Athlete of the Year: Coaches' Thoughts

Our 2011 Athlete of the Year, Kevin Murphy, has had a lot of different coaches in his life.
In his senior year at VCHS, Murphy had five different coaches from five different varsity sports, and they all had plenty of good things to say about such a versatile, hard-working athlete.
Here are their thoughts:

Kyle Kline, varsity boys water polo coach:
I think Kevin is a great choice for Athlete of the Year. I only had the pleasure of coaching Kevin for one season. I have had many athletes show up senior year and decide they want to play water polo and I was skeptical when I heard about Kevin and his desire to join the team. He showed up with confidence and I really didn’t expect him to last more than one day.
Kevin proved me wrong and exceeded my expectations. He was definitely behind on experience and conditioning in the water but that didn’t discourage him one bit. He worked through the tough practices and absorbed as much as he could to try to catch up. This is definitely one of the most coachable athletes I have had and he put everything I tried to teach him to use. I would only have to tell Kevin something once, and I would see him working on whatever it was throughout the rest of practice and the whole season. Kevin is also a natural athlete. He is aggressive and gives 110% with everything he does.
Something else that really defined Kevin was his willingness to face a tough challenge. He never backed down from a tough swim set that would give seasoned swimmers a tough time. What really set him apart was his decision to take on one of the toughest positions in the pool as two meter defense. This position involves defending usually the biggest and strongest player on the opposing team. When I described this position Kevin’s eyes lit up. He knew this was his spot and he wanted to make sure he earned the starting position. He worked hard and earned the starting spot and again exceeded my expectations. This position does not usually get the stats that the offensive two meter player gets. It does not get nearly as much attention or glory as other positions. Kevin was not in it for those things. He was in it for the challenge and to help his team. He handled athletes that had many more years experience than him and did an excellent job.
What makes Kevin a successful athlete is a combination of things. His work ethic is exceptional. He is confident but not over confident. He faces challenges head on and with an enthusiasm that I don’t often see. He is a positive role model for younger athletes and a team leader. He leads by example but is outspoken when necessary. He is extremely coachable and has a great attitude. All of these things are beneficial to a team. He made a huge contribution to my team this season and I can only imagine the water polo player he would have been with a few more years experience.
I am sure Kevin will apply these characteristics in the future and it is these that will ensure success in anything he chooses to pursue.
Kevin’s senior year stats: nine goals, 16 assists, 31 steals, and four blocks.
Thanks for giving recognition to a great athlete, student, and individual!

Clay Clifford, varsity wrestling coach:
Kevin was a three-year varsity letterman for wrestling and was a contributor to our second place finish at the San Diego CIF Division IV Championships. Kevin is good-natured and was a pleasure to have on the wrestling team. He made many sacrifices for the team when called upon, and always gave his best effort. I expect that Kevin will one day be a very good coach, hopefully in the sport of wrestling.

Rick Darland, varsity boys golf coach:
Kevin is a great kid and a team leader, and I had a lot of fun coaching him this season. To be able to do that many things that well shows you what kind of an athlete and what kind of a person he is.
Because of the nature of golf, you can’t just pick up your sticks after taking all winter off, but somehow Kevin showed up this spring and was better than he was last year. He progressed further than I thought he would this year.
He’s a well-rounded person who enjoys life, and he knows what it takes to be successful in whatever he wants to do.

Rob Gilster, varsity football coach:
He played football all four years, and he was thinking about just doing water polo his senior year, but he was such a strong long snapper that we found a way to make it work out for him to do both this year. He’s a really good long snapper, and I’m sure he could have helped us out at some other positions on the football field, but he was really passionate about water polo. He was able to get in some practice time and work with Davey [Last, the football team’s kicker] on his own. And he was able to get to all our games on time, even though he had other games on the same day.
He was also one of my ASB students this year, so I got to work closely with him on a lot of school activities. He’s a great kid, a hard worker, and very dependable. You know he’s going to get the job done.
He’s very responsible, and as a student and as a player, same thing. I know he had a lot of other responsibilities in his life, but he’s committed to doing what he needs to do to be a good teammate, a good student and a good person.
I think the balance and time management that he’s learned through sports and ASB in high school are important skills he will carry with him. That’s what so much of life is—we don’t always get to focus on just one thing, we have to be able to handle a lot at a time, and Kevin is definitely prepared to do that.
And he was good, too. He’s a great athlete.

