After spending two years as a Penn assistant and seven very successful years at Haverford College, Mike Murphy is returning to the Quakers as head coach of the men's lacrosse team, according to an athletic department announcement today.
Murphy is a former Penn assistant who could not have been any more successful in his first head coaching opportunity at Haverford. He leaves the Black Squirrels having been one win away from becoming their all-time winningest coach, but was by far the most successful coach in terms of winning percentage, wins per season, national rankings and postseason appearances.
Avid Buzz readers probably recall that I predicted this move after former coach Brian Voelker left for Drexel two weeks ago. OK, so I didn't exactly predict it, but I did mention Murphy as the most likely candidate. According to Insidelacrosse.com, other candidates for the job included Towson's Tony Seaman (sound familiar?) and current Penn assistant Chris Wojcik. Murphy has already said he would definitely like to keep Wojcik as an assistant (Voelker's other assistant, Conor Ford, is joining him at Drexel).
I like this move for Penn on every level. His history at Penn and tremendous success at Haverford made him an obvious choice in my mind, with the only hindrance being whether he would be willing to leave a program that he had built to such great heights. His transition back to Penn should be seamless, as his family lives nearby and he is already very well-established on the local recruiting scene. As I implied in the aforementioned post about Voelker's departure, I believe this move justifies the decision to let Voelker leave. Obviously only time will tell, but to me this seems like a step in the right direction for the Quakers.
On another positive note, Murphy seemed to contradict the impression I got from Voelker that Penn is not committed to its M. Lax program.
“I’m ecstatic,” he told Inside Lacrosse. “I think the Penn administration has proven that they support lacrosse and Coach [Brian] Voelker has put together a great deal of talent. For me, this is the ideal position.”
Whether he was being sincere or simply trying to say the right things and get off to a good start in his new job, that statement and his hiring should certainly bring a sigh of relief to frustrated Penn fans.
Stay tuned for more information and analysis on Murphy's hiring in this Thursday's issue of The Summer Pennsylvanian.
Tags: Brian Voelker, coaches, M. Lax, Mike Murphy
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July 27th, 2009 at 12:43 pm
"the impression I got from Voelker that Penn is not committed to its M. Lax program "
Not my take. I think it's accurate to say that Voelker didn't have the leverage to get Penn to chase after him once Drexel raised the stakes. I think there was definitely a lack of commitment to get involved in that.
July 27th, 2009 at 7:38 pm
Hopefully this is not the beginning of the end of Murphy's career.
And to the author. your comment "He has history at Penn"
Its not like he was around for decades. Dont overdo the word history.
July 28th, 2009 at 11:35 am
In press release by Penn Athletics, the statement appeared:
“We are excited to get a coach of Mike’s caliber to Penn,” said Bilsky. “The success he has had as a head coach at Haverford College has made a lot of people in lacrosse circles take note, and his experiences as an assistant coach prior to that lead us to believe that he will step in and have the same kind of impact on our program
Believe we have a grammatical issue -- should have said LED US TO BELIEVE, rather than LEAD US TO BELIEVE.
See attached excellent link from the Grammar Trap at Purdue
http://www.agriculture.purdue.edu/agcomm/ontarget/0809/grammar_trap.htm
Nice to know the Bilsky's PR office flunked grammar school
GFOJL
July 31st, 2009 at 11:04 am
I believe you may need the grammar lesson. This is one of the proper uses of the present tense of the verb "lead" when not followed by an object. It is totally proper to say "these experiences lead us to conclude etc."
More importantly can't you and your friend offer anything substantive in this blog? Noah and others have written some good and not so good pieces, but this FOLJ act has become more boring and tiresome than anything they could ever attempt to blog about. I guess Bilsky took FOJL's rubber ducky. Sorry about that, but most readers got the point months ago.
July 31st, 2009 at 11:34 am
Yeah I agree with JGH.
July 31st, 2009 at 2:19 pm
@JGH -- "More importantly can’t you and your friend offer anything substantive in this blog?"
I don't know FOJL, and if I had my preference, he'd stop using my name in his posts because people out there, like you, are LEAD/LED to believe that we're of the same mind on all things Penn Athletics.
Still, for me, this outcome is better than the old days when he used to post simply as "Jon Lubin."
August 3rd, 2009 at 8:20 pm
I missed this point of the whole Jon Lubin/FOJL rant.