ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, February 20, 1997 TAG: 9702200047
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DANIEL UTHMAN STAFF WRITER
JUNIOR GUARD ANGIE SIMPKINS is a pest to Emory & Henry opponents.
A recent informal survey of Old Dominion Athletic Conference women's basketball teams brought forth a flood of gripes and groans in response to one particular question.
Asked what bugs them about playing Emory & Henry, most players responded, ``The Flea.''
``The Flea,'' or ``Flea,'' as the more common usage goes, is Emory & Henry's junior point guard Angie Simpkins. Most know her by her nickname, not by her given name.
``It's what I answer to,'' Simpkins said. ``My real name should be a trivia question.''
Here's another trivia question: Who is No.1 in the ODAC and No.14 in the nation in steals? If you answered ``Flea,'' you're correct. The judges have ruled that ``Simpkins'' also is an acceptable answer.
A graduate of Auburn High School and a resident of Christiansburg, Simpkins probably will break the school's single-season steals record by next week's ODAC women's tournament. She averages four steals per game. Opponents average that many headaches when they play her.
Simpkins got her alias as a freshman when fellow Wasps guard Katie Brann, also from Christiansburg, watched her scurry around the court. Because Simpkins is just 5 feet 1, Brann thought the nickname was perfect.
``They say she's little and quick and she jumps so much you can't catch her,'' said Simpkins' mother, Bobbie. ``I have been called `Mama Flea,' which I discourage.''
There have been times, many times, when Simpkins could have been discouraged from athletic competition. Throughout her youth she suffered from a terrible asthmatic condition, in addition to other allergies. One allergy destroyed one of Simpkins' eardrums, and after losing her hearing three times, her parents had it totally rebuilt.
Because of her reckless tendencies, Bobbie and Richard Simpkins had to undertake other repair jobs for their daughter. At age 8, Simpkins was swinging on rope over a creek in Craig County. She thought she was going to land in a brier patch, so in her typical frenzied rush, she let go of the rope too early. Instead of landing in the briers, she landed on a rock.
Her next destination was the hospital, where she was fitted for a cast that reached from her waist down both legs to her toes. When it was discovered she was allergic to materials in the cast, she was fitted for a hypoallergenic brace, which, to Simpkins' relief, offered easier mobility for the six months she had to wear it.
Bobbie Simpkins still recalls with a sigh the days when she would come home to the sight of Angie chasing her brother Ricky around the house and vice versa.
``She's a daredevil,'' Bobbie Simpkins said.
There are other players in the ODAC who play a role for their teams like Simpkins does for the Wasps, including Guilford's Kristin Schott, Virginia Wesleyan's Nancy Mattox, and Randolph-Macon College's Allison and Aimee Beightol. ``Everybody's got real, physical, talented guards,'' said Emory & Henry coach Joy Scruggs. None however, can match Simpkins' all-around numbers. In addition to being her team's second-leading rebounder at 6.7 per game, Simpkins is among the league leaders in scoring (10th), assists (second) and, of course, steals. ``Maybe it's having a low, low, low center of gravity,'' Scruggs said.
Simpkins doesn't have a set theory on why she has so much success at stealing the basketball. Most likely it springs from her unpredictable nature. It was just two days before freshman classes began that Simpkins made her decision to enroll at Emory & Henry. This past fall she coached the Patrick Henry-Glade Spring junior varsity girls' basketball team without having met any of the players (the team finished 13-5). Last season after a particularly contentious game against Roanoke College, Simpkins sat down and wrote a letter of apology to Maroons coach Susan Dunagan.
People have come to expect the unexpected from one of the ODAC's smallest, quickest guards, whether it's getting the ball taken away on a rebound, having it smacked out of their hands or having it flipped over their heads in the form of a wild bank shot.
``Sometimes I think about what it would be like if I was taller, like 5-7 or something,'' Simpkins said. ``I might be under a little more control.''
That may be true. But it would be very unbecoming of a Flea.
LENGTH: Medium: 84 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: DANIEL UTHMAN STAFF. Emory & Henry guard Angie Simpkinsby CNB(right) leads the ODAC in steals and is among the league leaders in
scoring and assists. color.