Laura McCaulley, varsity swim coach:
Kevin did really well this year for the swim team. He fit in well with the boys and helped us out a lot, especially in the relays. He went to league for the 200 freestyle and 400 freestyle relays and got better throughout the year.
His experience with the water polo team helped him be successful because he was already training really hard. During the swim season, he would come to the morning workout because he had golf in the afternoon, so he had a lot of long days.
But it paid off because he did such a great job in the league finals, where he placed in both the relay events as well as the 200 freestyle.
He’s a really hard worker, and that’s only going to help him with whatever he does in life. His work ethic is unreal!

2011 Roadrunner Athlete of the Year: Kevin Murphy

To see more photos of Kevin Murphy, click here to visit the gallery on Facebook.

By: Dan Kidder

They say that a jack of all trades is the master of none.
But Kevin Murphy is the rare kind of athlete who defies simple sayings.
Murphy, like the Jim Thorpes and Bo Jacksons before him, was never content with the challenge of just one athletic endeavor.
He grew up playing Little League baseball, Boys & Girls Club basketball, Pop Warner football and youth soccer. He tried his hand at motocross for a while (“Just for fun,” he says).
His older sister, Erin, ran cross country in high school and earned a scholarship to UNLV. Since the middle school didn’t offer very many sports at the time, Murphy decided to follow in his sister’s footsteps and joined the cross-country team. He continued playing flag football and basketball while waiting for his chance to show his stuff at the next level—high school.
His freshman season, Murphy played football, basketball and golf, a sport he picked up on a whim and ended up playing at the varsity levels all four years of high school.
“We became members of the country club,” he says. “And I totally fell in love with golf.”
In his sophomore season, he once again played football and golf, but switched to wrestling in the winter season.
“I loved playing basketball,” he says. “I grew up playing with Beau [Reilly], Stehly [Reden] and AJ [Broomell] on a lot of travel teams. But I wanted to try something a little different. One of my favorite sports to watch is MMA [Mixed Martial Arts], and I’ve always wanted to try to get into that. But in wrestling, you work so hard, especially with the guys around you, it’s like a brotherhood of wrestlers.”
Murphy’s sports schedule remained unchanged for his junior year, but things really picked up for him this year.
In his senior year, he played football and water polo in the fall season, wrestling in the winter season and both swimming and golf in the spring.
“My buddy Ian Macfarlane said I should come swim with him because it’s a great workout,” Murphy says. “It totally changes your body. I used to lift weights to bulk up for football, but swimming really leaned me out while keeping me really strong.”
Not only does Murphy play so many different sports, he plays such unique positions that usually require specific skills beyond the pick-it-up-as-I-go-along mentality.
Growing up, he played middle infield and pitcher on the baseball diamond, as well as point guard in basketball.
Although he grew up playing different positions in football, by the time he got to the varsity level, Murphy was so good as a long snapper that he was able to work out his own practice schedule that allowed him to play both water polo and football this season. He worked out with the special teams unit on Thursdays and found time with kicker David Last to keep his game at the highest level.
On the water polo team, Murphy quickly carved out a spot at two-meter defense, despite his relative inexperience.
“I’ve played so many sports, and water polo is a combination of so many sports, it just came to me,” Murphy says. “I played against the other team’s best offender. I like playing defense, and if the team needs something, I’m willing to do whatever.”
He wrestled somewhere in the 140-pound range, posted a golf index of four (which basically calculates how many strokes above par a player is, on average), and swam the 100 freestyle, the 200 freestyle and the 100 backstroke for the swim team this year.
“I love the camaraderie with my teammates,” Murphy says. “I love winning, and for me, there’s nothing like trying to be the best you can. I was never the quarterback, never scored the most goals, never was the biggest guy on the field, but I always want to work hard and try as many different things as I can.”
