Recently signed kicker Cole Murphy sat down with members of the KHTS Sports team Tuesday morning to discuss his journey from Santa Clarita to the NFL.

Murphy played locally for Valencia High School from 2012 to 2013 after spending the previous two years at West Ranch.

His participation in several kicking camps throughout high school helped raise Murphy’s profile as a prospect and landed him an opportunity to kick for Syracuse University as a walk-on.

“I had to go all the way from Santa Clarita to Syracuse, New York,” said Murphy. “It was definitely a change of environment, really snowy, really cold, but it was definitely really fun though. I got to play all 48 games of my career and it was just a great, great experience.”

After finishing his playing career at Syracuse following the fall semester of Murphy’s senior year, he left school to continue his pursuit of an opportunity to kick professionally.

“I ended up having to drive back from Syracuse to L.A. Had to pack up all my stuff in a matter of about a week and then go,” said Murphy. “And then, I just started training, I had an agent already and just started training at home. I actually built uprights at my house, we live out in horse country, so I was able to kick and it was really, really good being able to go out there every single day and train.”

As Murphy continued to prepare for pro day, an opportunity for players to showcase their talents to NFL teams, he worked once again with kicking trainer Chris Sailer, who Murphy had worked with in high school.

“Once pro day happened, I felt like I did really well there,” said Murphy. “But it’s just one of those things where even if you do really well it doesn’t guarantee that you’re going to get drafted or signed right after as a free agent.”

Ultimately, Murphy did not hear his name called over the course of the 2018 NFL draft.

“It was really frustrating at first, we watched the entire draft for two days straight. It was very frustrating to see every single pick come in. Afterwards I thought ok maybe the day after I’ll get a phone call or a couple hours after I’ll get a phone call. And to just hear nothing afterwards was really disappointing, but I realized I have to get right back on the horse, start riding again and just had to keep working.”

Several months after the draft, Murphy was contacted by the general manager of the San Diego Fleet, a member of the newly formed Alliance of American Football league, and offered an opportunity to attend minicamp and training camp.

“Training camp I thought went really well, once we got into the preseason games, that’s when it got a little shaky,” said Murphy. “I hadn’t played a game in over a year and to just get right back into it was a little shaky.”

Murphy attributed his underwhelming performance in camp to the format, which required him to work out of the huddle to have the ability to call fake kick plays and featured a much shorter play clock to what he was accustomed to.

“I had never experienced the huddle before. So, because it was a new league, the refs are getting ready for the game and they’re not sure how the flow of the game is supposed to look with the shortened play clock and everything,” said Murphy. “Most of the time I wasn’t actually able to take my steps until there was under ten seconds on the clock, so getting used to that was the hard part.”

Murphy struggled in the team’s preseason game against the Orlando Apollos, as he went zero for two on field goal attempts.

“We flew back to San Diego, had another three or four practices I believe, and I ended up having a really bad day the final day. I was really struggling with just simple Field Goals. I was really trying to get everything done in the proper amount of time,” said Murphy. “The morning after you get a phone call at 6 a.m. and they say ‘Hey you need to come into our office, make sure you bring all your stuff.’ And it’s kind of a shock at first, I thought at least I’d stay for the first game, but unfortunately, two days before the first game, you’re out.”

Fortunately, Murphy was able to enroll in the final kicker free agency camp of the year, the Gary Zauner Camp in Phoenix, Arizona.

Murphy won the field goal portion of the event, even beating out several professional kickers.

His performance earned him the attention of the Arizona Cardinals’ special teams coach, and Murphy was quickly signed to a contract with the team.

Organized team activities (OTAs), an optional preseason training camp for NFL players don’t begin until April 8. In the meantime, Murphy continues to train and prepare for his opportunity.

“I’ve been driving down to Carlsbad a bunch and working with John Carney, I like to call him the kicking guru. He played 23 years in the NFL and is one of the top scorers of all time,” said Murphy. “The amount of pros he works with and to bring in just to compete with other people is just fantastic. So I’ve been working with him a bunch for about six months.”

As of now, Murphy still calls Santa Clarita home, but he has begun the search for his home away from home in Arizona as he begins his next chapter.

KHTS Sports is your place for the 2018 Santa Clarita winter sports season and your Santa Clarita Dodgers coverage. Find all the latest news and updates on your hometown schools here as they compete in the Foothill League, Heritage League, Western State Conference and GSAC. If you have any news and notes about our teams and players to share please send them to jp@hometownstation.com, like us on facebook.com/khtssports and follow us @KHTSSports on Twitter.