The Napier name: Four children of longtime Murray County coach living his legacy

Published 9:00 am Sunday, April 7, 2019

Editor’s note: This article appears in the Daily Citizen-News 2019 Progress edition. Pick up your copy at our office at 308 S. Thornton Ave.

For Bill Napier’s four children, carrying on his name means everything.

Leading the Indians to 94 wins from 1991 to 2006, Napier is the winningest football coach in Murray County High School history. He lost his battle with ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, just more than a year and a half ago in September 2017. However, his legacy lives on through children Billy, Matt, Kurt and Whitney, along with their families and accomplishments.

Each child has their own venture in life, but returning home to Murray County to see their mother Pam, like they all did for the first time in many years this past Christmas, is an important part of their lives.

After all, Murray County is where all their lives began.

Settling in

Billy, 39, the eldest of the Napier children, had an early opportunity to coach in college and has taken that to his first head coaching position at the University of Louisiana-Lafayette.

In his first season this past fall, Billy led the Ragin’ Cajuns to winning the West Division of the Sun Belt Conference with a 7-7 record and an appearance in the Autonation Cure Bowl, falling to Tulane 41-24.

His wife Ali and his three children, Annie, 6, Sammy, 4, and Charlie, 2, are settling in nicely, he said.

“The family is loving Lafayette,” Billy said. “I think we are headed in the right direction, and we are excited about what we can do. It’s been a journey so far but we are in a great community with a lot of blue collar people who really stand for something.”

The hardworking, down-to-earth feel of Lafayette reminds him of his home and upbringing playing for his father at Murray County, Billy said.

“I often times think about that, about some of the experiences that made you who you are,” he said. “Coming from a blue collar place, I think it’s one of the reasons we are who we are.

“I love what I do because it involves people and competition. That’s simply the right mix for me and I watched dad do it for a long time and be successful. There is no easy way, you have to do go do the work, but I’ve got two brothers who do it and if Whitney could she probably would, too.”

One of the hardest things, Billy said, to becoming a head coach was learning how to hire the right kind of people — the kind of people who have the characteristics his father embodied and touched hundreds and hundreds of lives with. Before landing his first Division I head coaching job, Billy had stops in Alabama where he coached under Nick Saban and Arizona State as offensive coordinator.

“It’s like making the perfect puzzle,” he said. “You really catching yourself thinking bout who you are as a person and what kinds of things you want in a program and that you want your players and coaches to learn. I definitely know my values reflect my past, and now we’ve got a group that we all enjoy coming to work. It’s great.”

Chasing greatness

The second eldest, Matt, 38, has found comfort in the city of LaGrange where he has coached for the past 14 years at Callaway High School. He is the offensive coordinator under head coach Pete Wiggins, a former assistant for Bill Napier.

A job he has had nearly the entire time following playing football at Murray County and two years at West Georgia, Matt has aided Callaway to three appearances in the Class 2A football state semifinals in the past six years.

This past season, Callaway said goodbye to 26 seniors, 20 of which signed scholarships to play college football. Matt said it’s seeing those type of heartwarming moments when he remembers his father the most.

“His heart was always in the right place and was putting the Lord first,” he said. “The things that you miss about him are those things, because he always took the road of integrity.”

Matt said while it hasn’t happened yet, he believes Callaway is well on track to winning a state championship. In the meantime, he’s happy to add to his coaching duties with his two sons, 12-year-old Jett and Bear, nearly 9 years old.

“They love sports and that makes me happy, but they are also super smart and successful in the classroom,” Matt said. “I couldn’t be more proud of them, and that’s just like dad. He never missed an opportunity to tell me how proud he was of the things I have accomplished. That’s one tradition I am carrying on.”

One goal Matt has yet to accomplish is to become a head coach. That is something he said has always been the dream, but he isn’t in any rush to jump on just any chance and relocate his wife Casi and the boys.

“I’ve had some opportunities to be head coach, but I’ve not rushed it at all because I want it to be the right fit for everyone,” he said. “The good Lord has a plan for us, but I think it comes back to our mom and dad. We saw a great example growing up, and you go out every day trying to live up to that expectation.

“I think there are still things out there for us to achieve — more lives out there we can impact. Just trying to make a difference one day at a time.”

Still an Indian

The youngest of the boys, Kurt Napier, 33, returned to the place they all call home a few years ago.