To try so many different sports takes a unique approach, and Murphy says that each sport he has played carries its own mentality.
“It’s different for each person,” he says. “For example, a football player isn’t as methodical as a golfer. Before he gets to the first tee, a golfer knows where he wants to put the ball and he has a plan for that hole. A football player walks on the field and he has all his coaches worrying about the bigger picture. He just has to go out and make a play.
“In wrestling, it’s just you against one other guy,” he adds. “You don’t really need the whole team to do your job—it’s a team sport, but so much is placed on the individual. It’s all about self-motivation. In water polo, it’s a lot of work and a lot of swimming, but that sense of brotherhood is big. You work so hard with these other guys that you really appreciate each other. And in swimming, it’s a pretty small group but it’s really tight-knit. It takes a lot of work to do swimming, but it pays off when you start to see your times drop. The coaches were great—they know they work us hard, but we know it’s for our benefit.”
Murphy didn’t earn any scholarships for his play on the field, and even though he will always enjoy playing sports for fun, he doesn’t have any plans to pursue college athletics.
“My sister’s boyfriend is a division one football player—he’s six-two, runs a four-six forty and he plays free safety,” Murphy says. “I love playing sports, but I know I can’t reach that kind of level. To play college sports, you have to be so naturally gifted. I look at Stehly [Reden] and that’s the kind of natural athlete you have to be. But even if I’m not playing, I still love working my body to the point where it feels like it’s breaking down and exceeding my goals. We’ll see where life takes me, and what God’s plan is for me.”
Murphy’s father, Sean, was a Navy pilot, his grandfather was a Blue Angel, and his uncle is an F-4 pilot, and Murphy says that he would love to join the ranks of his fellow naval aviators. But he also says his faith plays a central role in his life, and that he’s willing to pursue other directions as well. As a core team member at St. Stephen’s church, Murphy says he wants to honor God’s plan for his life.
“I definitely have an interest in the military, but I want to go where God leads,” he says. “You don’t know where God’s going to take you, but if you love Him and serve Him, wherever He takes you will be wherever you’re supposed to be. For me, if that’s the Navy, then that’s great. But I’m open to whatever.”
Wherever he goes next, Murphy says that he will never forget the years he spent playing sports with his friends here in Valley Center.
“There are so many great memories,” he says. “Like rushing back from a water polo game at Poway to make it to our home football game—I walked in with no shirt on, my pads in my hands and my eyes still watering from the pool, but I made it in time. And I’ll always remember winning league with the golf team this year—we came through a lot. All the practices, working hard and messing around with the guys, those are the things I’ll remember.”
Kevin Patrick Murphy grew up in Valley Center with his family—his father, Sean, a retired Navy pilot who works for Computer Protection Technology; his mother, Colleen, an aide for the Valley Center/Pauma Unified School District; and his siblings, Erin, John and Bridget.
Befitting his Irish heritage—his grandmother is from Ireland—Murphy is a fan of the Boston Red Sox, the Boston Celtics, and Notre Dame football. He and his father are planning a trip to Dublin, Ireland, to see Notre Dame play against Navy next year. He also likes Duke basketball and has been following the emerging career of PGA golfer Rory McElroy, lamenting that “I was a Tiger Woods fan, but…you can’t really do that anymore.”
When he’s not playing sports, Murphy says he’s working, working out, participating in church activities or sleeping.
After his high school athletics experience, Murphy has some encouragement for young athletes.
“To all the little guys out there, don’t ever stop working hard,” he says. “You may not be a stud, but you mean just as much. A team is a well-oiled machine, and it needs every part to work. So never give up, and don’t be afraid to go out and try a new sport. You never know if you’ll like it, so even if it’s hard, keep pushing through.”

Former VCHS QB to play football in France

Former Valley Center High School and UCLA quarterback Kevin Craft is headed to Paris.

The 2005 graduate of VCHS recently signed on to play quarterback for the Cougars of Saint-Ouen-l'Aumone, a town just north of Paris.

Read the full article here.

