Lizanne Murphy enters Lakers Hall of Fame

By Andrew Soong, August 22nd, 2012

The West Island Lakers honored Olympic basketball player Lizanne Murphy Saturday at Centennial Hall in Beaconsfield.
“The amount of support that I receive from the community makes it all worth while,” said Murphy who still resides in the West Island in the off season. “It is an unbelievable feeling with the support I get from everyone in the community.”
This weekend Murphy was inducted into the Hall of Fame of the West Island Lakers where she began her modest rise to international basketball playing for Canada in the recent Olympics and professionally in Europe. She began to play at 12-years-old with the fledgling Lakers' girls program often playing against boys. According to Lakers president Mike Homsy “she hasn't changed and is the first cheerleader on the national team as she was when she played for the Lakers.”
“She has a passion that you still notice when she's with the national team,” said Homsy about one of the organization's graduates. “She is a terrific athlete who talks from her heart and is passionate about the sport.”
Eventually Murphy graduated from the West Island Lakers amongst her many sports that she played in her youth to Dawson College. At Dawson College Murphy was coached by another former Olympian Trevor Williams who has vivid memories of his former player. According to Williams “it was a privilege to coach Lizanne.”
“When she got there [Dawson College] we won the championships and when she got to Hofstra the team finished in the top 30,” said Williams about his former player inducted into the Lakers' Hall of Fame. “I usually don't hear about people doing things like this and this is a class act for a world class athlete.”
Murphy's path to international basketball presently has the Olympian playing in Europe. Despite her many travels Murphy still spends her off season in Montreal's West Island when she is not admittedly living out of three suitcases. Murphy asserted that “I still consider Montreal home.”
“There are people here who will bend over backwards for you,” said Murphy about the support that she receives from the community at large including another former coach David King. “King would open up the gym for me to work-out at 11 p.m. if I needed it.”