by Ron Kaplan
NJJN Features Editor

May 28, 2009

For Amy Murnick, one of the toughest parts about attending Duke University was deciding which sport to play. The Short Hills native earned 12 letters in soccer, basketball, and lacrosse before graduating from the Pingry School in Martinsville in 1994.

What, no softball?

“My sister played softball and she steered me away from it; she thought I’d be bored,” Murnick told NJ Jewish News in a telephone interview. “She switched to lacrosse and I followed in her footsteps.”

Murnick was recognized for her accomplishments with induction into the school’s athletic hall of fame on May 15. She said the honor was especially meaningful “because I had so much fun playing sports. To be honored for doing something that you love is very special. It’s kind of a cap on my career, a recognition that I did something for the school and I’m up there with other people who had athletic prowess at the school as well.”

Included in the Murnick highlight reel:

• As a junior, she was named First Team All-State Group 1 for soccer by The Star-Ledger. She also made Second Team All Prep State and Third Team All County. As a senior, she was named Second Team All County.
• During four years on the basketball team as a point guard, Murnick — who stands five-feet, two-inches tall — scored more than 500 points. She was chosen as captain for her senior year and was named to the All Star Prep State team.
• She led the lacrosse team in scoring for four years, breaking the school record as a senior with 83 goals and 23 assists. The squad finished the season ranked number six in the state that year and Murnick was named to the U.S. Girls’ High School All-American Team.

Murnick focused on lacrosse at Duke, but it wasn’t an easy choice. “I loved the switching from soccer to basketball to lacrosse and the variety. So playing one sport year-round was certainly a challenge.”

Surprisingly, she gave up lacrosse during her senior year. “I felt that there were other experiences I wasn’t getting that I really wanted to in college.”

A member of Oheb Shalom Congregation in South Orange, Murnick earned a master’s degree in broadcast journalism from the Newhouse School at Syracuse University. She had aspirations of becoming a sports broadcaster and worked for a time for ESPN, but decided to go in a different direction. She returned to Duke for an MBA and has been working in sports marketing, most currently for Reebok in Boston.

But even after graduating from Duke in 1998, she retained an association with Pingry: she returned in 1999 to coach her beloved lacrosse team.

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