Murphy's expected selection to hall of fame becomes reality

On Christmas Eve day last December, Waubonsie Valley football coach Paul Murphy received a special letter in the mail.

He opened it to read he'd been selected for induction into the Illinois High School Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame.

"Needless to say it was a pretty good Christmas present," Murphy said.

For years we'd written "future hall of famer" in front of Murphy's name. That future became reality on Saturday at the IHSFCA Hall of Fame Induction Dinner at the Hilton Garden Inn in Champaign. He and his wife, Gerri, brother Brian and sons Mark and Michael comprised Murphy's entourage.

"Obviously they were very, very excited because they know how hard I've worked and how many years I've been doing it," said Murphy, who has put in 33 years overall coaching football.

The ceremony came a year too late for his mother, Bernadette, who passed away in February 2014. However, she celebrated Murphy's 2014 Ray Eliot Award for service to the IHSFCA, and he feels her acknowledgment from above.

"We know she knows about it, so we're not too worried about that," said Murphy, who had been nominated for the hall by retired Waubonsie athletic director Mike Rogowski.

As a head coach at Marmion and Waubonsie Valley, Murphy has a record of 167-80 with seven conference championships. In his 10 seasons at Waubonsie Valley, the Warriors have reached the playoffs nine times and have won at least eight games each of the last five seasons.

Throughout his career the Oak Forest High School graduate has surrounded himself with IHSFCA hall of famers, from his start with the late Jack Lewis at Immaculate Conception to working alongside former Naperville Central coach Joe Bunge as defensive coordinator and, after leaving Marmion, joining John Thorne's staff at North Central College.

As well, Murphy has represented the IHSFCA in a variety of positions, including president in 2001 and his continued seat on the Class 8A All-State selection committee. Murphy also runs the association's website.

At the induction ceremony in Champaign, he was asked to deliver the acceptance speech for the entire 15-member class, which included such familiar retired coaches as Marian Central's Ed Brucker, East and West Aurora's John Wrenn and Lyons Twp.'s Jack Derning, the York graduate who still holds the Dukes record for all-time tackles.

Murphy said the Hall of Fame honor means he's "been around a long time," which is the go-to line for these situations. Of course, it's more than that.

"It wasn't about the wins and losses, it was about the development of young men," he said. "I think the words that you impart on your players will stay with them forever, if you've had an impact."

In his acceptance speech in Champaign, Murphy illustrated an example. He recalled a letter sent to him by a former player who'd considered quitting college. But he remembered a Murphy line - "winners never quit, quitters never win." Murphy gladly noted that person stayed in school and is now an attorney.

Twelve of Waubonsie's seniors from last season's football team will be playing a sport in college. Though Murphy does see retirement ahead, it's well down the road with time to help plenty more.

"I've been very, very fortunate to have a lot of great players in the programs that I've coached at," he said, "and I look forward to coaching more great players in the future."

Bestest of the West

Barry Baldwin, longtime right-hand man to Naperville Central girls soccer coach Ed Watson, noted that of the 26 girls teams that have won state championships, 22 of them were won by programs participating in the Naperville Invitational.

The 18th annual invite runs the next two weekends starting with group play April 23 and culminating with the championship May 2. Naperville Central, Naperville North, Wheaton North and Barrington are host sites for the 24 teams in the field.

Among them are Waubonsie Valley, St. Charles East and New Trier, all of which made the 2014 Class 3A final four - Waubonsie placing third in state and winning the Naperville Invitational. Neuqua Valley, Benet, Downers Grove South and Hinsdale Central are the other locals along with the host schools.

It's better to watch in person, but teams, results, schedules and standings all are detailed at the Naperville Invitational website.

No fear

Wheaton Academy is making strides as a track and field program, the goal being able to fill all events.

One event the Warriors have down cold on the boys side is in the short sprints with Ty Seager. The junior, also named Gatorade's Illinois soccer player of the year while leading Wheaton Academy to the Class 2A championship last fall, finished eighth in the 2A 100 dash and seventh in the 200 last year in Charleston.

The competition he faced Friday at the Naperville North Gus Scott Invitational was all on the Class 3A level, against top sprint programs such as Waubonsie Valley, Naperville North and Oak Park.

As Seager ran to first place in both events in the highest of the three levels of competition, Seager felt no intimidation.

"Not really," he said. "Last year prepped me well. It's amazing what a year's experience can do. I try not to focus on the people next to me, I try to focus on my race."

All together now

Our source for local graduates playing college hockey, Eric Kilby - he prefers "supporter" to "guru," but that's semantics - recently suggested a look into the up-and-coming sport of synchronized skating. He noted "the suburbs of Chicago are a hotbed of new skating talent."

We don't get out much so that was news to us.

Anyhow, Kilby said Miami University in Ohio is the cream of the collegiate synchronized skating crop, the nation's first varsity program dating to 1995-96. The sport is conducted on three levels in college, senior, collegiate and junior, and on Feb. 28 the Miami RedHawks' collegiate squad won its 17th national title and its 11th straight. That, according to the Miami website, extends a record for consecutive national titles in any discipline at any level of skating.

Miami's senior program finished second to the Haydenettes, an outfit out of Lexington, Massachusetts, apparently a force on the world level. However, that second-place finish meant Miami and junior Tori Alexander, a Naperville North graduate who has a double-major in Spanish and microbiology, joined the Haydenettes in advancing to the International Skating Union World Championships, April 10-11 in Hamilton, Ontario.

"Tori's a great member of the team," said Miami coach Carla DeGirolamo. "She works hard, she's athletic, and she definitely loves skating and loves the team, and it's fun to watch her skate every time she gets out there."

(A pair of freshmen, Brianne Safer of Waubonsie Valley and Alyssa Pressley from Downers Grove North, compete with Miami's junior team. Kilby pointed out that Adrian College in Michigan, which placed sixth at the senior level, rosters freshmen Luci Sementa of Willowbrook and Kerri Goodman of Naperville North, plus sophomore Michelle Dogan of Timothy Christian.)

In Ontario Alexander and the RedHawks placed eighth out of 25 teams, following two from Canada, two from Finland, one from Sweden, one from Russia and the Haydenettes.

The kicker is that the Hayden Synchronized Skating club includes Tori Alexander's younger sister, Jordan, a freshman economics and finance student at Bentley University in Waltham, Mass.

doberhelman@dailyherald.com

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