THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, September 24, 1995 TAG: 9509240054
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY PAUL SOUTH, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 84 lines
Above the door in Donnie Simpson's office at Currituck County High School in Barco hangs a brief but powerful message.
Simpson is the football coach at Currituck, and you might expect a quote from Vince Lombardi or Knute Rockne or Paul ``Bear'' Bryant. But Simpson draws inspiration from an a source far from the playing field.
``The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience,'' The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. said. ``But where he stands in times of challenge and controversy.''
``That,'' Simpson says, pointing to the hand-lettered sign,``says it all.''
Simpson achieved one of those moments of comfort this week when he was named one of the coaches for the North Carolina High School all-star game set for next summer in Greensboro. Simpson has also seen more than his share of joy in coaching. For 14 of his 22 seasons, he has coached at this rural school, taking the Knights to the state finals in 1989, and to three conference titles.
But for much of his 47 years, challenge has been the word. For the Elizabeth City native, the playing field has been slanted uphill.
``I was an average football player, who went to practice every day and worked hard,'' says Simpson.
Later, Simpson played without a scholarship at Elon College. In his senior year, tragedy struck. His father was killed by a drunken driver.
``I had gotten hurt, and my father came up to get me. After he brought me back to school, he went back to work to make up for the day he missed. He was on his way to work when he was killed.''
His father's death meant there was no more money for college.
``Elon is not a cheap place.''
Simpson quit school. He was newly married and selling insurance when Buck Jolly, then-coach at Northeastern High in Elizabeth City, came to visit.
``Coach Jolly encouraged me to go to Elizabeth City State to finish my degree. I walked on for football there too, but the athletes there were just too good.''
At ECSU, Simpson was the only white kid on the football team, the only white in the Physical Education Department. And some of the students at the traditional black college made him feel less than welcome. Then another coach intervened.
``I got a good taste of discrimination,'' says Simpson. ``There were some people there who let me know they didn't want me there. But some of the guys were real nice. Coach Thomas Caldwell was the one who took me under his wing.
``Coach Caldwell really encouraged me. Sometimes it was tough, but I stayed focused on getting an education.''
Simpson earned his degree from ECSU, and later got a master's at George Washington University. Then there were coaching stops at Randolph Macon Academy, Camden High School and now Currituck, where he has averaged nearly seven wins a year.
His rules are simple:
``I tell our kids, don't do anything that would embarrass yourself, your family, your school or this football team. That pretty much covers it.''
Donnie Simpson says the notion that coaching today is tougher than 20 years ago is off-base.
``It's no tougher being a coach, but I think it's tougher to be a kid. And I know it's tougher to be a parent.''
In many ways, Simpson knows the parenting role beyond his own home.
``I have people who come to me and say, `You're the closest thing to a father this kid has ever had.' I had a good family situation at home growing up. But it's sad that a lot of kids don't.''
So now, the kid who was an average player teaches Xs and Os and blocking and tackling to boys who in many ways are like his own. Saturday he took his team to see North Carolina State play football, giving many their first chance to visit a college campus and see a college game.
And in his own quiet way, he teaches a lesson he learned from Coach Jolly, and Coach Caldwell. A lesson the world could use as it wrings its hands over diversity, and ``race cards'' and whether or not an African American can be President.
It's a lesson that rings like the words of Dr. King, who dreamed of a time when folks would be judged not by the color of skin, but by the content of character.
``I get asked sometimes, `How many black kids do you have? How many white kids do you have?' I get real upset. I tell them I don't know, they're all football players to me. And they come in all colors and sizes.'' by CNB