Following his graduation from Murray County in 2004, Kurt found himself first playing football at Truman State University in Missouri then transferring and graduating from Tusculum University in Greenville, Tennessee.

After a few stops, including five years with Matt at Callaway, Kurt took an opportunity he wasn’t so sure of at first — a head coaching job at Gladden Middle School in Chatsworth.

“My personality and love for the place kind of made sense for me to be the one to be back home,” he said. “But middle school, I didn’t quite know about that.”

Gladden feeds into Murray County and Kurt led the team to an undefeated regular season in his first year as coach in 2016. Between the birth of his first daughter, Reghan, and passing of his father, Kurt wasn’t as successful in the fall of 2017, but little did he know good things were still coming.

“The first person I contacted when I moved back into town was (current Murray County) coach (Chad) Brewer,” he said. “Turns out they were in need of a defensive coordinator and I showed interest.

“Getting to the high school, I guess I wouldn’t know how to describe it. I try to think back on what kinds of things were important to dad. He always put a big importance on character and community service. If anything it kind of gave me some confidence knowing that the high school was where he did all of that. It also gave the community a lot of confidence, I was definitely motivated by it.”

Kurt has since welcomed his second daughter Amelia with wife Tiffany. He said he is enjoying being an Indian again. His first group of students from Gladden are now sophomores at the high school.

“Last year was a tough year, but if nothing else it was amazing to see how the whole thing is run,” Kurt said. “I’m just trying to learn and soak it all up. It’s been really neat to see those kids grow up.”

Baby girl

As the youngest of the four Napier children, Whitney, now 27, might naturally stick out as the only girl.

The way she sees it, however, she’s a lucky girl.

“I was always kind of doing the girl version of whatever sports side of things everyone else was doing,” Whitney said. “I loved it.”

The only one not to graduate from Murray County, Whitney moved on from Southeast Whitfield, where her father coached briefly, to the University of Georgia. She studied education for three years until she changed directions.

Growing up around both parents in the education system, Whitney flipped to marketing and is now a regional merchandiser for the handbag company Kate Spade.

Her husband J.R. Releford and she moved from living in Brooklyn, New York, for the past two-and-a-half years down to Atlanta just a few weeks ago.

Whitney said being back in Georgia was always the goal and she is ecstatic to be a short distance from family in Murray County and her brother Matt in LaGrange.

“Everyone always kind of knew I wouldn’t be the one to stay in Murray County, but I still very much so call it my home,” she said. “I’m just more of a city person, but I’m so excited to be back to where I can visit my mom and be a part of my nieces’ and nephews’ lives. All of our friends and family are here.”

While she and her husband don’t have children quite yet, Whitney said she definitely sees that for her future. And when it happens, she’ll be the first one to let them know what a great family they have.

“Any time I would have any kind of big milestone in my life or I would go back to college or something, dad always had a little motto for me,” Whitney said. “He would tell me ‘You’re a Napier, go represent.’

“I miss talking to him the most. He was so easy to talk to, and I think that’s what his players thought. I want my kids to know how respected their grandpa was and that he wasn’t just handed it, but he worked for that. Even when it seemed like football was consuming our life, our priority was always with our faith. It was all ultimately about God.”

Mama bear

It was the football field where the Napier boys learned the values of life, but it was their parents who made sure those lessons stuck.

“Everyone talks about dad and of course he was great, but mom had a huge part in keeping us grounded,” Billy said. “She’s really our anchor and probably the most selfless person you have ever met. She always went out of her way to make sure we had what we needed.”

Since her husband’s passing, Pam is retired from 25 years as the bookkeeper at Coker Elementary School in Murray County. She stays busy making her rounds visiting with each of her children and helping out with her grandchildren.

She has nothing but gratitude with how each of the four turned out.

“I’m so blessed,” Pam said. “God blessed us with four wonderful children. I really couldn’t ask for better.

“Sometimes I used to wish they were older to see how they turned out. As time went on, I was asking myself why they couldn’t be little again.”

Still calling Murray County home, she admits she loved the simple life the family had growing up.

“Raising them in Murray County was great,” she said. “There are so many people in this county that were helpful and supportive of us, even when my husband got sick. It was a small, simple, everyday life.”

And though he is gone, she said she still feels Bill is cheering them all on.

“Their daddy is smiling down loving it all,” Pam said. “We are so proud of each and every one of them.”