The Wonders Of Comic-Con

It was right around the time when the yeti slammed down his copy of Twilight: Eclipse and stormed out of the room that I realized it had been a bit of an unusual week.
As odd as that scene may seem to most of you, I assure you that it was just one of the many fantastic sights from this year’s annual gathering of nerds, known far and wide as San Diego Comic-Con 2010.
Last year was my first time going to The Con, so I had no idea what to expect. This year was interesting because I knew what it would be like, but I still was not fully prepared for the grandeur and sheer size of the massive event.
I went in more prepared. I had my list of panels I wanted to see. I scoped out the floor on Wednesday night (I get to go on the preview night because I’m a member of the media—and also because I’m quite awesome) to get the lay of the land and feel out the booths that would be best to visit again and again for all kinds of swag.
But I still missed out on a lot of stuff. People who weren’t even there asked me afterwards, “Did you see Angelina Jolie?” or “Did you find out if Mark Ruffalo was confirmed as the new Hulk?” or “Did you get stabbed in the eye with a pen by a kid wearing a Harry Potter shirt?” (which actually happened to someone, by the way). I saw a lot of stuff, but I still came away feeling like I missed a lot as well. I suppose that’s part of the genius of The Con; even after an intense week of nerdery, you still walk away wanting more.
But getting back to the things I did experience, it wasn’t quite as awe-inspiring for me as it was last year. I guess I’ll never really recapture that childlike wonderment that comes along with the maiden voyage to Comic-Con, which is a little bit sad. But there was still lots to see, and I will do my best to recount some of the amazing sights, sounds and experiences I encountered.

The bike from the upcoming Tron movie:


Wednesday Night
I used a summer camp analogy to describe last year’s Comic-Con, and if you’ll forgive the duplication, I have just one more comparison to make—the first night of The Con is a lot like the first day at camp. You don’t really know your way around yet, the kids who got their first already called the cool cabin, and nothing’s really going full swing just yet. It’s a good night to just wander the floor aimlessly, as I did for the better part of two hours, seeing what booths are giving out good stuff (that would be the Columbia Pictures booth, featuring the movie Salt, The Green Hornet and a sequel to the movie 30 Days Of Night) and what booths are going to be lame and stingy. (Seriously, G4? You only have buttons this year, and you expect us to pay for t-shirts? Not cool.)
But one of the most amusing moments for me (I’m a word nerd, so you may not find this funny at all) was on the trolley down to the convention center. The trolley driver, explaining that this was the red line special event service train, said that we could exit the trolley at one of three stops if we were attending “The Comic-Con.” I had to Tweet about that when it happened, because (as all nerds know), it’s not “The” Comic-Con, it’s just Comic-Con. So I went about calling it The Comic-Con for the rest of the week. And I considered this to be hilarious.
The rest of Wednesday night at The Comic-Con was spent watching part of a sneak-peek at the upcoming CW network series Nikita, about an assassin who is trying to… um…assassinate people.

I couldn’t really get into it at all because the characters kept just saying what they were feeling or describing what was happening. For example, a scene in which the show’s star, Nikita, is escaping from a secure location. She gets followed to an alley behind the building and caught by a member of the security team, who also (apparently) used to know this girl and/or have a relationship with her. Anyway, the dialogue was so elementary, they were actually saying things like “You know I can’t shoot you…not after all we’ve been through…” instead of, you know, letting the flashbacks we saw tell the story about how they went through things together. I’m not saying I could do it any better, but I can at least recognize when it’s not exactly Tolkien-esque. I’ll get down off my writer’s soapbox now.

Friday Night
I skipped Thursday this year, partly to save on gas money, and partly because I am married now, and I should probably pay at least a cursory amount of attention to my bride of just over two months. Love you, sweetheart!
Anyway, I went back down on Friday night, and I could immediately tell the difference between the weekend and the earlier mid-week days. It was pretty packed, and the costumes were starting to be much more numerous (and detailed). I saw some princesses (who explicitly said, “We’re not representing Disney!” to avoid any potential lawsuits):

...as well as some interesting takes on classic characters, such as Nintendo’s Mario looked a tad suspicious with his flashy suit, big hat and stylish cane:

...and some good, homemade group costumes (the cast of Pokemon, as worn by four girls who really did a great job with the costumes):
It's hard to see this girl with the camouflage on, except that it barely covers her:

I always forget about the autograph area until the end of the day, so by the time I got up there, not very many celebrities were still around. Olivia Munn was there signing copies of her book, Suck It, Wonder Woman: The Misadventures Of A Hollywood Geek, but I missed the ticket giveaway earlier that morning, so I just snapped a photo and moved along:

Not much happened Friday night, so I went home a little early and got ready for The Comic-Con’s big day.

