New players boost VES Bishops' football hopes

Blue-chip high school football players normally don’t just fall into a coach’s preseason camp.

Virginia Episcopal School didn’t actively pursue Orange County’s Aaron Murphy and Joe Kaiser, both bookish Ivy League-caliber students and bulky Division I football prospects. But it will welcome them with open arms on Thursday, when the Bishops hold registration just two weeks and two days before their first game.

“We don’t recruit just the athlete,” VES coach Kyle Alexander said. “We want to recruit … the whole person. These guys sought us out and really fit what we’re looking for as far as student athletes. They’re phenomenal.”

Searching for a college preparatory program where they could excel in the classroom and on the football field, they were referred to VES by an unlikely source — Alexander’s brother Clint, head coach at Woodberry Forest, a Virginia Independent Schools Division I power located in Orange County where Kaiser’s father, Mark, serves as an assistant.

“They had a chance to go to Woodberry Forest,” Kyle Alexander said. “Woodberry Forest is a pretty big-time program and they’d be starters (there, but …) my brother sent them to us.

“The prep school environment was very appealing to them,” he added. “They liked the fact that the school was smaller and that it’s coed.”

“I fit in a little better at VES,” said Murphy, a 16-year-old, 6-foot-1½, 265-pound senior. “At Woodberry Forest, you have to be a superstar when you get there. At VES, they work with you to help you reach your goals. Woodberry Forest expects a lot more. The only thing coach Alexander expects from me is hard work.”

Kaiser, who lives in front of a dairy farm where he works year-round, chopping wood in the wintertime, was impressed with the school’s facilities and coaching staff.

“The weight program’s what sold me,” said the 6-3, 247-pound junior. “I love lifting weights.”

His brother, Jacob, is a 6-8, 320-pound senior at North Texas, where he played on the offensive line before a back injury relegated him to serving as an undergraduate assistant.

“I’m the midget of the family,” said Kaiser, who’s father was nicknamed “Crazy Kaiser” when he played under Lee Corso at Indiana because he used to growl like a bear at the line of scrimmage.

Kaiser’s family has roots in western Pennsylvania, which is where he believes he drew his football blood from.

“When I play football, I get pretty intense,” said Kaiser, who eventually would like to coach at the college level. “I believe there’s a time and a place to get fired up and why not on the football field? If you go out there with that mentality that you’re going to win, it’s going to happen.”

“We have the same intensity and we both have a passion for the sport,” added the much more mellow Murphy. “We just express it in different ways. He expresses it by screaming and jumping … and running up and down the sideline. I’m a lot calmer in my execution.”

Murphy, who’s interested in Virginia, Wake Forest, William & Mary, Ohio, Liberty and a number of Ivy League schools, and Kaiser, who is being looked at by Pittsburgh, East Carolina, Davidson, Presbyterian and Liberty, will make huge impacts on both sides of the ball for the Bishops this fall.

They should solidify already strong offensive and defensive lines that feature seniors Colin Ponder and Sam Joslin and sophomores Michael Biesemier and Sumner Higginbotham and may also help fill holes at linebacker, where the Bishops graduated the most depth from last year’s 2-6 team.

“I’m really excited about the opportunity,” said Murphy, who grew up in South Carolina and lived in Hampton, Woodbridge and Washington, D.C., before moving to Orange four years ago. “I’m very versatile (and) I’ll be able to adapt to the new role very quickly.”

He’s also very flexible and agile on his feet, after starting in martial arts at a young age.

And he is extremely smart.

Murphy represented Orange County in the Virginia Boys State held at Liberty University in June and will take four AP classes and an economics class at VES this fall despite needing only two more credits to graduate.

Football is clearly his primary extracurricular passion.

“I started out mainly with academic interests,” Murphy said. “Over time, I picked up football as something I enjoy and really have become a student of the game.”

He tries to emulate great players like Ray Lewis and Dick Butkus, the legendary lineman Kaiser compares him to.

“He may not be as intense and vocal as I am, but he has a quiet rage,” Kaiser said. “You can see it in his face, he loves the game.”

“He’s a very hard worker,” he added. “I’ve never seen someone who works so hard, not only in the weight room, but in the classroom.”

The two teammates are almost like brothers.

“We have that connection that carries beyond the field,” Murphy said. “We’re in the weight room together, running together and at crucial moments, when we need to stand together to hold the line, Joe’s not going to let me down.”

Kaiser hopes those brotherly bonds rub off on the Bishops, who are looking to rebound and reach the VISFA playoffs for the fifth time in seven years after dropping down from Division II to III this fall.

“I’m a humble person,” he said. “I was taught that you speak with your actions, not with your words. You play as hard as you can and work harder to get better. Aaron Murphy’s the same way. When that positive light comes into the locker room, other players that are good become great and that translates to a great team.”