Culver Military’s Justin Murphy knows his way around a cannon, like this one that guards Lake Maxinkuckee on the academy’s campus.
Tribune Photo/
SANTIAGO FLORES
A new Murphy's Law
CMA senior sets the standard for leadership
AL LESAR
On Preps
CULVER -- Given the fact that Justin Murphy's grade-point average (3.8) is higher than his scoring average (0.40), it's obvious he's playing basketball for the love of the game.
The Culver Military Academy program gets more from Murphy than what shows up in the boxscore.
"There are seven seniors on our team and we're tight," Murphy said. "I'm out there for them. Basketball's not an individual thing. It's the team that's important. When something good happens, if I'm not out on the court, I'll be the first one off the bench to congratulate the ones who were out there."
Young people, take note. That attitude is the definition of a leader.Murphy has scored six points in 15 games for a Culver Academy team that is 12-7 heading into tonight's regular-season finale with Argos. A more impressive number, though, is the 2000 he scored on the SAT (out of a possible 2400).
Couple that achievement with his GPA and the slew of community service and school projects he has directed or chaired and Murphy's special nature becomes evident.
"There's always room for a guy like Justin in a basketball program," CMA coach Tommy Mascari said of the 6-foot, 175-pound native of nearby Rochester. "He's the ultimate team player. He's here every day to work hard in practice and he has accepted the role he's in. That tells a lot about his character."
Character never has been an issue with Murphy. He played basketball as a freshman, then the next two years on junior varsity. Before the season, Murphy worried that Mascari might not need a senior who wasn't going to play a lot. He didn't realize his true value.
Mascari wasn't just putting a seldom-used senior on his team. He was stocking his squad with a solid leader and an excellent role model.Besides his academic success, Murphy has been a four-year member of the CMA Rifle Drill Team; he's gotten to fire the cannon that guards Lake Maxinkuckee with the Four-Gun Drill Unit; he's led several school and community service projects and is part of the academy's student government.
"Being involved makes me happy," said Murphy. "I see so many new cadets come in here, sit in their rooms and be miserable. You might say I got my money's -- well, my parents' money's -- worth out of the Culver experience."
He'll leave in May -- probably
to the University of Nebraska to study computer and electrical engineering
-- with some hardware that came as a surprise. In November, Murphy was
selected as CMA's Second-Highest Ranking Cadet. Then in January, while
seeing limited action in the Bi-County Tournament, he became the academy's
first winner of the tournament's WB Hawkins Sportsmanship Award.
"It was a packed gym (on the night of the championship when the award
was announced)," Murphy said. "I heard them reading the
information on the winner, and it dawned on me they were talking about me.
"Four years of working hard and finally someone noticed."
Murphy plugged along in obscurity his first three years. He felt he was
worthy of acclaim within the academy. But when it didn't come, he bit his
tongue.
"I thought I could have been among the high-ranking cadets
earlier," Murphy said. "When it didn't happen, I didn't worry
about it. It motivated me to work harder. I try to be as modest as
possible. I don't brag. I see other people do it and I don't like
it."
Leaders don't get caught up in
that.
"I've taken leadership classes and I've learned that a leader needs
to serve his followers before he can lead them," Murphy said.
"I'm just one of the guys. I'm just out here to work hard, help when
I can and be part of the team."
A coach's dream. Young people, take note.