It's Scott Wolf! From Party Of Five! AAAHHHH!!!!

Harry Potter's cloak of invisibility:

Saturday
Let me start off the story of my Comic-Con Saturday with a little shout out to the event staff—I almost missed out on the craziness of the day, but the sympathy and kind heart of one particular staff member made it possible.
Basically, I forgot my press pass when I drove down to meet the trolley to the convention center. As I mentioned, the need to save on gas money is a priority when you get married, so there was not enough fuel to get me home again, then back down to the trolley. So I embarked for the convention center, hoping that my press confirmation letter and photo ID would be enough.
The official policy of Comic-Con is that they don’t reissue press passes. To replace a lost attendee badge costs $100. I talked to four different people at three different locations, and there appeared to be nothing they could do.
Well, after talking with one of the supervisors, and assuring them that I had not sold my pass or anything like that, she took pity on me and issued me a one-day press pass for no charge. I won’t mention her name, just in case there would be any trouble she could get into, but I thanked her profusely and headed off to the exhibit hall once again.
Saturday at The Comic-Con is a new world full of bright colors, loud, random sounds and a whirlwind of activity that will turn your brain upside-down. It reminds me of the time I accidentally took too much Benadryl (and by too much, I mean I took one pill—I’m apparently a wimp when it comes to medicine) and ended up feeling loopy and unsure of spatial stimuli and tactile input for an entire evening.
But instead of feeling out of it, the excitement of the exhibition floor gets you pumped up for a day of costumes, celebrities and… well, waiting in line for upwards of two hours just to see something worth seeing. Woo hoo!

Batman gets interviewed...because he's always so available, after all:

Yes, there was some Twilight gear there.

At least it didn't ruin Comic-Con this year, like it did last year, apparently.

Celebrities were everywhere, from Chris Evans and Hugo Weaving (from the new Captain America movie) at the Marvel booth...

...to Michael Chiklis (who played The Thing in the Fantastic Four movies)...

to Seth MacFarlane (creator of Family Guy and The Cleveland Show)...
No, I didn’t see Angelina Jolie, or Will Ferrell, or Chevy Chase. Oh wait, I did see Chevy Chase.

And I totally nodded my head in his general direction as he walked by. We’re pretty much best friends now.
The costumes were amazing, from (my personal favorite) Colonel Sanders...

...to Gandalf...

to Voltron...
...to whatever this is...

...and that’s before the Masquerade even began. But we’ll get to that in a bit.
I had to go to the Attack Of The Show (AOTS) panel, mostly because it’s a hilarious show on G4 that shows the latest internet video sensations, gadget reviews, movie news and general awesomeness. Also, the hosts, Kevin Pereira and Olivia Munn, are really funny. I pretty much stalked Miss Munn last year at The Con, even participating in the now-famous Running Of The Munns that took place when one of her autograph sessions had to be moved at the last minute. I'm sure she's used to it.
Anyway, the AOTS panel brought the goods, as it does every year, with a contest to see which nerd could best imitate the now-famous “Double Rainbow” video clip that’s been circling the Web. They also had a bingo contest regarding the things that would happen during the panel. Some of the possible goings-on included “Sexy Yeti Sighting,” “AOTS Batman Surprises Kevin,” and “Zombie Apocalypse.” I did not win the bingo, but whoever had “Yeti Gets Upset With The Ending To The Twilight Series” got some fabulous prizes.
I got a couple autographs...

...took a photo with Pereira...

and boogied out to see what else was happening.
Turns out they close the exhibition hall at 7 p.m., but there was still plenty to see. In my wanderings, I happened upon the line for the Masquerade, an event I missed last year. They still had tickets, so I grabbed one and wondered (with some trepidation) if I would be forced to slow dance.
To my great relief, I did not. From the comfort of my seat, I was able to watch what was essentially a fashion show combined with an improv class, all featuring some awesome costumes.
Some were marvels of engineering, like the Amp suit from the movie Avatar:

...or the entirely-homemade minotaur:

...or the crowd-favorite Puff The Magic Dragon:

Others were great because of the presentation, such as the Xavier School Musical (the X-Men cartoon characters singing and dancing, like in that series of teen song-and-dance movies that shall not be named):

and the mish-mash of time-traveling heroes that included Bill & Ted, Dr. Who, Sam Beckett and Ziggy (from Quantum Leap) and, of course, Doc Brown and Marty McFly:

