Athlete of the Week: Murray becoming a star for Rancho Bernardo High

You often hear about basketball coaches telling their superstar player to tone down the selfishness. Rancho Bernardo High girls basketball coach Kai Harris needed to do the opposite with Aly Murray.

The 5-foot-10 super sophomore has such a team-first attitude engrained inside of her that Harris and the coaching staff often remind her it’s OK to be a little selfish at times.

“We talk to Aly a lot about making sure she plays with an edge and that superstar-type instinct,” Harris said. “And she has really come into that role now, understanding that we need her to produce points and look to attack and get us into a rhythm offensively. She has embraced it and flourished in that role.”

That’s no surprise. Murray is one of the most talented players to come through the Broncos program in recent years. She has all the tools — accuracy from the perimeter, touch in the paint, quickness to the rim, toughness, smarts and the respect of her teammates — to leave quite a legacy before she graduates in 2017.

“She is a special player,” Harris said. “The only one that can slow down Aly is Aly. We knew right away when we saw her that she was going to mean a lot to this program and the community.”

Getting Murray to sprinkle in some selfishness to her game was no easy task. By nature she is all about keeping her teammates smiling and laughing and she has fully embraced Harris’ “Bronco Way” motto, which preaches that no one person is better than the team. But being a little selfish doesn’t mean you aren’t following that motto.

“There are times in sports you need to be more selfish and you need to have the instinct of wanting to score,” explained Harris. “But Aly is just so committed to the team and the mission of “The Bronco Way” that she would never want one of her accomplishments to overshadow that. So, we had to let her know what we needed to be successful and it helped her loosen up in that area.”

Murray averaged eight points per game as a freshman and through the first four games this season is averaging 14 points per outing. She put up a career-high 25 points in the Broncos’ 57-27 win over Mira Mesa last week. True to her nature, she would only boast about how well her teammates played.

“I got most of those points in transition with the help of the point guards and my teammates,” said Murray, who Harris describes as a comedian and a competitor all-in one. “We played really tough defense and just played really well as a team.”

Murray’s length and height gives her the perfect mold of a basketball player. Add in her high IQ on the court and all of her physical tools and she is a matchup nightmare for the opposition.

“She is so hard to guard,” Harris said. “She usually has a height advantage over perimeter players and if they are on her too tight she has the ability to get to the hoop in two steps. If you put a bigger or taller player on her, then she is usually quicker than them.”

And tougher. Murray’s brother, Andrew, is a senior on the Broncos’ boys basketball team. The two often would play hoops in the yard and Andrew would not go easy on his younger sister.

“He definitely toughened me up,” said Aly, who laughingly added that she has beaten Andrew in HORSE the last four years. “I am not scared to get hit or be pushed down. My game got more aggressive because of him.”

Murray knew all about Rancho Bernardo’s tough times before she arrived last season. Her class helped spark a turnaround in the program, as the team finished with its first winning season since 2006 and reached the semifinals of the section’s Division III playoffs last year.

“We are trying to win (a section title) this year and next year and the whole time we are here,” Murray said. “We want to win and move up divisions and keep winning against the better competition.”

Murray’s winning extends off the court, too. Harris sees nothing but a bright future for her in whatever path she chooses in the future.

“I look at Aly Murray and I see a girl who has the world in the palm of her hands,” he said. “She can do whatever she wants to do in life. She is one of those people that will be successful no matter what she does in life.”

And to the delight of Harris, that’s playing basketball for the Broncos for the next three years.