Tom Gillispie: FOCUS ON: Claire Simpson

Thursday, October 17, 2019

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.

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