By: Ryan Tattersall
On Saturday, March 30, Wallenpaupack lost our beloved Athletic Director of sports Mrs. Ann Marie Simons. Before she passed, I had the opportunity to interview her, this summer. We, of course, discussed Wallenpaupack sports, but we also spoke about Mrs. Simons’ background and interests.
Ryan Tattersall: Thank you for taking time with me today Mrs. Simons. Did you play sports when you were young? Please share with us your time as an athlete.
Mrs. Simons: There were not as many opportunities as there are now for girls when I played sports. I played youth softball and basketball and then for Honesdale High School, I played on our basketball team. Playing high school basketball made me very happy.
Ryan Tattersall: Did you play sports in college?
Mrs. Simons: l went to ESU and played in the intramural sports programs.
Ryan Tattersall: Have you ever coached before?
Mrs. Simons: Yes, I coached basketball and softball at St. Vincent’s Catholic school, and I coached at the youth level in Honesdale.
Ryan Tattersall: What motivated you to become the Athletic Director?
Mrs. Simons: Good question. I really enjoyed coaching a lot and I saw an opportunity to try to improve things in our athletic programs. I thought maybe I could do that in this position. I think that is what motivated me. I really love our kids and I love trying to make things better for them and our coaches. Allowing our coaches to coach – that is important to me.
Ryan Tattersall: That’s great. What do sports mean to you?
Mrs. Simons: Sports can be a microcosm of life. When you are on a team (individual sports too) every team is going to have team dynamics. Just like in life, there are going to be dynamics where you meet different types of people. So, whether it’s in sports, or the workplace, you need to work together and get along to have success.
Ryan Tattersall: What emphasis should be placed on winning?
Mrs. Simons: I love the competitive edge in sports, and I love to win. Sometimes, winning is not the most important part of the experience. The camaraderie that sports allow you to have with your teammates – the challenges of competing against others, the challenge that some teams are better than you, sometimes, there is the challenge where some teams aren’t always striving to get better, and of course the challenge of having goals – all those things are done by sports but also all things that you need in life as well.
Ryan Tattersall: Yes! We talked about that last week at the leader’s workshop with the Student Council. I really enjoyed those conversations. I was motivated to be a better journalist and supporter of our teams.
Mrs. Simons: A lot of the kids liked the workshop. We received excellent feedback for improvements, and everyone was very positive, so I’m thrilled.
Ryan Tattersall: Would you say leadership is the biggest factor for teams?
Mrs. Simons: I would say leadership, but character development is very important. The other piece is some mental health things. Part of that workshop focused on how to be a good teammate – what you can do to make a teammate feel better if they mess-up (or whatever) all those things are important dynamics on a team. Every kid is not a team leader, I mean, it’s not in everybody’s DNA, but everybody can have good character. Everybody can support one another. When I look at it as an Athletic Director, I feel every student athlete has a role to play on their teams and we need to foster students as individuals in their roles – not only as athletes but as great students.
Ryan Tattersall: Awesome. Like I said, I was really motivated from the meeting. I want to excite students about sports. I want to start conversations about our teams and fire students up. How can we get students to support all sports, other than just big crowds at football games and basketball games.
Mrs. Simons: In our Athletic Council, we spoke about several events – and then Covid hit. So, we are looking to get back on track with some of these activities. Some are just little things – like encouragement cards or snack packs. It’s not always about a large crowd. Golf and tennis – that’s not in the makeup of those sports.
Ryan Tattersall: But in field hockey, soccer, baseball, softball – we should have at least one game where all other (non-season) sports teams attend.
Mrs. Simons: We do. In boys’ soccer Mr. Bonagura does youth soccer night, which goes really well. What is cool: the visitors and our boys have the kids pair up and walk out together. That game is well attended and successful. Senior nights are well attended. Field hockey hosted Morgan’s Message last year. Whenever there is an event or give-away, our students show up. The other thing, fall is such a busy time, so it’s challenging for students because of the fall dynamic. We will be working to support everybody. We even did things way back, before I was the Athletic Director, teams would go to school performances together, like the school play. In turn, the kids in the plays would come to see the games. It develops different interests too. For example, one of our linebackers was the lead in a spring play. So, it’s different types of kids supporting each other, and that is a neat concept.
Ryan Tattersall: What are your interests outside of sports?
Mrs. Simons: Outside of sports? That’s tough! Well, my number one interest is spending time with my grandson, Ryan. I love spending time with him. I’m close to my family, so I love time with them. I enjoy music – I used to play the piano. I like watching plays and seeing the band perform. Everyone has a talent. Students, adults – people in your town. So, supporting their
talents is awesome.
Ryan Tattersall: How do you manage sports with other life activities?
Mrs. Simons: Not well sometimes (laughs!). That is a loaded question! Planning and my personal schedule can’t be locked in because the sporting schedule changes. Erik and Carley are tremendous. They are important because they help me run things. My athletic secretary is so important to me. My personal piece comes after the athletic piece.
Ryan Tattersall: What do you want to accomplish as the athletic director?
