McLain Murphy didn’t care much for lacrosse when he first tried the sport as a fourth-grader. He said he didn’t like wearing the pads, and after his first day of a lacrosse camp, he decided he had enough.
His retirement was short lived, however. The following summer, some parents in Murphy’s Glenview neighborhood asked Will Jeffery, a 2005 Glenbrook South graduate who went on to play at Massachusetts, to hold an informal lacrosse camp for their children at a nearby park while he was home for the summer.
Murphy was coerced by friends, including E.J. Reynolds, to give the sport another shot.
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“I stopped playing and picked it back and slowly fell in love with it,” Murphy said.
A recent graduate of Glenbrook South, Murphy is continuing his lacrosse career at Vermont, where after committing as a junior, he hopes to see the field early on as an attacker.
“It’s a huge relief,” Murphy said of preparing for his college career. “I’ve been waiting for two years. I’m excited and ready to get going.”
In addition to the increased competition, college lacrosse will offer another challenge for Murphy: It will be the first time in his career that he doesn’t take the field alongside Reynolds, a lifelong friend and teammate.
Reynolds, a defenseman who plans to play at Division-III Ithaca (N.Y.) in the fall, recalled that the first time he met Murphy was while they were playing youth soccer. Even as a kindergartner, Reynolds knew Murphy was an elite athlete.
“I saw this good, natural athlete, kicking the ball like a monster,” Reynolds said. “I always said, ‘If you can stop McLain you can stop anyone.’ In fifth grade, I didn’t want to play soccer anymore, so I signed up for lacrosse. I had a whole year to myself and get a head start on McLain, but he picked it up next season.”
Both Reynolds and Murphy started for the varsity team at Glenbrook South as freshman, and both are coming off seasons where they were awarded all-conference honors. Murphy said the cohesion he and Reynolds enjoyed on the field would be impossible to duplicate — and he would rather not think about it.
“It’s weird to think about honestly,” Murphy said. “It’s going to be different. For so many years we’ve been there for each other to kick each other’s butts, but still maintain that levelheaded friendship. Not to have your partner in crime out there on the field — it’s going to take an adjustment.”
The 2016 season also served as a reunion because Jeffery was named the Titans’ head coach before the season. In his first year as head of his former high school team, Jeffery was reminded of the impact he had on his former campers.
One day, Murphy was the first of the children to show up to a park session Jeffery was hosting, and as a reward, Jeffery gave him a UMASS hat.
During the Titans’ end-of-season lacrosse banquet, the cap was returned to its original owner.
“I had no idea he still had (the hat),” Jeffery said. “He gave it back to me at the end of the banquet. Honestly I forgot how big that group I taught at the park was. It was a bit of tear jerker, that’s for sure.”
Ben Ross is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.
Twitter @renboss23