freshmen. Some sports like wrestling, some kids can compete at a varsity level to compete for Valley and State. They can all have the possibility to qualify for those big meets.\u201d<\/p>

Torres will also share football facilities with Madera and Madera South during the next two seasons until their stadium is built.<\/p>

\u201cWe\u2019re going to share facilities with Madera and Madera South for football,\u201d he said. \u201cThey have been great with sharing facilities. Andrea and John are great to communicate with. I\u2019ve known them forever. The connection is there in knowing the community. I\u2019ve lived in every part of this town. When people talk to me, they know who I am. I want to get out in the community and help out. The community gives so much, it\u2019s time for us to give back to them.\u201d<\/p>

Murphy is a Madera kid. He grew up in Madera, graduated from Madera and came home to work. After college, he was the athletic trainer at Madera South before becoming the athletic director at Liberty High School in the Madera Ranchos and at Chowchilla High School. He couldn\u2019t be happier returning to Madera.<\/p>

\u201cIt\u2019s awesome to be back in Madera,\u201d he said. \u201cI love the town. I went away for college. I came back and Madera blessed me with a job right out of college. From there, I got to work with Marty Bitter, Andrea Devine and John Fernandez, all at Madera South. I went to Liberty and it was amazing to go to these different schools to learn so much. I\u2019m using the information I learned at Liberty and Chowchilla and bring that back to Madera to grow this school in this amazing facility and try to give back as much as I can because Madera gave me so much.\u201d<\/p>

Now, Murphy is trying to take what he has learned to Torres and start building the athletics foundation for the new school.<\/p>

\u201cIt\u2019s pretty awesome to start things off,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a blessing to be here. I\u2019ve been at different school districts. To come back home is amazing. Just being a part of this school, being the first one here, being able to hire the coaches and start those traditions is amazing. We want to do things right, right off the bat. We want the coaches to Pursue Victory with Honor. We want transformational coaches. We want them to be leaders on and off campus. Those are the things we want to bring to our student-athletes. We don\u2019t want them to worry about winning a Valley Championship, we want to make sure they leave campus with traits they can use throughout their lives.\u201d<\/p>

In addition, many of the coaches at Matilda Torres have Madera ties, whether they are Madera or Madera South graduates or have coached at either of the schools.<\/p>

\u201cI tried to talk to as many Madera people I could when I got this job,\u201d he said. \u201cI had people reach out to me and thought they would be a good fit. These people killed it in the interview process. Bringing them back to this campus knowing they are from Madera and are for Madera is great. They are going to be great leaders to our student\/athletes. Charles Rigby already started helping out with a Fellowship of Christian Athletes. Sean Carlson is the head of our PE department. We\u2019re trying to get as many coaches on campus as possible, but try to keep it local, as well. The coaches are going to know the community and what they need.\u201d<\/p>

Now, all he needs are the student\/athletes to come attend the new school.<\/p>

\u201cWhen you walk through the front doors of the schools, you feel like you\u2019re on a college campus,\u201d he said. \u201cThe campus is so huge. You have a large center section where the kids will have lunch and hang out. The cafeteria is set up like a food court and it has a grab-and-go section. We have a theater and it\u2019s the first one. Construction is still going on that.\u201d<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Although his athletes are communicating with their coaches via the Internet, Matilda Torres Athletics Director Jordan Murphy can\u2019t wait for the time for his athletes to come on campus to see the athletic amenities. \u201cI can\u2019t wait for athletics to get started and get kids and the community on campus to see our beautiful facilities,\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":28555,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"elementor_theme","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_angie_page":false,"page_builder":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[50],"class_list":["post-8836","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-schools"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8836","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8836"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8836\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}