Despite the fact that he lost seven starters from last year’s team, which reached the Group 1 state semifinals, Scott Murphy, in his eighth year at the helm, guided New Providence to its first outright Group 1 state title and the program’s third overall.
New Providence shared Group 1 honors in 2000 and in ’03. New Providence defeated Pennsville, 1-0, in the Group 1 championship game this fall. New Providence finished 18-3, allowed only 15 goals and chalked up 13 shutouts.
Star Ledger - NJ Girls Soccer
New Prov's Murphy Becomes a Centurion
by Rich Bevensee - September 24, 2010
Don't like to admit it but I wasn't on top of this one.
Scott Murphy's 100th career victory as head coach of the New Providence girls soccer team snuck up on me. I found out about it Tuesday evening while writing all the Union County briefs.
The big triple-digit victory came in a 2-0 decision against Cranford on Tuesday.
``I was very humbled after the game,'' Murph said. ``The girls had a banner and our AD got on the public address system.
``It's the girls' victory. I didn't want to be in the spotlight. I knew people were pointing toward the end of last year and they told me if we won the state championship that would give me 100. But it actually would have been 99, so it didn't make a difference in that regard. This is all really a credit to the kids that I've had.''
Hard to imagine but the youthful-looking Murphy, who could still pass for a high school senior at age 37, is in his eighth year at the helm already. He took over the reins from Chad Gillikin and inherited a team that went 3-11 in 2002.
Since that time, Murph has carved out a career record of 100-38-10. He's gotten there with the help of All-State goalie Lauryn Dempsey and all-county forward Kim Closs. Those two serve as bookends for his career thus far at New Prov.
``Every girls coach knows the better players you have, the better coach you are,'' Murphy said. ``I still remember my first year when Lauryn Dempsey was a senior and we won state (tied Glen Rock, 0-0, for a share of the Group 1 title). I remember thinking, This is easy. It's not that easy.''
Murphy never let off the gas after that sensational debut season of '03. His teams never failed to win less than 10 games in all but one season, and he has directed the Pioneers to three Group 1 state semifinals.
``One hundred never even crossed my mind when I started,'' he said.
``I still don't think about it in terms of how much I've won. Every year it's a different job with different girls, and we go from there.''
I asked Murph if he plans to stick around long enough to join the likes of his colleague from Union Catholic, Jim Revel, who earned his 300th victory five years ago.
``If I hang around long enough and I get the players, then maybe,'' he said. ``Then I look at our football coach (Frank Bottone, 79, who announced he is stepping down after this, his 48th season) who's one of the winningest in state history, and I wonder if I could hang around that long.
``If I still enjoy it, then I'll stay here as long as they'll have me.''
The 2003 Star LedgerState Coach of the Year.
The 2010 Courier News
All-Area
Coach of the Year
By SIMEON PINCUS • STAFF WRITER • December 10, 2010
With all of the change the New Providence High School girls soccer team had forced upon it entering the 2010 season, the Pioneers' fate already was teetering on the brink. Call it genius or insanity, but Coach Scott Murphy knew inflicting more change was the only chance his team had at maintaining its level of excellence.
With seven starters graduated — including star forwards Kim Closs and Rachel Schlobohm, sweeper Nan Tucker and keeper Connie Haggerty — defending their two consecutive NJSIAA sectional titles was thought to be a longshot.
Thanks to the rapid maturation of its underclassmen, the leadership of its returning starters and a complete overhaul to its defensive system, New Providence not only defended those titles but won the first outright state Group I title in program history.
Murphy, the Courier News Girls Soccer Coach of the Year, who led the Pioneers to a state co-championship in 2003, credits his returning starters for helping to instill the winning culture in the newcomers.
Senior Gina Caprara and sophomore Alex Schlobohm handled the offense, while senior Allison Boyle and junior Nicole Saitta were the leaders on defense as the Pioneers (18-3) moved up to the Union County Conference Mountain Division and ran the table, then advanced to the Union County Tournament semifinals before topping Pennsville 1-0 in the Group I final.
"They weren't really familiar with the younger kids," Murphy said of his returning starters. "It was really, "We're not sure where we're going to go, so we might as well work hard and see what happens.' Once we got through the preseason and they saw what we had and the commitment, they bought into it."
"We knew there would be a lot of younger girls on the team this year, and we wanted to teach them the ropes," Boyle said. "We definitely didn't expect to have a bad season. We lost some good players, but we also received some good players. Still, we never expected to win a state championship." But despite the confidence and culture, changes had to made on the field to try and make up for the graduated talent. Murphy decided to go from a traditional diamond defense to a flat-back four, something he toyed with in the preseason seven years ago but ultimately scrapped. Murphy said he felt the system would work very well with the players he had and help make up for some of the graduated firepower.
"I felt that with Nicole (Saitta) and Allie (Boyle), they could both play the sweeper/stopper role, so this gave them the freedom to decide on their own who would move forward and who would drop back," Murphy said. "With our outside backs able to stay wider, they could push forward a little more and get more involved in the attack to make up for the goal scorers we lost."
Admittedly, Boyle and Saitta were hesitant when Murphy approached them with the change during offseason camp. But when New Providence beat mighty Westfield in a preseason scrimmage, that was all the convincing they needed.
"Nicole and I had definitely been skeptical about it for a while, just because it was such a different strategy than we were used to," Boyle said. "But we put our opinions aside and started testing it out and put it into action, and we noticed it started working. Just the fact the new formation had beaten such a good team gave us confidence in it."
With all of the expectations, Murphy never pressured his team to do anything more than play its best. He did everything he could to keep his team focused, Boyle said, and that's something that cannot be said for a lot of coaches.
"He never really put pressure on us," she said. "He just encouraged us to do the best we could. He would have been happy with whatever we did as long as we tried our hardest. If we had someone that was just yelling at us the entire time, our season last year would have been at the front of our mind. He wanted to win, but it was our desire that drove us and he gave us that confidence in ourselves."
The 2003 Courier News
All-Area Coach of the Year
2003
2011 - The Playoff Beard Did It's Job
Star Ledger - New Jersey Girls Soccer
Murphy picks up milestone as New Providence wins
by Gregg Lerner, September 22, 2010
Gina Caprara and Jenna Madden scored to lead New Providence (3-1) by Cranford, 2-0. The victory was the 100th for head coach Scott Murphy.
It is my honor and privilege to advise you, on behalf of the NFHS Coaches Association, that you have been selected to receive the 20ll Northeast Sectional Coach of the Year award for the sport of Girls Soccer. The Northeast section includes the states of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode bland and Vermont. The NFHS recognizes coaches at the state, sectional and national level, and notifies recipients by letter of the highest level of award they will receive. Congratulations on your sectional award recognition!
The NFHS Coaches Association is the official national coaches association of the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS). All sectional coaches were considered for national coach of the year in their sport and the national coach recipients in all sports have been previously notified. We are also enclosing some information about ordering a commemorative ring/watch for your award in case you are interested.
Your contributions to high school athletics are truly deserving of our recognition and appreciation. Your certificate will be sent to your state athletic/activities associations for distribution to you. If you have any questions, please contact Barb Waldsmith in our office via email at bwaldsmith@nfhs.org or by phone at 3l7-822-5732.
Congratulation on being selected to represent all of those deserving coaches in your section. Again, thank you for your many contributions to the youth of this country.
Sincerely,
Robert B. Gardner Jeff Arbogast
Executive Director Chair, NFHS Coaches Association
Advisory Committee
National Federation of High SchoolAssociations (NFHS)
