By NICK SLOAN,
NJSloan212@gmail.com
For most of us, expectations and pressure doesn’t truly pick up until we start looking for colleges and looking to wrap-up a great academic career in high school.
We stress over ACT testing, senior projects and even the basic homework that can pile up on any given night.
For Colin and Ryan Murphy, better known to the Basehor community as the Murphy Twins, high and even unrealistic expectations for them began in middle school.
Even before they stepped onto the campus of Basehor-Linwood High School, “The Twins” were expected to transform the athletic department at the school and to turn a community’s path in high school sports around.
Four years after beginning their high school careers, it can be said the mission has been accomplished by the twins, even if the most insane expectations from a small selected few were not met.
“We knew everyone expected a lot from us early on,” said Colin Murphy.
“There was a lot of pressure on us from the beginning,” Ryan Murphy followed up.
As both Murphy’s are seniors now, handling that pressure has been one of the strengths this season, said Basehor-Linwood Bobcats basketball head coach Mike McBride.
“They have an uncommon ability to stay calm,” McBride said. “Most people don’t realize that and they have been the ultimate team players here.”
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The dramatic change for the Basehor athletic program during the Murphy Twins' four years at Basehor-Linwood came in football.
In the four years before Colin and Ryan arrived at the high school, the program was struggling.
The team experienced a 4-5 season, 3-6 season, 2-7 season and a 5-6 season during that four-year stretch, good for a combined 14-24 record.
During the four years the Murphy twins played on the team, the Bobcats were 31-10.
After a 4-6 year in the freshman seasons for Ryan and Colin Murphy, the Twins led Basehor to a 27-4 record in their last three seasons in football.
“We were good at both sports growing up,” Colin Murphy said. “We knew both the basketball and football teams were down while we were growing up here.”
The fun truly picked up for Basehor football when Colin was moved from wide receiver to the quarterback position.
In his two seasons behind center, Colin Murphy tossed for 4,629 yards and 44 touchdowns. Murphy also scrambled for 726 yards and scored 21 rushing touchdowns as the team's quarterback.
His brother Ryan was the biggest reason why the passing game clicked. In his final three seasons as the team's leading wide receiver, Ryan had 129 receptions, 2,724 yards and 27 touchdowns for the Bobcats.
If you take away their freshman season record wise, the Twins suffered just four career losses in their final three seasons.
"We don't take losing well," Ryan Murphy said. "The football program was down and we wanted to help change it."
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To give the Murphy Twins sole credit for the turnaround of the basketball program would be overlooking the role of head coach Mike McBride.
After inheriting a down program - the team one year before McBride was hired as head coach had won just two games - McBride immediately turned the program around.
Since 2006-07, McBride is 111-23 and coached Basehor to its first ever basketball state championship in 2009, when Colin and Ryan Murphy were freshmen.
Still, even after McBride guided Basehor to a 34-10 record in two seasons prior to the Twins, the winning picked up.
The boys basketball program is an incredible 77-13 during the four seasons Ryan and Colin have been in the lineup for McBride's squad - and even the very successful coach acknowledges the Twins have put Basehor on the map in athletics.
McBride credits a competitive drive for the Twins, one that even forces them to clash among themselves sometimes during practice.
"We have to break-up fights between them sometimes," McBride said. "They don't back off from each other and they duke it out a lot. There are elbows thrown."
Colin agreed with his coach.
"It makes it more competitive," Colin Murphy said, regarding his brother being on the team. "He thinks he's always right."
When you watch the Bobcats play, there's almost a collective chip on their shoulders. They play tough, physical basketball at times, including punching Lansing in the mouth on the road last week to help lock up at least a share of the Kaw Valley League title.
That same chip can be applied to McBride in terms of how much he feels the Twins are overlooked by many in the Kansas City metro area.
"Every time (media outlets) want me to nominate Colin or Ryan, they're not impressed with the stats," McBride said. "We've won between 18 and 22 games a year during their careers. They don't have the overwhelming stats. They don't look at Ryan Murphy shooting 69 percent one year. They don't look at efficiency on offense."
Still, both the career and season stats are pretty impressive as the week began.
In the 2011-12 season, Colin Murphy is leading the team in points scored, rebounds and assists. He averages 18.2 points a game, 8.3 rebounds a game and 3.3 assists a night.
One underrated thing, McBride said, is Colin served as the team's primary point guard for the first 13 games of the season as sophomore Chase Younger and the other underclassmen guards were learning the offense and becoming more comfortable with it.
Ryan Murphy is close to his brother's stats - he averages 16.4 points, 7.6 rebounds and 1.7 assists a game.
Career-wise, their statistics are almost a mirror image of each other.
Colin Murphy has scored 1,187 career points, just 33 more points than his brother's 1,154 career point total.
Colin has shot 64 percent from the field during his career - just one percent higher than Ryan's 63 percent career shooting percentage.
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Despite the individual accomplishments and the incredible 108-23 combined record in football and basketball, there's no selfishness and arrogance with The Twins.
They are very soft-spoken and almost a little shy. They also have great character according to their head basketball coach.
"They always think of others first on and off the court," McBride said. "They are going to be great human beings."
The competitiveness and excellence have rubbed off on teammates. Perhaps no teammate has benefited from the Twins more than future Kansas Jayhawks tight end Ben Johnson.
"I've considered it an honor to play with them," Johnson said. "It's been great and teams have focused on them."
Johnson, the talented junior, grew up in the same neighborhood as The Twins. Johnson has joined The Twins in being the three lead factors in the success of the football and basketball programs.
Johnson said the twins will leave a legacy that no one can really match.
"Their legacy is one that will be really hard for anyone to reach," Johnson said. "Take a look at the programs and what they did here."
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When looking at the accomplishments of the Murphy Twins, a state title this season would only be a small portion of the legacy.
It's hard to remember when any pair of twins in the Kansas City metro area dominated not just one sport, but the two most important high school sports.
Most importantly, they've transformed the Basehor community into one that has a fever for high school sports.
"The community expects us to win now," Colin Murphy said. "I'm proud of that."
