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Valencia High School Graduate Cole Murphy Signed To Arizona Cardinals (VIDEO)

Valencia High School graduate and Castaic resident Cole Murphy was signed to the Arizona Cardinals as a kicker Tuesday, officials said.

Before going to high school, Murphy had played multiple sports, including flag football. When he started his freshman year at West Ranch High School, he decided to join the football team for fun.

“When you are 12 or 13, you aren’t really thinking much about scholarships,” Murphy said.

Murphy played at West Ranch High for two years before transferring to Valencia High School, where his sister was attending. There, he realized that his good kicking leg demonstrated the potential he had as a player.

Once he graduated from Valencia High in 2014, Murphy went to Chris Sailer Kicking Camp, where he ranked as one of the top 20 kickers in the nation, according to Murphy.

After considering multiple colleges, Murphy decided to play football for Syracuse University.

Murphy started as a walk-on player, meaning he did not have a scholarship. However, after playing multiple games as a freshman, he became a semi-finalist for the Lou Groza Award, the nation’s top award for college placekickers.

“I like to compare that to the kickers’ Heisman,” Murphy said.

After that, Murphy was on a scholarship for the next three years of his college career.

“From there I played every game for the next three years and was a semi-finalist again for the Lou Groza Award as a senior,” Murphy said.

After receiving the nomination a second time, Murphy started getting noticed by football agents. He decided to sign with an agent out of San Diego while he was still a student at Syracuse.

“After signing I left Syracuse after my first semester of my senior year,” Murphy said.

Once Murphy returned back to California to work with his agent, he entered in the NFL draft in April of 2018. But things took a turn for the worse.

“I didn’t get drafted or signed out of free agency,” Murphy said. “It was kind of upsetting because I thought I would get something afterward.”

Despite this disappointing outcome, Murphy remained positive.

“The more I went through it, the more I realized most people don’t start until a few years later,” Murphy said.

A few months later, Murphy got a call from the general manager of the San Diego Fleet, a newer football league used as a development league for the NFL.

“I signed with them,” he said. “I went to camp in San Antonio and made the roster.

However, Murphy’s troubles were far from over. After he flew back to San Diego, he was cut from the team two days before the start of the season because he was experiencing a “slump” in performance.

“I drove home and called my parents and agents and basically told them I had to come back home,” he said. “I have never been fired from a job before. It was pretty rough.”

After Murphy told his agent what had happened, his agent had Murphy enroll in the last kicker free agency camp available.

“My agents said, ‘Ok, so now that you are a free agent, we’ve got to get you back in kicking camps,’” Murphy said.

In early March of 2019, Murphy went to a camp in Phoenix, Arizona called the “Gary Zauner Camp.”

The camp was started by Gary Zauner, who was a special teams coach in the NFL for 13 years before he decided to run free agent camps in order to get players signed, according to officials.

“I had to go a day early and compete with others who were trying to qualify,” Murphy said. “Luckily, I was the fourth guy to qualify. It was a long day. Most kicking camps are two hours, but this one went about four hours.”

After qualifying, Murphy went out and had to compete against several professional kickers.

“To be in the same room with them was an honor for me,” Murphy said. “I won the whole field goal portion for the camp. That was really exciting because I never won a camp before.”  

After winning the field goal portion, a special teams coach from the Cardinals called Murphy to bring him in for a physical.

“My agent told me, ‘If you’re going to get a physical, that means you’re probably going to get signed,’” Murphy said.

He cleared the physical, and went on to sign all the necessary paperwork to make him the newest kicker for the Arizona Cardinals.

Murphy encourages anyone who is trying to get in to the NFL to keep pursuing their dreams.

“Regardless if you are the top five or 55, you have to keep driving and doing your thing,” he said.


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Valencia High School Graduate Cole Murphy Signed To Arizona Cardinals (VIDEO)

5 comments

  1. That’s awesome, congratulations Cole! We will watch for you next season

  2. I don’t know this kid, but it’s a great story of perseverance and that hard work pays off. Congratulations! God bless you on your career.

  3. Great, inspiring article! Congrats.

  4. Great, inspiring article! Never give up on your dreams.

  5. Saw him when he kicked for Valencia High.

    He was the only kid in the Foothill league who could kick a 45 yard field goals like it was a piece of cake.

    Every kickoff was a touchback.

    I told my wife then we might be seeing him kick in the NFL someday.

    Not surprised

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About Louie Diaz

Louie was born and raised in Santa Clarita. At the age of two Louie lost his vision due to a brain tumor. However, Louie doesn't let blindness stop him from doing what ever it is he wants to accomplish. Growing up some of his favorite hobbies were wood working, fishing and riding bikes. Louie graduated from College of the Canyon in December of 2017, with a Broadcast Journalism degree. Growing up Louie has always wanted to be a fire fighter or a police officer, but because of his blindness Louie knew that wouldn't work. Louie has always loved listening to police and fire radio traffic, using a scanner, and he figured if he was going to listen to the scanner so much, he should do something with it.