Plymouth Whitemarsh senior Jimmy Murray will continue his basketball career at Moravian College. A two-year starter for the Colonials, he was named first team All-SOL American Conference both years. Mitchell was a team captain as a senior and averaged 13 points per game while leading PW to the PIAA Class AAAA Elite Eight. Murray scored 938 career points and hit 138 three-point shots for the Colonials.
About Jim Murray:
Coach Jim Donofrio says: “Jimmy is so smooth, and he’s what a true shooter should be. He’s about as relaxed as you can be as a human being. He’s one of the coolest customers, very relaxed. Nothing really upsets him. His sophomore year he was on varsity, but he hardly played because he was just a hair behind defensively. I knew personally it really burned him and it challenged him. I think that fueled him for the next two years. Especially his junior year, he was our number one go-to buy, and boy, did he light it up. He had 138 three-pointers for his career, and he had around 80 of them his junior year. He kept improving defensively. He’s a quiet leader, and to see him go on to college – he ended up with a great opportunity at Moravian. It’s a wonderful school, and he got a great deal for a Division 3 school. You love it when the game literally pays off for them.”
About Jim Murray and Andre Mitchell:
Coach Jim Donofrio says: “It was just a thrill coaching them for three years each because they really were the classic example of all the great clichés. They represented the school so well, and they were so proud to play for PW. They’re just so humble, and they had so many friends, and they were a major reason why we had such a following.
“It was a homegrown team in so many ways, and those guys were so well liked in the building. Our athletic director, Charlie Foster, has been around for a long time, and he gets so excited when we get into the state playoffs because your building is excited. We sold 800 student tickets each game. It was amazing. We had to keep asking for more tickets. A lot of that is a credit to Andre and Jimmy and just how well liked they were in the building. People don’t realize how important that is. You could have a great team, but if the kids are aloof or they’re a little disconnected, you can tell, but these were kids who had a lot of classmates they grew up with since elementary school, and it showed. That’s why it was such a fun team to coach.
“To see them both go on and play basketball in college and have the kind of high school careers they had - I was just so happy for them after our junior run where we lost early and missed the states. They really responded with a chip-on-the-shoulder mentality.
“When you get around people that buy into what you’re trying to do, it makes everything seem more alive. I’ve been spoiled by a lot of teams that have been like that, and this team was way up there, maybe more so than any I ever had. These guys were focused, they were mature, and they worked their butts off. It was just pure fun. They made it fun, and they also made you stop and say, ‘This is why I do this.’ You’re spoiled when you have those kinds of kids. How coachable they were was by the textbook, and that set the tone for everybody else. They’d take all the heat, they’d take the criticism, they’d take the compliments with humility, and they just enjoyed the moment. You have to sell that to a lot of people every year, but not to those two. That was ready made, and it’s a compliment to both sets of parents. I can’t wait to see how they grow and evolve. I think they’re going to be success stories no matter what they do.”
Photo courtesy of Dave Sherman. Seated (L to R): Jim Murray, Jimmy Murray and Regina Murray. Standing (L to R): PW coach Jim Donofrio and Anthony Minor.
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