Baby girl, big class for LEC

It goes without saying the days leading up to national signing day are some of the busiest for college football coaches.

Just don’t tell that the wife of Lake Erie football coach Reilly Murphy, Caylyn. The married couple welcomed their second child the morning of Feb. 3 — a girl they named Lynly. Needless to say, that trumped signing day for Murphy, who left a lot of work to his coaching staff.

Still, Caylyn gave Reilly the green light leading up to Feb. 5 to take calls, answer questions from recruits or his assistants and make the occasional trip back to his office on campus.

“I really had to rely on my staff, and my wife is awesome,” said Murphy. “Every moment there was something to do (with recruiting), I could make a call. But mostly my staff had to step up and they did.”

When Feb. 5 was done, the Storm received 48 letters of intent for a recruiting class that has Murphy excited. That’s because

the second-year coach was hired by LEC on Dec. 13, 2018 — late in the game for the 2019 class — which made this year’s recruiting efforts run more smooth.

Still, there’s no denying the time of Lynly’s birth made it a challenge — in a good way — for the Murphys

and the football program.

“It’s a crazy time for us,” said Murphy. “The staff hasn’t had a day off for almost two months. For me, my stress relief is way better. But it was nuts, and still is. It was back and forth to the hospital.”

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LEC was 4-7 in 2019, and competitive in many of its losses. Murphy wants to see the program take another step in 2020, and the first was a class that features 23 Ohioans, plus two each from Pennsylvania, Michigan and Indiana.

It was a diverse class. Murphy — born in California near San Diego — brought in 10 players from California, plus four from Florida and one each from Arizona, Arkansas, Maryland, Tennessee and Texas. There are also three dualsport athletes, including

Elyria’s Ben Doehr, who will also wrestle.

“I feel great about the class,” said Murphy. “It’s a credit to where this program is going. We hit it hard (in recruiting). We’re not out of the building stage, but we’ve got the foundation.”

COURTESY REILLY MURPHY Lake Erie football coach Reilly Murphy and his wife Caylyn welcomed daughter Lynley on Feb. 3, two days before national signing day.