By Randall Jett
Register-Herald Sports Writer
Tue, May 13 2008
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HUNTINGTON — There aren’t a lot of things that challenge Richwood’s Shawn Murphy. The 6-foot-4, 295-pound senior is heading to Marshall University to play football in the fall as an invited walk-on.
Before jumping into football full-time, though, Murphy decided to give wrestling a whirl. The reason? To work on his endurance and mental toughness.
“Now that I’m at the end of the season, I’m really glad I chose this because my endurance has shot up,” Murphy said. “My strength isn’t as high as I want it to be right now, but my endurance and mental toughness right now is just where it needs to be, if not better.”
It has also helped Murphy out physically.
“This is where I need to be,” he said. “My footwork is getting a lot better and my overall athleticism is getting better. One-on-one with somebody 100 percent for six minutes is one of the hardest things I’ve ever seen. It’s not an easy thing to do.”
It hasn’t been an easy road as he has faced several wrestlers who were more experienced and technical than he is on the mats.
“It was a lot harder in the beginning because I got a lot more forfeits,” Murphy said. “I had to wrestle the top-ranked wrestlers. Now that I have a little more experience, things are getting a little bit easier. I can still tell how I’m out-moved — many more moved and technical. My strength helps out a lot in this. Other than that, it’s still hard.
“It’s the hardest sport I’ve had to be conditioned for.”
Murphy has compiled a 32-12 record while wrestling against Liberty’s Mike Carpenter and Independence’s Adam Barnette, two of the top Class AA-A wrestlers, regularly.
After winning his first match Thursday in the state tournament, Murphy faced a mammoth test in Oak Glen’s Doug Murray. Although Murray took a 7-4 decision win over Murphy, the Lumberjacks’ heavyweight was impressive. After being put on his back by Murray, Murphy overpowered the Oak Glen grappler to escape, something that never happens when Murray gains that kind of advantage.
“Murray is real technical,” Murphy said. “He’s smart and he’s defensive. He got me on my back that first time, got my back points, and he was up five. That really killed me.”
Murphy came back in the elimination bracket with a nice 6-3 win over Weir’s Vance Miller.
“That guy was strong,” Murphy said. “He was a brute. He liked bear hugs and I was trying to fight through those. I ended up having to use brute strength on him to match him. I just came out on top this time.”
If things fall right the rest of the tournament, Murphy could battle back for a rematch with Murray for third place.
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