And some were just plain awesome, like the kid with the War Machine (from Iron Man 2) costume:

...or the Avatar vs. Avatar showdown (between the main characters from Avatar: The Last Airbender and James Cameron’s Avatar):

...or the winner of Best In Show, a group called Viva Las Villains that featured some famous comic book villains as they might appear in their own series of casinos:

The costumes were amazing, the presentation varied from uncomfortable to genuinely clever and funny, and the atmosphere was electric. Nerds love their cosplay, I suppose.
All told, it was a great week. I even had a few observations gathered over the course of The Comic-Con this year.
—There was a tremendous amount of diversity in the crowd, which shouldn’t really be a surprise in 2010, but was still noteworthy in a socially positive sense. From the black guy dressed as Batman Beyond:

...to the Asian kid dressed as “super” hero Kick-A**:

...to the Hispanic Jedi warrior I waited in line with to get a tin of red hots from the WB booth.
The world of the nerd apparently knows no boundaries, and The Comic-Con was a perfect example.
—The best swag (which stands for Stuff We All Get) came from the aforementioned Columbia Pictures booth, where they handed out three different free t-shirts, posters, buttons, and, on occasion, packages of microwave popcorn. They did it right—sometimes they weren’t handing out anything, sometimes you got a bunch of stuff. You had to check back at random times to see if you could score something cool.
The booth that was so close to getting it right was the booth for Millenium Films, featuring upcoming releases Red, Drive Angry and The Expendables. They gave out free t-shirts, but with a catch—you had to go to a different part of the exhibition hall to wait in line, and they only gave out a limited number, so the line was immediately full as soon as it opened. They gave away a lot of other stuff, including refrigerator magnets and keychains, but it mostly cluttered up my backpack and after the second day of it, nobody really wanted another cord organizer from the upcoming movie Sourcecode.
I was pretty disappointed with the G4 booth, which gave away lots of stuff last year, but insisted on selling stuff this year. They handed out buttons this year, but compared to last year’s giveaways of shirts, rub-on tattoos, photos, posters and even green plastic visors, it was just sad. Same with the WB booth, which clearly had enough foot traffic to justify some cool handouts, but only passed out little red hots in a Vampire Diaries tin, a free Harry Potter broomstick for your character on Xbox Live, some little buttons, and a card to go to another booth to get a Big Bang Theory button. For one thing, don’t make me stand in line all that time just to send me on an errand. And for another thing, come on folks, it’s The Comic-Con. This is not the time to skimp.
—As always, there was a lot I kind of saw but didn’t get to investigate. There is apparently a new Medal Of Honor video game coming out (I was a HUGE fan of the MOH series when it was on Playstation 1 & 2, when it was about World War II, but this one looks like it involves modern wars), and I didn’t really get down to the Marvel booth that often (they didn’t hand out much, and it was a little ways away from the main booths congregated in the center of the exhibition hall). I heard a lot about different panels, but you can pretty much only see one panel a day (unless you stay for back-to-back panels in the same room) because the lines get so long so quickly.
I wish I’d had a little more time to check out the autograph area as well; I did take some photos of the scattered celebrities who were left on Saturday night (including the voice cast of Futurama:

...as well as the guy who played The Soup Nazi on Seinfeld):

but I didn’t get any sweet autographs this year.
But there were a couple of random sightings that made my week, in a weird way. I checked out last year’s Comic-Con photos, and found this picture of a nerdy kid with big white shoes riding the trolley the first day:

Well, I saw him on the trolley again this year, but in a much bigger crowd, so I couldn’t get a shot of him. I saw another guy, also from last year’s trolley ride (this nerdy guy, who was thoroughly engrossed in his bag of goodies):

...on the trolley ride home on Saturday. In a weird way, it was a cool way to end my Comic-Con experience this year, as if seeing those guys brought it all around, full-circle.
And it reminded me that no matter how cool I get, or how many times I see an angry yeti storm off a stage, I’m just a big, nerdy kid inside.
Be sure to write in if you have any thoughts about Comic-Con, or if you have any photos from The Con that you'd like to share.