Copied from Community Press 9/4/08
INDEPENDENCE - At the end of the 2006 season, Simon Kenton coach Jeff Marksberry called up a young Miles Simpson from his freshman team.
It was in the second-to-last game of year when Simpson would begin his high school career. It was a debut that Marksberry would never forget.
The game had already been decided, the Pioneers had a multiple-touchdown lead over the Conner Cougars, and all Marksberry wanted to do was run out the clock.
Enter the freshman Simpson, who had yet to have a varsity carry at running back. Before an opposing defender could even lay a hit on him, he was gone: 35 yards down the field and in the end zone. One touch, one touchdown, caught Marksberry looking around knowing he had just seen something special.
Simpson, however, is not the type of kid that would describe himself as special. When asked his favorite thing about being a running back, he answered giving credit to the offensive line. When asked what he liked better, playing offense or defense, he replied, defense. It is obvious that he is the type of player that would rather save touchdowns than score them, make the big hit instead of the big run and to win the ballgame for his teammates rather than himself.
"He doesn't like the spotlight," Marksberry said. "He is very humble. He feels responsible for our success. We need him to take on that role. We need him to know that he is responsible for our success because the better he performs on both sides of the ball, the better we are going to be as a team."
Last year, he performed his best on the defensive side of the ball, recording 63 tackles, pulling down five interceptions, recovering three fumbles and scoring a touchdown. As a safety, Simpson was the Pioneers' last line of defense. If the opposing running back broke loose on a big play, Simpson would have to stop him or give up a touchdown.
"Defensively he has great instincts and he is such a great tackler. He has saved us a lot of points with his speed," Marksberry said. "There are not a lot of people that are going to run by him."
As a sophomore, Simpson kept many opponents out of the end zone, but he remembers the ones that did get by and that made his drive even stronger.
"Every game where we lost last year made me feel really bad because I thought most of it was my fault. I felt like I could have stopped someone from getting a touchdown and we could have won the game," Simpson said.
Currently, Simpson has many senior friends on the team. He wants to win for all the guys that have been his teammates for the last few seasons. Even after their 37-15 loss to Newport Central Catholic in Week One, Simpson still thinks they can win them all.
"All I want out of this year is to go the rest of the season undefeated. I would love that. I really think we could it because we have a lot of great depth," Simpson said.
The strongest area of depth for the Pioneers is at running back. Simpson and senior T.J. Dawalt make quite the duo. Dawalt will make you miss with his slashing moves and Simpson will make wish that you had missed when he bowls you over with his combination of speed and strength.
Coach Marksberry describes Simpson as "deceptively fast," and said that he uses his long strides to leave opposing defenders behind. Simpson left many of his opponents behind last year, but didn't do so until later in the season.
Last year, as a sophomore, he was eased into being a feature back and started the year on defense. However, eventually, Simpson rushed for 408 yards and seven touchdowns. Unlike last season, Simpson will be one of the team's feature backs right away.
This year, he looks to improve on those numbers after a summer of working out in the pool. His offseason conditioning has impressed reporters in preseason practices and has local newspapers buzzing about this being a potential breakout season for Simpson and Simon Kenton. In the last two weeks, that buzz has carried over in way of tape requests from major Division-I programs like Nebraska, Kentucky and Stanford, all wanting to know more about this player.
Just like on his first varsity play, all eyes will be on a youngster named Simpson this season.
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