PREP PROFILE: Simpson plans to help female Wolves hold up their end of bargain
Nov. 30—The young high school basketball teams from Parke Heritage both have postseason aspirations this year and Emma Simpson agreed this week that both could be competing long after sectional play is over.
"There's definitely a competition [between the boys team and the girls team concerning eventual destinations]," the girls team's junior point guard said. "I think [the boys] can win the semistate this year [after reaching that round a year ago]."
The Parke Heritage girls haven't reached that level yet, which puts a frown on Simpson's face.
"After losing the sectional championship [game] two years in a row [to North Putnam in 2022, to Greencastle last season]," she said, almost making a guarantee, "... I think we can win the sectional and the regional [which Greencastle did handily last season]. The semistate will be a little tougher."
The Wolves' girls team, which is 44-15 in the two seasons plus the first month of this season that Simpson has been on it, seems capable of doing some or all of those things. And, because that record and Simpson's presence during it don't seem to be a coincidence, she'll be a big part of the effort.
Best player among Wabash Valley girls? She has her coach's vote.
"Very athletic," Mark Harper said this week when asked about Simpson. "Quick, very aggressive in nature. The highest vertical leap of any player I've had. Her first step is unparalleled. She can break the [full-court] press single-handedly, and she can finish at the basket or get offensive rebounds and putbacks."
"I grew up [playing] with older brothers," Simpson pointed out. "That's where my aggressiveness comes from, because they were always picking on me. And [as a result, perhaps] I never want to lose."
Simpson is the Wolves' leading scorer at 17.9 points per game (one free throw shy of an 18-point average) and also — as a point guard maybe 5-foot-7 (she doesn't know her height and doesn't care) is also leading the team in rebounding at 9.7 per game (two caroms shy of a 10.0 average). "She's close to averaging a double-double," Harper said.
She also leads her team in assists (which might be Harper's favorite stat right now), steals and blocked shots.
"She's 57 points away from 1,000," the coach added. "She'll break the school [career scoring] record [held now by Grace Ramsay] and she was a small-school all-state player as a sophomore."
The reason Harper is happy about the assist total? Simpson is still improving.
"This year she's making everyone around her better through her playmaking," he said. "She gets her teammates easy baskets."
"I'm the person who wants to clean everything up," Simpson said in evaluating her own play. "I like to do the dirty work so my teammates get points ... and sometimes I have to slow things down."
"Her ceiling is really high," Harper said when asked about Simpson's basketball future.
Now, however, the only future Simpson is worried about is her team's performance, this season and next (when the boys and girls should still have shared lofty goals).
"I see a lot of potential," she said. "We just have to pull it all together."
