Kenny Murphy spends as much time as he can these days walking up and down the driveway of his mother’s Calais home.
The goal, he says, is to be able to make a similar walk on the baseball field at Woodland High School as soon as possible.
The 52-year-old Murphy, who has coached the Dragons’ baseball team for the last three years, left hospital care on Tuesday. His release came more than a month after suffering a stroke during the first week of pitchers and catchers preseason practices in late March.
Murphy spent 3 1/2 weeks in a Bangor hospital before returning to his hometown, where he was hospitalized for another 1 1/2 weeks before being discharged on Tuesday.
Now he’s staying at his mother’s home — where there are fewer stairs to traverse than in his own house — as he continues outpatient physical therapy while also working on his own to improve his balance.
“It’s getting better every day,” he said. “I’ve got physical therapy, of course, and I walk as much as a can. In a couple of weeks hopefully I’m back on the bench.”
That Murphy is eager to return to the diamond comes as no surprise to those who know him.
“He’s doing well, he’s getting stronger as each day goes by and we expect a full recovery. He’s working hard at it,” said longtime friend John Marchese of the Calais Motor Inn, who on Saturday is hosting a benefit event for Murphy. A spaghetti-and-meatballs supper is set to begin at 5 p.m., followed by a Chinese auction and dance.
“Kenny’s got baseball in his heart and he just never gives up,” Marchese added. “He’ll be back, that’s for sure. He’s told me how much he misses the baseball team.”
The Woodland baseball team has thrived this spring despite the absence of its head coach. The Dragons (8-2) are in first place in Class D North going into Saturday night’s game against Downeast Athletic Conference rival Shead of Eastport at Mansfield Stadium in Bangor.
Sharing the coaching duties in Murphy’s absence are head physical education teacher Keith Moody and fellow volunteers Joey Gardner and Nick Hayward.
“They’ve worked well together,” said Woodland athletic administrator John Rogers. “They’re all pulling for Kenny, too, and hoping he’ll be able to get back to at least sit at a couple of games before the end of the season.”
The Woodland squad includes a nucleus of players fresh from leading the Dragons to the Class D North basketball championship last winter. Among them are juniors Drew Hayward, Gavin Gardner, Matthew Miller and Alex Morrison.
Murphy became Woodland’s baseball coach in 2016 after a successful stint at neighboring Calais that included consecutive Eastern Maine Class C titles in 2010, 2011 and 2012. He first coached many of his current players when they were seventh-graders on a 2013 Junior League team that advanced to the district championship game.
“All of the kids on that team were from Woodland and I fell in love with them,” recalled Murphy. “Then when I took the Woodland (High School) job over, those kids went right into the starting lineup as freshmen and now they’re juniors.”
While Murphy hasn’t been able to see his team play yet this spring, he remained as close to the action as possible during his hospitalization thanks to his cellphone.
“That first game we played Woodland up there, he was calling everybody he could get hold of,” said Calais head coach Marc Rohde, who was an assistant under Murphy with the Blue Devils from 2011 through 2015. “He called the sideline people, he called my wife, he called anyone who was there. He just had to know what was going on in the game.”
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