OVERPOWERING INSPIRATION: SIMPHER BRINGS THE HEAT DESPITE MUSCULAR DYSTROPHY

BENTON -- Justin Simpher stares toward home plate, waiting for his catcher to give him a sign.

Standing at 6-foot, the Kelly junior is an imposing figure with a strong upper body.

The catcher gives him a sign, this time a fastball -- one of five pitches in Simpher's nasty arsenal.

Simpher nods, kicks back and blows an 85-mile-per-hour heater past the batter.

Strike three.

The batter, one of 59 hitters to fall victim to a Simpher strikeout, just got fanned by one of the best pitchers in Southeast Missouri.

He also just got struck out by a well-liked kid who suffers from Muscular Dystrophy.

Simpher has been a source of inspiration for students at Kelly High School.

Despite not being able to run faster than a moderate jog, he has made the most of what he has been given.

"You got to give him credit for what he does," said Simpher's teammate, senior Jess Pattengill. "He's overcoming something than nobody else knows what feels like and he's able to shine through all of it."

And shine he has.

Simpher is among the area leaders in every major pitching category.

His 1.84 earned run average is in the top three in the area, his 59 strikeouts are fifth best among area pitchers and he has won six games, fourth best.

At the plate, Simpher is among the area leaders in batting average (.403) and runs batted in (20). He leads his team in home runs with three, including a grand slam in the Hawks' 9-5 win over Kennett this past Thursday.

"It's real inspiring," said sophomore Barry Ziegler, the Hawks' right fielder. "To see what he can do with limited potential makes anybody with full potential push to see what they can do. Heck, he can barely use his legs and is up there throwing 85-mile per hour fastballs."

Simpher suffers from a form of MD called Myotonic Dystrophy. As with all forms of MD, the Myotonic version is progressive and will get worse over time.

But Simpher is the first to point out that his condition is not near as bad as some have it and he does not believe that his case is severe enough to be life-threatening. His mother and brother both suffer from the same illness and he had an uncle die from the disease.

According to the Muscular Dystrophy Association, Simpher's form of MD is the most common in adults. It is caused by a defective gene and the muscle weakness is accompanied by a delayed relaxation of muscles after contraction.

"When I first go out to throw," Simpher said. "I'll be real stiff. Once I get loosened up, I'm fine. But if I sit down and rest for very long, it just tightens up again and I have to do it all over again. Stretching really helps."

The only time Simpher's condition is evident on the baseball field is when he has to run.

"I worry about what other people think when they see a guy who is batting .400 and he gets thrown out by about 40 feet on a ground ball," admitted Simpher. "It bothers me, I guess."

But it doesn't bother Kelly coach Mike Scott.

"He gives us a great bat, a great arm and great leadership," said Scott. "You can't ask for much more than that."

Fans unaware of Simpher's condition sometimes think that he is loafing when he is thrown out at first. But anyone who knows Simpher knows that's not the case.

"He's hard-working," said Kelly senior center fielder Brad Kolwyck. "He lives, breathes and sleeps baseball. That's his personality."

Said Scott, "It's really neat to see a kid with Justin's attitude come out and work hard every day on the areas where he knows his strengths are. He comes out to get better every day. He's a great example to others. He's the guy who sets the stage for the work ethic of the team. That makes him a good leader for us."

Simpher has worked on a variety of pitches. He throws a fastball, change up, curveball, slider and a splitter.

"I'd say he ranks among the best in the area," said Pattengill. "He throws a real hard fastball, a hard-breaking curveball, the splitter -- he's got it all and he mixes it up well. He's going to keep you guessing."

Simpher's even tinkering with another weapon.

"I'm trying to work on a knuckleball," he said. "But it's still in the process. It's a little harder to throw than the rest."

Ziegler called Simpher's new side-arm pitch the "knuckle-slurvider."

"He throws about everything there is to throw," Ziegler joked. "I remember the first time I faced him. I was 12. You just try to go up there and get a piece of the ball."

Simpher will likely make it to the collegiate level as a pitcher. With yet another year to get better at the high school level, the velocity of his fastball reaches the upper 80s in the summer when the temperatures get warmer and allow Simpher's muscles to relax more.

Even Simpher doesn't know exactly how he gets so much into his pitches without a lot of power from his legs.

"I just go up there and throw the ball," he said. "I get some power from my legs, just not as much as most people."

Simpher is a true example of an optimist.

Though he sometimes thinks of how good he might have been if he could run, he focuses on his strengths.

"You just have to work with what you've got," he said.

Perhaps in the long run, he will make more of an impact on people as an MD sufferer than he would if he could sprint like everyone else.

"If there's something wrong with you, you just have to do what you can," he said. "There's nothing impossible. People say 'you got this, you can't do it' but I proved them wrong. If you have a disability, don't worry about what other people can do, just do what you can do."

But Simpher's story serves inspiration to more than just those with disabilities.

Perhaps Kolwyck, a college prospect in his own right, summed up Simpher's inspiration the best, giving his younger teammate the ultimate compliment.

Said the athletic Kolwyck of the well-liked kid who suffers from Muscular Dystrophy: "He's one of my heroes."