Mrs. Simons: Some things have started to take place. I really wanted to do some programs for our student athletes, about being leaders, building character and how to support one another. I also want that for our coaches. We have some workshops that will be planned for them too. We had one last year, so those types of events are important. I’m happy we’re in the process of doing them well. I’m trying to work on that main hallway and make that a little bit nicer with our awards and possibly doing something other than trophy cases – maybe showing them electronically. I’m trying to show recognition for our students. I’d like to recognize the athlete of the week. Recognizing students is very important to me.
Ryan Tattersall: We haven’t won many State or District championships recently. Do you think it’s because of our competition?
Mrs. Simons: Our school is in one of the most competitive leagues in classification. Field Hockey has won their league in the last couple years, girls’ basketball had won the division championship last year. Baseball won two years ago (divisional I think). Sometimes people get caught up in the district championship and don’t realize that we have won the league championship. Boys’ soccer made districts two years ago and lost in a great game to North Pocono. We have been very competitive in most of our sports.
Ryan Tattersall: How do you feel we can speed up that momentum?
Mrs. Simons: We need to get our students more active with sports. Getting students started at earlier ages is one example. We had many students, but after COVID our numbers decreased. Covid paused a lot of things. We can’t use it as an excuse, but you can use it as an explanation and now we need to step it up again. Some kids’ mindsets have changed – some just don’t want to participate. That’s ok, but anyone who wants to participate needs to participate.
Ryan Tattersall: We need to do more to support our potential athletes in the years to come. We have young athletes in elementary school, but they don’t continue to play in high school. How do you think they can impact?
Mrs. Simons: I wish they would stick with it, but I think sometimes they get burnt out. Sometimes they play too much and lose interest. It’s a tough question to answer because all kids are different. But you are right, sometimes the younger kids lose interest – or they get to high school and want a job or other factors – or it’s burnout.
Ryan Tattersall: Which coach or athlete did you look up to when you were growing up?
Mrs. Simons: When I was growing up, things were different because there were no women in professional sports. So, the coach I looked up to most was Mrs. Gouliac. She was a volunteer coach – I went to a small private school and they didn’t pay her. No bells and whistles. She was all about us having a good time and learning the game. When it comes to athletes, Ann Meyers was one – she was a women’s basketball player. Then I would say Pat Summitt. Everyone knows Pat. I’ve read all her books.
Ryan Tattersall: Yes! My Dad loves Pat. He coached for a long time, and she was one of his favorites. Do you think you’re a role model to athletes?
Mrs Simons: I guess I am to some people; in that they think that the athletic director position would be really cool. I try hard to display the behavior I want from our student sections or parents. There are times when I get angry during a game, and I know people are watching. I think probably for some I might be, especially those who are interested in this type of thing.
Ryan Tattersall: Quick fire questions. First thing that comes to your head. What is your favorite hobby ?
Mrs. Simons? Spending time with my Ryan! He’s starting to develop a personality and we just have a lot of fun with him, I think that was probably my favorite thing. He will be one next month
Ryan Tattersall: If you could have dinner with anyone in history, who would you choose and why?
Mrs. Simons: It’s tough. I was a social studies teacher. Some presidents I would like some questions to (laughs), but a social dinner – Pat Summit or Mike Krzyzewski. I’ve read a lot of great things about them.
Ryan Tattersall: What sporting event would you want to see and why?
Mrs. Simons: NCAA final four in basketball, because the whole atmosphere seems so great – either men or women!
Ryan Tattersall: What is your favorite sports memory?
Mrs. Simons: My favorite sports memory is about a game where my freshman girls basketball team played against Prep. We had not beaten Prep, ever! I had previously said to the girls that I would dye my hair purple if we had beaten Honesdale. That didn’t happen, but we played them a lot better the second time. So, we’re in a timeout and the girls are down by two and they said Mrs. Simons if we win today will you dye your hair? I say yes, we go out and I can see what Prep is going to do and call another time out. I said this is what you’re going to do – this is where the ball’s going to go, so we broke the huddle. One of the girls gets the steal and shoots a three-point shot to win the game. It was not about winning the game. It was about the fact that those girls then believed that they could beat anybody and found a way. We had gotten killed by Honesdale in our first game by 40 but the second game we fought hard and lost by 15. Then we went out and beat Prep – that was a turning point for that group of kids. It wasn’t about basketball – just purple hair. Lots of fun!
Ryan Tattersall: It should always be about fun. Who is your favorite team?
Mrs. Simons: I am a fan of Duke basketball and Notre Dame, I love watching Penn State. I think I get more caught up in college sports than professional sports.
Ryan Tattersall: Favorite pump-up song?
Mrs. Simons: I like the ones that get the whole crowd up, like Jump Around. That’s fun – anything that gets them going.
Ryan Tattersall: OK, last question. If you could have any job or career other than Athletic Director, what would it be and why?
Mrs. Simons: Well, I love teaching and being in the classroom, so I would say teaching. But any career where you could influence kids. Especially now… I’ll say it this way. There are so many things that make life more difficult for students. Sometimes it’s social media and sometimes it’s the fact that we are not communicating the same way, or we don’t talk like we used to talk to them years ago. I think there needs to be more people that are willing to have those conversations with kids and protect our kids. I think there’s a lot more out there that can be harmful than there used to be.
Ryan Tattersall: Well, that wraps up our interview. Thank you for the awesome answers! Mrs. Simons: No problem! Looking forward to a great school year!
