All-Southeast Missourian volleyball player of the year: Simpson's power carried Scott City to state title

Success in volleyball came instantly for Brooke Simpson.

And she quickly was hooked.

Simpson started playing volleyball in the seventh grade after concentrating on softball before that. It didn't take long for her focus to switch to volleyball.

"I noticed our team was a lot more successful at volleyball so I thought I could bring a lot more to the table," she said. "I just have a lot of natural athletic ability. I was tall, which is nice for volleyball. I just gravitated toward it."

Simpson, a 5-foot-10 middle hitter, quickly honed her skills and developed into one of the area's top players. She helped lead Scott City to the Class 2 state championship this season and again is the Southeast Missourian player of the year. She won the same honor last year.

"I still don't even know that she thinks she is very good," Simpson's mother, Teresa Simpson, said. "I think she knows she's all right. She's not an arrogant person. For a long time, I don't think she understood her abilities. A lot of people recognized her abilities before she did."

Simpson admits she's always been competitive. Her mother said that Brooke was so competitive when she was younger that when they were playing board games together Brooke would move around the pieces if Teresa stepped away from the table.

"I like to win," Brooke said.

That competitive drive helped fuel Simpson's senior season. Simpson's motivation started with the Rams' loss to Hermann in last year's state championship match. The Rams spent this season eyeing a chance at revenge for last year's loss.

"I knew that since we had most of our team coming back, we had a great chance of beating Hermann," Simpson said. "We tried to look at our season one game at a time and tried not to look toward the end. All season long we said we are going to play Hermann in the championship match of the Class 2 volleyball championships and we're going to beat them."

The Rams marched through the regular season with only two losses -- a 2-1 defeat to Notre Dame and a 2-0 loss to St. Agnes of Tennessee. But when Scott City reached the final four and got another shot at Hermann in round-robin play, things didn't go as planned. The Bearcats downed the Rams in both games.

Simpson said she and her teammates were undeterred. The Rams regrouped to earn another shot at Hermann, this time for the state title. They didn't waste the third chance to face Hermann, dispatching the Bearcats 25-19, 25-22 to claim the state title.

"It's every positive feeling you could ever feel right there in front of you and you just grasp it," Simpson said. "I just cannot believe it still. It still hasn't hit me yet. ... I mean I was crying in joy. I've never wanted something so bad in my life.

"For that opportunity to come two years in a row, it was the greatest thing. It was one of the greatest things that's ever happened to me so far. It might be sad, but volleyball has been such a big part of my life."

Teresa said watching her two daughters -- Brooke and Mikah, a sophomore starter for the Rams -- win a state title together was something she'll never forget.

"It was a blessing," Teresa said. "As a parent, when it happened, we were just kind of in awe. It just takes a while for it to set in. Now I can sit there and think about it and it makes me tear up. It was one of the best experiences I've got to have with them to date. I guess the next thing will be their marriage."

Simpson led the Rams with 309 kills and added 269 digs and 44 aces through districts. Rams setter Katie Diebold said Simpson's talent made it easy to set her.

"No matter where the ball is, she can hit it down," Diebold said. "It can be so far off the net, she can just slam it down. She adjusts herself so well. It takes a lot of pressure off my back knowing she can hit it even if it's a bad set."

Scott City coach Haley Jennings said Simpson's influence wasn't limited to her play.

"She is definitely our leader on the floor," Jennings said. "She reads the floor very well. She's just a great all-around player."

Simpson began playing on the varsity team as a freshman. She overcame ankle injuries during her freshman and sophomore years before leading her team to a state runner-up finish as a junior.

"She's played varsity since she was a freshman, and obviously that helps out a ton," Jennings said. "She's played club and every year she's just gotten better and better. She had a lot of raw talent to begin with, but when you add experience with that, it keeps getting better for her."

Simpson said she plays volleyball about nine months out of the year and spends the other three months practicing. She's lucky that she's got a great training partner in her house -- sister Mikah. Even after all that volleyball, Simpson said she's never gotten tired of it.

"When we have to write little papers in school about something that's important to you in your life, I always write about volleyball," she said. "I write about my coach, my teammates, my position, this game, that game. Somehow I always find a way to write about volleyball when I'm given a topic in school. It might sound obsessive, but I love it."

Simpson plans to play in college next year and is exploring her options. She knows she doesn't want to stay too close to home.

"Pretty much the only schools I'm looking at are the schools that have offered for me to play there," she said. "I've looked at Lindenwood University, Jefferson College and Mineral Area College, and I'm going to be looking at Missouri State West Plains. I talked to Drury out in Springfield. That's about it. I knew I didn't want to stick around here. I wanted to kind of get the whole college experience."

Simpson said she considered trying to walk on to a Division I team but decided walking on wasn't for her.

"My thing is if I'm going to go somewhere and work hard in practice, I better get to play," she said. "I want to know I have a guaranteed position somewhere. Division I might be in my future if I decide to go to a junior college or wherever, it might be there for me. But since I haven't had any offers from Division I schools, I'm just going to stick to what has been given to me already."

Teresa said the recruiting process has been enjoyable and that she believes Brooke will make the best decision about where to continue her playing career.

"We want her to be happy and be satisfied wherever she chooses to go," Teresa said. "It's a big decision. It's one of her first big adult decisions, and this could shape her future."