{"id":1462,"date":"2014-11-19T20:57:49","date_gmt":"2014-11-19T20:57:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/athletics\/?p=1462"},"modified":"2015-11-12T18:41:23","modified_gmt":"2015-11-12T18:41:23","slug":"gracie-simpson-15-signs-with-elon-university","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/athletics\/2014\/11\/19\/gracie-simpson-15-signs-with-elon-university\/","title":{"rendered":"Gracie Simpson ’15 Signs with Elon University"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Photo<\/a>When there was no local female lacrosse coach to help her young daughters learn the sport, Pamela Simpson picked up a manual and taught herself enough to coach the local recreational team, the South Hadley Tigers.<\/p>\n

It was a strategy that appears to have paid off in spades. On Nov. 12, Mrs. Simpson was at the Grubbs Gallery to watch her younger daughter sign a National Letter of Intent to play with Elon University in North Carolina.<\/p>\n

Her older daughter, Karly Simpson \u201913, also received multiple honors while at Williston, including the Alumnae Bowl, and went on to play varsity lacrosse at Trinity College.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cI never dreamed of this level,\u201d Mrs. Simpson said as Gracie Simpson \u201815 finished signing an agreement to play with Division 1 Elon. \u201cSports were just to give her different opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Williston senior said it was not until she\u00a0 began attending lacrosse camps as a freshman that she realized she had the potential to play on a D1 team. She noted that playing at Williston, and with Head Coach Jen Fulcher in particular, had only deepened her love of the game.<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/a>\u201cI\u2019m blessed to be here, especially lacrosse-wise,\u201d she said. \u201cIf I didn\u2019t go here, I wouldn\u2019t have found my passion for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coach Fulcher had nothing but praise for her super star player, describing her a great defender and a threat on offense, with \u201cgreat hands, great speed and quickness.\u201d Last spring, she was named NEPSAC All-New England. Having coached Ms. Simpson on the varsity team for the last five years, Coach Fulcher said it was \u201chard to imagine coaching a team that doesn\u2019t have her on it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGracie has got to be one of the fiercest competitors I\u2019ve ever coached,\u201d she said. \u201cIt only takes seconds of watching her play to know you\u2019d be lucky to have her on your team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms. Simpson is going from a Williston program that\u2019s enjoyed tremendous success in the past seven seasons\u2014including an undefeated in 2013, and a 14-1 record last year\u2014to a brand new team that\u2019s already shown great potential. In their inaugural season last year, the Phoenix team had a 8-8 overall record and 4-1 in their league. Elon finished second in the conference during the regular season; Head Coach Josh Hexter was named Atlantic Sun Conference coach of the year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When there was no local female lacrosse coach to help her young daughters learn the sport, Pamela Simpson picked up a manual and taught herself enough to coach the local recreational team, the South Hadley Tigers. It was a strategy that appears to have paid off in spades. On Nov. 12, Mrs. Simpson was at … Continue reading Gracie Simpson ’15 Signs with Elon University<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[46,364],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-athletics-news","category-ncaa-commitments"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/athletics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1462"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/athletics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/athletics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/athletics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/athletics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1462"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/athletics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1462\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1481,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/athletics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1462\/revisions\/1481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/athletics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/athletics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/athletics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}