Each time the Holy Spirit High School girls basketball team takes the floor, it knows Kendall Murphy is going to empty the tank. The senior forward might be a lacrosse player at heart, but her value to the Spartans’ basketball team has never been difficult to see, even when it didn’t show up in the box score. It usually involves diving on the hard floor for a loose ball or taking a hard hit to draw a charge.
“She does everything,” Holy Spirit coach Tim Whitworth said after a late December victory in the Boardwalk Classic. “She does everything that everyone doesn’t see in the box scores, but now it’s actually showing up this year because she leads us in rebounds, steals and assists. She’s one of the most athletic players on the floor, and at times, the fastest. From north to south, she has unbelievable speed.”
It wasn’t easy getting back to full speed. Murphy suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament in her knee during the winter of her sophomore year and was forced to miss about seven months of sports, including lacrosse season that spring. She returned to basketball in time for her junior season and wore a brace on her rehabilitated knee. She continued to play fearlessly despite the injury fresh in her memory.
“I try to not be scared of it,” she said. “I’m fine with it now. At first, right before I got cleared, there was a lot of pain, and the brace would scrape against my other leg. My whole other leg would be bruised from the brace, but I had to wear it. Once I got it all out of my head I was fine.”
This season marks the fourth year Murphy has been in the Spartans starting lineup on the hardwood, and the brace has since been removed. Holy Spirit is enjoying another successful year, as it was 11-5 through Jan. 25. At that point, the Spartans were an impressive 53-28 since Murphy first stepped on the floor as a freshman. It’s a testament to Murphy setting an example of accountability on the defensive side of the court.
“Me and my teammate Ella Petrosh really played hard defense and loved getting up and down the court,” Murphy said. “Our whole team now kind of plays like that.”
Murphy returned to the lacrosse field last spring and scored 27 goals and 29 assists to help the Spartans reach the Non-Public B state championship game. She also committed to play lacrosse at Salisbury University in Maryland, where she will study exercise science. Her mother is a physical therapist, and her father is an occupational therapist.
“I really liked what [the therapists] did for me during my physical therapy,” Murphy said. “I want to help other athletes like they helped me.”
Murphy certainly isn’t afraid of trying new things. After the injury forced her to sit out the soccer season last year, she decided to switch gears and give field hockey a try during her senior year. She was part of a team that went 13-3-3, and Murphy even contributed a pair of goals and four assists along the way. It seems no coincidence that team success follows Murphy around.
“She played soccer for [two] years and decided she wanted to try something different,” Whitworth said. “She’s always played basketball and lacrosse. She’s an unbelievable athlete and just a phenomenal kid.”
Murphy says basketball is a “close second” to lacrosse, where the Spartans will once again have high expectations after reaching the state championship game two years in a row.
“That team is a combination of all the other teams together,” Murphy said. “I think we’ll be really good again this year. Hopefully, we can keep it up and win the state championship this year after being runner-up the last two years.”
But that doesn’t mean she’s dismissing basketball season. There are still a few more bruises to collect this winter to help her teammates.
“I love this team, and [Whitworth] is the best basketball coach I’ve had. He makes it really fun,” she said.
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