FOCUS ON: Claire Simpson
By Tom Gillispie
Claire Simpson was a starter on Mount Tabor’s varsity
softball team, mostly at third base or the outfield, beginning her freshman
year.
She didn’t become a pitcher until her junior year, and even
then, she says, “I was the backup to the backup” pitcher.
Now, she’s the Spartans’ pitching rotation.
“I pitch every game,” she said. “Sometimes I’ll be taken out
for a few pitches, then be moved back.”
“We did that earlier this past week,” coach Rick Anderson
said. “We brought another girl in for a few batters. (Simpson) had lost her
release point. She went back (to the mound) and started throwing strikes.”
Anderson says that Simpson “has been eating all the innings
for us. She needs to step up, and, so far, she has. She’d been our left fielder
forever. She’s started at third or left. She has one of the best arms I’ve had.
She’s got to pitch a lot for us.”
Pitching every inning was something new to her, Simpson said.
“At the beginning of the year, it was very difficult,” she
said. “At the time, I hadn’t played travel ball as much as I used to. It’s not
easy to pitch every game, but I was able to build my stamina and get better and
better.”
Simpson says her best pitch is a screwball that hurts
batters’ hands.
The rare times when she isn’t pitching, she likes the
outfield over third base.
Asked if she likes third, she said, “No, I call third base
Death Row. It’s so scary.”
Simpson says she’s going to Cape Fear Community College in
Wilmington for the cosmetology program, then go two more years at CFCC to get
her esthetician license.
What’s the attraction to being a cosmetologist?
“I’ve wanted to be a cosmetologist since I was in eighth
grade,” she said. “I have a passion for makeup.”
She won’t play softball.
“I really have no passion to go and play in college,” she
said. “I’ve played so long that I feel it’s what I do in my free time.”
Still, she keeps up with softball. She likes Alabama because
of its softball program. And her favorite athlete is Jennie Finch, a former
Olympic and collegiate All-America softball pitcher.
“I went to camp and had the honor of meeting her,” she said.
“They took a picture of us with her Olympic medals; I was about 11 or 12.”
Simpson’s older brother Turner also played sports at Mount
Tabor, and her mother, Sue, works in the admissions office at Wake Forest.
EMAIL: tgilli52@gmail.com TWITTER: EDITORatWORK
More blog entries by Tom Gillispie
• Advice for be and would-be novelists
Anecdotes by Tom Gillispie
Entries from The Dog Blog
Blog entries from The Auto Racing Journal
(a book of great stories about the Intimidator)
(the book of great NASCAR stories)
