Retired from Owensboro Fire Department after 27 years of service, Larry Simpson found a second career coaching soccer, which led him to the blistering cold of Fort Kent, Maine.
“I originally got into soccer as anyone else does around here, I had kids that played.” Simpson said. “My daughter played and they needed a coach on a recreational level. One thing led to another and as my obsessive personality would have, I got my coaching license in soccer.”
That license that he now holds, is a premier license, recognized worldwide as the highest level of licensure in coaching.
“I honestly got my license because I didn’t want to be a bad coach for kids,” Simpson said. “I didn’t want kids to think back to the bald guy they once had as a coach and how terrible he was.”
Simpson’s coaching skills proved to be anything but terrible. He went on to coach locally at both the high school and collegiate levels representing both Brescia University and Kentucky Wesleyan College during different points in his career. During that time Bill Ashby moved to Owensboro to take the Athletic Director position at Brescia. Larry spent time on Ashby’s staff as an assistant coach, a relationship that would eventually lead him to Maine years later.
Ashby, who left Brescia and took a position at the University of Maine at Fort Kent, text Larry one day with a plea.
“I get a text message that says give me a call so I called,” Simpson said. “He was in a real bind needing a coach that year and said that once I [got to Maine] I could decide on the next year after that. He said he would make it worthwhile,” said Simpson, so agreed to help his friend.
The UMFK soccer coach took another position out of state, leaving Simpson to take over the Lady Bengals soccer team as head coach for the 2017 season. Impressively, he coached a team that did not lose a game for the rest of the season.
“It was a great team, a bunch of very talented girls,” Simpson said. That talent, paired with Simpson’s coaching, took the team to win a USCAA National Championship over the Florida National University Conquistadors.
Simpson committed to staying around another year, leading to a national runner-up title in the 2018 season. Simpson takes pride in his team’s ability and humbly gives credit to the girls hard work.
“A lot of time the race is won by the horse, not the jockey,” Simpson said.
As for the 2019 season, Ashby has retired and Simpson does not have plans to return to Maine. Simpson’s contract with UMFK expired Dec. 31 and he plans to take a couple months to unwind, before helping Andy Donohoe with the Owensboro Catholic high school boys soccer program.
Larry admits although he enjoyed his time in Maine he is absolutely not a cold weather person.
“At Fort Kent, it starts snowing in November and you don’t see the grass again until April,” he said. “There is at least 5 to 6 feet of snow all the time in winter.” Fort Kent is almost an all French-speaking population being on the Canadian border. Simpson said a cashier at the local supermarket may speak first in French even before English.
Now home in Owensboro, Simpson will face the differences of coaching collegiate and high school soccer. Simpson explained that college athletes come with more athletic experience, maturity and the tables are turned as they are there on scholarship.
For high school players, different dynamics like parents involvement, maturity levels and expectations of athletes are significant factors.
“At the high school level, very few of them may choose or have the opportunity to go play at the collegiate level or even professionally,” as some of Simpson’s former athletes have. “You’re using the game of soccer as a tool to build things like character, reliability, dependability, good work ethic and learning how to interact with teammates and others. You could say you are preparing them for life in a sense.”
Simpson’s life has been anything but mundane. A retired firefighter, coach of a collegiate national championship team, professional cyclist and even a talented artist, Simpson’s success seems to follow.
“I always say to athletes, are you going to be the person helping drive the train to the destination or a passenger, because we can’t afford passengers,” Simpson said. “Passengers go through life with no direction. Soccer is a vehicle to learn these things, but once you get out and are going through life you have to be the driver with destination points and something to drive to.”
