Daily Pilot High School Athlete of the Week: Jenna Murphy

Steve Virgen

Times have certainly changed for Newport Harbor High junior Jenna

Murphy. Gone are the days of being the wide-eyed freshman on the varsity

water polo team. Gone are the days of being the one who asks all the

questions.

Now she has most of the answers and she is thriving in the role as one

of the Sailors’ leaders.

However, Murphy has yet to reach the pinnacle of her potential.

“She’s capable of playing at even a higher level because she has a

tremendous amount of talent,” Newport Coach Bill Barnett said of the

left-handed two-meter player. “With her talent, she should never be

satisfied because she is such a tremendous talent. She has to continue to

push herself.”

Murphy agreed with her coach.

“He has a lot of confidence in me,” Murphy said. “During practice, he

always tries to push me to my fullest potential. He likes to push me. He

knows what I’m capable of doing and so do I. With the way I’m going now,

I think I haven’t peaked yet.”

Murphy, the Daily Pilot Athlete of the Week, appeared to be pushing

herself to her limits last week, displaying an immense amount of

intensity. She scored two goals and handed out an assist to help the

visiting Sailors defeat previously unbeaten El Toro, 10-4, Jan. 4. She

also scored three goals in an 8-6 win at Carlsbad.

“Oh, that felt really good,” Murphy said of the win over El Toro that

avenged a 7-6 loss in five overtime periods to the Chargers in a CIF

Southern Section Division I quarterfinal. “(The win) felt good,

especially because of last year. I tipped the ball for a goal for them

(in the fourth overtime period). I blamed myself last year. I took it

pretty hard. But my teammates helped me realize it wasn’t my fault. I

wanted to prove to (El Toro) that we are the better team. I don’t think

they were ready for how much we wanted it.”

Murphy’s left-handed skills kept the Chargers off balance throughout

the game. Yet it was her intensity that Barnett was most impressed with.

“She has really picked up her game in the last couple of weeks,”

Barnett said. “Just the overall intensity of her play has improved. She’s

shooting the ball real well and she’s playing exceptionally well in

games.”

Murphy is also aware that she has improved. She battled through a

shoulder injury last year and during the offseason she increased her

strength by maintaining a busy schedule. Aside from training and playing

water polo, Murphy became a certified beach lifeguard this summer.

Among the 31 people who were training to become a lifeguard, boys

included ages 16-23, Murphy finished third in points compiled March

through May. The lifeguard training also helped her improve her speed.

This season, Murphy usually attempts to win the ball on the opening

sprints. In addition, because she is a lefty, she is a key on the

Sailors’ player-advantage plays. She has 15 assists this season, as does

senior Katherine Belden, who leads the team in that category.

“I have improved,” said Murphy, whose 19 goals this season is third on

the team. “Last year, I was injured for half the season. But I think I’ve

just matured more in the sport. I’ve experienced more. I started out as

the freshman on varsity. I was the small girl, just learning. And now I’m

one of the leaders on the team. It just came with experience.”

While her improvement has come with experience, it’s her aversion to

losing that sent her a strong wake-up call this season. After

early-season losses to Back Bay rival Corona del Mar and San Diego County

power Poway, Murphy and her teammates realized they could play much

better.

“After CdM and our loss to Poway, I was sick of losing close games,”

Murphy said. “I wanted to make a difference. We wanted to prove what

we’re made of. My life is pretty much water polo because we spend so much

time at the pool. A lot of the girls on the team are my friends. We spend

a ton of time with it. The team has been playing with each other for a

long time. I’ve known mostly everyone since I was 12. We’ve been waiting

for this year and next year. We know we have to work hard and keep on

trying our hardest.”