Anita Murphy
Lewiston High School
Impact Statement
Murphy is still building on her tremendous career that boasts twelve State Titles, including one in 2019.
Biography
Now retired from teaching, Murphy led two girls sports powerhouses at Lewiston, and her resume includes a combined 20 state championships. She is starting her 34th season as girls tennis coach, and under her direction, the Blue Devils are the five-time defending Class A state champions.
Her teams have made 18 trips to the state championship match and won 11 state titles overall, along with 13 Eastern Maine regional titles and 16 conference titles. Murphy’s career record is 391-56, and entering this season, her teams had not lost a match since the 2005 regional. Murphy also led the Lewiston girls soccer team to nine state titles, ending a run of 30 years as head coach with a third straight state title in 2009.
Murphy has received the Auburn-Lewiston Sports Hall of Fame Presidential Award 11 times and will be inducted into the Hall of Fame this year. A recipient of the USA Tennis New England Junior Tennis Chapter of the Year award for her work with Lewiston’s youth tennis program, Murphy was named the Maine Tennis Coach of the Year in 2001 and was recognized by the National Federation of State High School Associations as its National Girls Tennis Coach of the Year in 2008.
This spring, she was one of five recipients of the Unsung Heroines in Maine Sports awards presented during the Mentoring Women in Sports XIII Conference, hosted by the Maine Principals Association.
Since being honored, Murphy has continued to lead Lewiston to success. Her girls went on to place second in the state another three times in 2015, 2016, and 2018. In 2018, she was inducted into the Maine Sports Hall of Fame. Most recently, her team won the 2019 State Championship. Making this one special, her granddaughter was a team member. She has coached her daughter as well.
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