Hometeam 2010 Football Preview - Worcester Telegram & Gazette

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CENTRAL MASS. HIGH SCHOOL SPORTS MAGAZINE
WWW.TELEGRAM.COM/HOMETEAM
20
By Bill Doyle
DIVISION 2A
The torchbearer
Thomas Murphy latest in long line of great Northbridge High quarterbacks
NORTHBRIDGE — Ken
LaChapelle ranks senior
Thomas Murphy among the
top three quarterbacks he
has had in his 35 years as
head football coach at
Northbridge High.
That’s quite a compliment
considering that
LaChapelle has coached the
Rams to seven Super Bowl championships
and his teams annually rank among the best
passing teams in Central Massachusetts.
“Combination of running and passing, Tom
would be right up there in the top three,”
LaChapelle said. “If I were to rate him in
terms of passing, he’d be fifth or sixth. The
fact is he’s a 2,000-yard passer in an offense
that needs 2,000 yards, and he gets the job
done.”
Murphy feels honored just to play quarterback
at pass-happy Northbridge, never mind
having his coach rank him so high.
“It means a lot to me,” Murphy said,
“because there’s so much history with Rams
football. If you think about Northbridge, the
first sport that comes to mind is football.”
LaChapelle rates only Dan Brown and Jeff
Altieri ahead of Murphy as a QB. Brown won
two Super Bowls early this decade, and
Altieri captured two in the 1990s. Murphy will
seek his first Super Bowl title this fall after
the Rams fell to David Prouty in the Division
2A Super Bowl last year.
Murphy certainly has the arm to do it as he
proved last spring when he helped pitch
Northbridge to the Division 2 state baseball
championship. Murphy blanked South
Hadley, 10-0, in the state semifinals.
John Demagian, the Rams’ varsity baseball
coach and freshman football coach, knows
Murphy as a pitcher and a quarterback.
Demagian said Murphy relies more on keeping
batters off balance than a blazing fastball,
but he has plenty of zip on his passes.
“He can throw the football with anyone that
we’ve had here,” Demagian said, “as far as
velocity, as far as getting the ball where it has
to go.”
Last fall, the 6-foot-3, 185-pound Murphy
completed 142 of 253 passes for 1,929 yards and
17 touchdowns with 12 interceptions. He also
ran 68 times for 548 yards and seven more
scores. Last spring, he was 8-0 on the mound
for the Rams.
Murphy should be even better this fall after
fine-tuning his technique at eight college
football camps. The Harvard camp stressed a
higher completion rate and convinced him to
take a quicker first step back from the line of
scrimmage and to hold the ball higher in
order to release it quicker.
“We’re working more this year on touch,”
LaChapelle said. “Sometimes you throw it
hard, sometimes you don’t. That’s a skill
Ken LaChapelle ranks senior Thomas Murphy among the top three quarterbacks he has had in his 35
years as football coach at Northbridge High.
that’s not easy to teach a kid.”
Murphy finds quarterback to be a much
more stressful position than pitcher.
“Pitching is a similar feeling,” he said, “but
you don’t feel like you’re the captain. I feel
the catcher is more the captain so you don’t
feel as much pressure.”
Murphy should know. He was the backup
catcher for the Rams.
“I’m a lot more nervous when I catch,” he
said.
LaChapelle rates Murphy as a deceptive
runner.
“I wouldn’t run him a lot because of his
value as a quarterback,” LaChapelle said,
“but he’s a good change-up runner.”
Murphy ranks sixth in his class, and he’s
TOM RETTIG
interested in science so he’s looking at
Brown, Williams, Middlebury, WPI and Rochester.
LaChappelle has his quarterbacks begin
playing the position in the eighth grade so
they can learn the system early. Murphy
actually began playing QB in the sixth grade
in flag football, and for the past three years he
has helped coach the championship team in
the flag football league.
As a freshman, Murphy thought about giving
up football to play golf, but decided
against it.
“I like football,” he said, “and I might not
ever get to play after high school, so I might
as well do it. I can play golf for the rest of my
life.”