Return to Your Marks, Get Set … Go

Writer // Janelle Morrison • Photography // Submitted

Looking for an outlet that is outdoors and promotes both physical and mental health? What I think 2020 has taught us is that while we had to reprioritize our lives last year—and rightfully so—it also taught us the importance of having healthy outlets for us to decompress and to stay “balanced.”

The ability to set goals and to hold ourselves accountable for meeting those goals is part of our prepandemic routine. Why wait for the pandemic to be “over”? You can still explore whatever creative and/ or physical outlets make you feel reenergized. And for you runners out there—I highly recommend registering for this year’s Zionsville Half Marathon & 5k run/ walk taking place in downtown Zionsville on Sunday, Oct. 17, 2021!

Dust Off Your Running Shoes

Registration is open for this year’s Zionsville Half Marathon & 5k. You still have plenty of time to start training! You can register online or on Saturday, Oct. 16, during packet pickup or on race morning beginning at 5:45 a.m. to 7:15 a.m.

Saturday packet pickup will be at Greek’s Pizzeria in Zionsville, 30 North Main Street, from 10:30 a.m.–noon. Enjoy 15% off food/drinks during or after you get your packet.

Both the half marathon and the 5K will begin at 7:30 a.m. Medals will be given to all finishers in both races. Pizza and refreshments will be available after the race! An additional bonus, runners will be offered one free beer at Greek’s Pizzeria to all half marathon runners that are 21 and over. Bring ID!

The Secret Is Out—Zionsville Is a Running Town

This will be the sixth consecutive year for the Zionsville Half Marathon & 5k. It was founded by Zionsville resident Mike Cole who also puts on the Big Boom 4th of July 5k and the Zionsville Lions 5k & 10k.

Cole, who competed in track and cross country while he attended Ball State University, is also a running coach and personal trainer who works with people at all levels of experience, from beginners to those who are competing in marathons. He purposely designed the Zionsville Half Marathon course to showcase the community and take runners through “the best sides of Zionsville.” Cole is currently planning on returning to and is training for the Boston Marathon.

Cole spoke about the impact COVID-19 had on last year’s race and the move from running the Zionsville Half Marathon & 5k from April to October—a move that may become permanent.

“The only good thing about COVID-19 [and 2020] was that I saw so many people outside,” Cole said. “I feel like everybody was on the trails and going to local, state and national parks, hiking with their families.”

When asked if the pandemic affected the marathon/race circuits here locally, Cole admitted that he and other local race directors saw a decrease in participation.

“We’re not back to a prepandemic ‘norm,’” Cole said. “And we pushed last year’s race from April to the fall. The weather was good, the times were good and everybody was happy. Everything worked out pretty well. We decided to leave it in the fall this year, and we will see what the entries come in at, get some feedback from the runners, and then we’ll make a decision about whether or not we permanently leave [the half marathon and 5K] in the fall.”

Cole and his team will need volunteers for the races to run water stations and other race-related tasks. If your student is looking for volunteer hours or if your family and/or co-workers are looking for a volunteer opportunity that is outdoors and supports local—contact Mike Cole at mike@run2race.com.

Registration and event information for both races can be found at run2race.com.

Zionsville Monthly is proud to be the media sponsor for this great event in downtown Zionsville.

Scott Simpson: On Life as an Advance Scout for the Indiana Pacers

Writer // Janelle Morrison • Photography // Laura Arick and submitted

The Indiana Pacers hired Zionsville resident Scott Simpson as the advance scout for the franchise. Simpson—a ZCHS graduate—spent the past two seasons as an assistant coach with the Fort Wayne Mad Ants in the G League and previously served as an advance scout for the New York Knicks, Oklahoma City Thunder and USA Basketball and was an assistant coach for the Long Island Nets before joining the Mad Ants.

WHAT DOES AN ADVANCE SCOUT IN THE NBA DO?

The duties and lifestyle of an advance scout is inarguably the most taxing job on NBA teams. An advance scout spends a great deal of time on the road— over 200 days a year—attending games to record opponents’ sets and play calls and gather tactical information to bring back to the scout’s home team coaching staff. Essentially, an advance scout is sent out in advance of a game to do reconnaissance on the other teams.

In addition to the scope of work an advance scout must complete upon each trip, this person is also traveling—commercial—and living out of their suitcase 20–22 nights a month.

“What’s interesting about my job is that I am basically going to specifically watch our opponents in the preparation process so that we [the Pacers] can tactically prepare to play against them,”

Simpson explained. “In the NBA, we all know we’re doing it to each other, and I’m friends with all the other [advance] scouts, so it’s not like we’re ‘cloak-anddagger’ and sneaking around out there.”

