With Head Basketball Coach Chris Simpson ’10

Coach Simpson’s Time Has Arrived

Gray Bees can learn a lot from Chris Simpson ’10, who has been on a journey to become Head Basketball Coach since the day he graduated from The Hive. Coach Simpson talks about his mentors, his plans for the program and the pathway that brought him back to St. Benedict’s Prep.

You were the head manager of the basketball team when you attended St. Benedict’s Prep. How did you get the position?

It started with the Overnight. Manny MacDonald ’06, who had just graduated, came back to speak to the incoming freshmen about their journey at Benedict’s. Manny was a manager for Rick Jacobs, the Head Soccer Coach at the time, and Dan Hurley, the Head Basketball Coach. Manny’s experiences sounded like something I’d be interested in. I showed up at the gym and met Coach Joe Sokolewicz (a.k.a. “S”), who oversaw the student managers. There was an opening on the JV team, and I was cool with that. A week later, “S” found me and asked, ‘We have a [varsity] trip this weekend, can you make it?’ Absolutely, I answered.

After that, I was part of the team. A lot of great players came through the program. It was an honor to be a part of it. It laid the groundwork for me to be on this path.

How so?

I had so many role models and mentors at Benedict’s like “S”, Coach Bashir Mason ’03 and Dan Hurley. Coach Hurley is the reason I’m coaching. He showed us what it means to compete and win at the highest level. His passion and commitment to developing young men on and off the court, his emphasis on character and integrity, inspired me to do the same when I came of age. Coach Hurley also lived his life in front of us and showed us he was a family man. As a young kid from a single-parent home in the inner city, it looked to me like he was living the dream.

Moving to a Division I school can be intimidating. What did you take from Benedict’s to St. John’s University, where you were a Student Manager?

Luckily, there's no one more intimidating than Coach Hurley, so he prepared me for that world. He knew I was interested in St. John’s and reached out to the incoming coach, Steve Lavin. My roommate, Dwayne Polee, was on the basketball team, so I knew practice was at 6:00 a.m. I showed up at 5:30 a.m. Mike Dunlap, the Lead Assistant Coach at the time, was surprised to see a young kid sitting there. I told him I wanted to be a manager. Coach Dunlap created a role for me in the video room, and I kept showing up. That’s how I got my start.

Your trajectory as a basketball coach had some big moments, as well as setbacks. What did you learn along the way?

Reaching your goals is a journey. My first job out of college was at Wagner College. Head Coach Bashir Mason hired me. Bash was a guy I looked up to, and he also inspired me. I was mainly a manager and video guy at Wagner and wanted to make the transition to coaching. The first stop was IMG Academy, where I was a skills coach. I then enrolled at Loyola Marymount University and was a graduate assistant under Mike Dunlap, who was another great mentor to me. He threw me into the deep end to give me a chance to figure out how to swim.

After graduating from Loyola Marymount, I was the assistant coach at several Los Angeles high schools while completing the clinical work for my master’s degree in school counseling. I worked with Reggie Morris, the legendary coach at Culver City High School and James Hecht at Santa Monica High School, who was a great mentor to me. I gained enough experience to become Head Varsity Coach at Dymally High School in South Central Los Angeles. They needed a counselor, so I also took on the role of college and career counselor. We started from ground zero pretty much. The basketball team was 0-11 the previous year. We won a couple of games, got hot at the right time of the season, finished 19-10, and won the city championship. 

The Championship game was in February 2020, right before the COVID-19 lockdown.

It was. COVID was a big hit for inner city communities. A lot of my students were working to financially support their families, which caused them to drop out of school. I had a few things going on myself and took a year off from coaching. In 2022, I reached out to Steve Lavin, who was just named head coach at the University of San Diego. I was willing to start from the ground up. I became a graduate assistant again and was later promoted to assistant coach. I had to bet on myself.  I had to know that going back to college basketball at the highest level, working for Coach Lavin, I would get the opportunity that I am blessed with now.

You called the Head Basketball Coach position at Benedict’s your dream job in an interview with nj.com. How come?

I dreamed about this job my entire life. It’s something that’s been in my mind and on my heart. I would call Fr. Ed sometimes just to tell him how much I was thinking about this job. But I had to believe in myself and stay on the path. As a coach and a young man, I had to stay true to what I believed. And I always believed that I could lead this school in the basketball world and could be the person to get us to the mountaintop. It’s an honor and a dream that I’m so grateful for.

What are your near-term goals for the program?

Near-term is establishing a winning culture. One of the first things I sensed when I came to the School was our winning tradition. As a young person walking through the Trophy Room, you sensed it was the winner’s circle. I want to make sure our kids understand that they’re winners and there’s a certain way winners go about handling their business. There’s a certain way winners practice. There’s a certain way winners learn, study and perform.

We’ve started to establish this in our early meetings, setting the tone with expectations about showing up early, handling our class work, being a good student in the community and representing Benedict’s and the basketball program well.  

And your long-term goals?

Our long-term goal this season — and seasons to come — is to win. I want St. Benedict’s to play in the state championships and win them. I want to build a state championship team the right way; bring young talent from the Middle Division and have them grow up at Benedict’s. I want to send our guys to the Division I level and watch them play in the NCAA March Madness Final Four.

Coach Mark Taylor did a great job in his time at St. Benedict’s. He left the program in great standing and there are bright spots from this season that we can pull moving forward. We recently transitioned into the New Jersey Interscholastic State Athletic Association. I think we can be the trailblazers and bridge that gap from winning the State A Prep championships to winning Super Essex Conference championships.

I have other goals I want to accomplish, mainly establishing a community-building basketball academy.  It could be camps or clinics working with young people in the area to help strengthen their skills on the basketball court, as well as provide them a place to call home. Not everyone is blessed enough to be a student here. Basketball is a vehicle to spread the word about St. Benedict’s and provide a safe place for kids to learn to play hoops and see young men who look like them play at a high level and be successful in the classroom and on the court.

The most important thing, and what I think I’ll be graded on by Fr. Ed, is raising young men who will be good husbands, good fathers and good leaders in their communities. Wherever they go in this world, if our guys can take something from St. Benedict’s that becomes a seed for them to live out their dreams, I think I did my job.

In addition to serving as a Head Basketball Coach, Chris Simpson is the Director of the Velvet Rope, a behavior modification program in Leahy House. He holds a bachelor’s degree in sports management from St. John’s University and a master’s degree in school counseling from Loyola Marymount University. Mr. Simpson was named Coach of the Year in 2020 for leading Dymally High School in L.A. to its first city championship. He and his wife, Yordana Simpson, the Assistant Dean of the Girls Division, are Leahy House parents.