5 minute read
Go Big Red
By LISA M. GILLARD HANSON
GOOD CHEMISTRY
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Girls’ coach Grey Simpson P’20 ’22 and his daughter, Taylor ’22, are bonded by basketball.
Many coaches will tell you that their team’s success is often fueled by good chemistry.
Grey Simpson P’20
’22, who happens to teach chemistry at Lawrenceville, is also the School’s head girls’ basketball coach. On the court as in his classroom, Simpson is concerned with bonds and reactions, but in this case, the
“matter” is his players, the most experienced of whom this winter is his daughter,
Taylor Simpson ’22. And when it comes to basketball, they are both in their element.
The Simpsons have been a father/coach and daughter/player duo since Taylor began playing at age 6. Grey has coached girls’ hoops for over two decades, including seven years at The Hill School.
“I basically grew up on the [Hill] basketball court, just going to his practices and shooting around when there was a water break, or watching them play,” Taylor says.
Grey’s leadership of the girls’ team was
“the number one reason” Taylor decided to attend Lawrenceville, where she’s been a four-year varsity player for Big Red.
Big Red played no football games in 2020 due to the pandemic, but head coach Harry Flaherty and his staff still had more than two months to focus on football fundamentals and skills development. Four-year varsity player Taylor Simpson ’22 says one of the many reasons she attended Lawrenceville was the chance to play basketball for her father, coach Grey Simpson P’20 ’22.
That excitement can occasionally lead to some butting of heads. “We have some interesting postgame dinner conversations,” Taylor says.
The duo works diligently to keep the line between father/coach and daughter/player from blurring, but it can be complicated.
“I think I’ve gotten a lot better at that, but it is definitely something that I struggle with,” Taylor says. “Sometimes, in the game or in practice, it might seem like he’s being too tough. But [as I’ve matured], I’ve realized that he’s only trying to help me, and only really wants me to succeed.”
Those postgame conversations with his daughter provide Grey “an opportunity to reflect more on what’s happening on the court, and have more patience and a better understanding of what the players are seeing and dealing with.”
“I try, as a coach, to never assume anything about a player. I don’t hold any player accountable for knowing something when I know for certain that I myself have not taught them or gone over with them, even if they’re an extremely experienced player,” he says.
Coaching his daughter, Grey believes, has taught him to be more patient with all of his players.
“Before I had the opportunity to coach my kids, I would quickly get frustrated with players’ mistakes, and think to myself, They know better than that. Why are they making those mistakes? Having conversations [with Taylor] after a game has made me realize that as a coach, I’m also a teacher.
“The interesting thing about coaching your own kid is it eliminates the ‘car-ridehome’ coaching,” Grey continues. “When you’re [actually] coaching them, you’re there on the spot. So you can [address what you see during the game] right there like you would any other player and then move on and keep coaching.”
Taylor, her coach says, has a “really high” basketball IQ.
“She knows the game inside and out, and she is fiercely competitive,” Grey says. “When we’re playing against the best teams with the best players, she’s going to go out there and compete.”
The elder Simpson’s advice for other parent/coaches is to remember to temper their expectations.
“You have to be able to take a step back and realize that [your child] is still developing their understanding of the game and their skills,” he says. “While you’ll know more about them than some of your other players and their history as a player, you still have to remember where they are in their development as an athlete.”
Taylor has committed to attend Virginia Wesleyan University next year, where she’ll compete for the women’s basketball team and study marine biology.
“I would not be anywhere without growing up with my dad as my basketball coach,” says Taylor, an all-Mid-Atlantic Prep League selection two years ago as a Third Former. “I grew up playing for him and with him. He knows my goals.”
Taylor been “a really important piece of the puzzle” as Grey works to sharpen what he wants to be a “fiercely competitive” girls’ basketball program.”
“We don’t want to be intimidated by any team before the ball is even thrown up to start the game,” he says. “We want to go out there and give them our best shot, and at the end of the game, look up at the scoreboard, and see how it went for us.”
A Diamond Gem
Lawrenceville mailroom clerk Keila Santiago was inducted into the Vega Baja City Hall of Fame in Puerto Rico in December, the celebration of a softball career that nearly carried her to the 1996 Summer Olympics.
Santiago played on the Puerto Rico National Softball Team from 1992-2003, during which time she earned a degree in physical education from the University of Puerto Rico. At the time, athletes on the national team were required to live in their homeland, so Santiago turned down college scholarships elsewhere in the United States to advance her softball career.
She competed in the Central American and Caribbean Games, earning a gold medal to qualify for the 1994 Pre-Pan American Games in Guatemala, where her team nabbed the bronze. Santiago earned a silver medal in the 1995 Pan American Games in Argentina, catapulting her to the Pre-Olympic Games in Puerto Rico, where she earned a gold medal and qualified for the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. One of the youngest players on the team, Santiago was one of three late cuts from the final roster, which allowed only 15 players. Undaunted, she continued playing through the 2003 Pan American Games.
