Stan Simpson, the throwing coach for Morningside College, has been coaching for 40 years now.

Simpson started as a high school running coach. When asked how coaching differs between high school and college Simpson says college is more individual, trying to improve every athlete to the max. While in high school it’s more of a team aspect to coaching.

One thing that Simpson enjoys about being a college coach is that his athletes are doing the sport because they love what they’re doing, not because they are conditioning for other sports or just doing it to do it.

When it comes to Simpson’s style of coaching he’s more laid back and coaches a different style with all his athletes, he also considers his style unorganized. “Organization with me is just getting out and seeing what works,” says Simpson.

Simpson says his favorite part about being a coach is “as you build a relationship you get to know them, what they want to do in life. That’s neat to see that, to watch them grow and develop like that.”

A current athlete of Simpson’s, Brynlee Loptin, says in regards to his coaching style, that she feels during practice Simpson doesn’t worry about just getting better, he also worries about what is going on in their daily life. “He’s really chill,” says Loptin.

Loptin also prefers Simpson’s way of coaching over the way her high school coaches coached. “I like Stan’s better because he always gives us something to correct and he also says something that we did good every throw.”

A former athlete, Meagan Andersen, says she liked Simpson’s coaching because of his personality. “He was very personable, and from day one you felt that you could trust him with anything,” says Andersen.

Before Andersen became a college athlete, all of her coaches were running coaches. She said that she felt like she finally had a coach for her event when she became a college athlete.