When asked if NBA franchises play fair and provide decent seats to advance scouts or rather place them in the nosebleed sections or up in the rafters, Simpson replied, “It’s a big topic of conversation amongst the advance scouting community—which arena takes the best care of us and gives us the desirable seats and which [arenas] do not. It’s a reciprocation thing—we’ll provide them with a good seat, but they better provide us with a good seat. We in the advance scouting community have our desired arenas that we like to go to and where we know we’re going to be placed in a good position to get our jobs done well. It will be interesting to see what that looks like this season with COVID-19 regulations.”

Simpson shared why it is necessary for advance scouts to physically attend the games rather than watch them on TV or playback videos.

“We’re constantly looking for communication,” Simpson said. “In a very basic explanation, I’m sent to the game to get all the information I can that we can’t get off of video/film, and you have to be there in person because a lot of the [tactical] information is communication based. I have to decipher what a hand signal means and put names to basketball actions so that the coaching staff can come up with strategies on how to combat those actions.”

THE JOURNEY TO BECOMING AN ADVANCE SCOUT

“Just like everybody else who’s grown up in Indiana, you likely have grown up a Pacers fan, college sports fan, and we were definitely a sports family,” Simpson shared. “As far back as I can remember, we had a basketball goal down in our basement, and I can remember my grandma—my dad’s mom—coming down and playing one-on-one with me. I didn’t know that was unusual. When you’re 5 years old, you don’t know that other people’s grandmas don’t do that.”

Simpson’s dad also painted a half court in their cul-de-sac where the neighborhood kids could safely play. And though Simpson played basketball as a youth, he chose to focus on golf in high school. Once he was in college at Arizona State University, Simpson decided to alter his course and experiment with coaching basketball.

“My dad had been telling me for years that I should get into coaching,” Simpson recalled. “Long story short, I ended up getting invited to coach a sixth-grade boys [basketball] team. I had a great experience, and we had a ton of success, so I thought, OK, maybe there’s something to this.”

Simpson became a student manager for the basketball team at Arizona State while attending as a full-time student working toward a communication degree.

Simpson added, “I was working towards my degree but was really going to ‘Basketball 101’ every day as a student manager. I had thought that I just wanted to be a college coach, and having gone to the same high school as Brad Stevens—whose career had started to take off—I called him and asked him what he thought I should do. He told me that DePauw University had a good setup, and it’s where he had played college basketball. And I had a great experience in Greencastle. There’s a lot of great people at DePauw, and the head coach Bill Fenlon is still there—he was Brad’s coach.”

Simpson acquired experience in both D2 and D3 college basketball teams by the time he was offered a “break of a lifetime” by the Houston Rockets as a video intern.

“I was the lowest guy on the totem pole and was in the video room for two years with Houston,” Simpson said. “I would get a little bone here and there and was able to dip my toe in the water to see what it would be like to be an advance scout. I had grown a strong interest in that role.”

Simpson accepted a position with the Oklahoma City Thunder franchise in the 2009–10 season.

“It was the second year that they were a franchise in Oklahoma City,” Simpson

stated. “They were not good the year before, but they had a third-year player named Kevin Durant, a second-year player named Russell Westbrook, and they had just drafted a rookie named James Harden. I didn’t know it at the time that those were going to become powerhouse names. We went on this unbelievable five-year run. I was still in the video room my second year [with the Thunder] and I got promoted, so I started traveling for the first time. I had made it really clear to the management and coaching staff that I wanted to be an advance scout one day.”

Simpson had turned 30 years old at the time of the 2011 NBA lockout. He recalled coming home for a very special Thanksgiving that year—one that would change the trajectory of his career and life.

“I was back home in Indiana during the lockout and for Thanksgiving,” Simpson said. “I went to a DePauw game when I got a phone call that the lockout was ending and the Thunder needed me back in town by Monday. That Wednesday, I get called into coach [Scott] Brooks’ office and he said, ‘You’re going to be the advance scout now.’”

At that time, Simpson was the youngest advance scout in the NBA.

When asked if the sacrifices made are worth it at the end of the day, Simpson said, “I don’t have a wife and children, but I still miss birthday parties and other life events. It’s really challenging sleeping in a different bed every night and getting on an airplane every day. It’s a passion project for sure, but it’s still a large task to take on. You can’t just come in and say, ‘I need the weekend off.’ That’s not an option.”

As Simpson prepares for the upcoming season as an advance scout with the Pacers organization—his hometown team and a franchise he has dreamt about working with his entire career—he expressed, “I couldn’t be more thrilled about it.”

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