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I know, I know ... it's not basketball season anymore. Tell that to former Aggie Morgan Bertsch, who reports May 1 to the WNBA camp of the Dallas Wings.
In case you've been vacationing in Antarctica, Bertsch was the 29th overall pick in the April 10 draft after rewriting the UC Davis record book and willing her team into its second NCAA tournament appearance.
With the stunning accomplishments of Bertsch and Company, it dawned on me that I hadn't visited with former Aggie women's coach Sandy Simpson in a dog's age.
I'd run into him a few times, and briefly catching up was fun. But I had promised to ring him up for lunch someday. That was two years ago when he officially retired from UC Davis, then I promised to call again at the beginning of the 2017-18 season, then again in January. I never made good on my promise, until last week.
Simpson is one of those guys you're drawn to, a personable man who really listens to what you're saying ... even if it is just in passing. Simpson looks you in the eye, acknowledging your presence (and, when applicable, your importance).
After finally inviting Sandy not to lunch but breakfast at his favorite A Street Café in Dixon, I was thinking that I'd just catch up with Simpson. No article in mind, leave my recorder at home, just see what's what with one of the faces on UC Davis women's basketball's Mount Rushmore.
I told a couple of people I was going to be with Sandy. Everyone said something to the effect, "Oh, don't forget to ask him about the time he ..." or "Wow, he made such a difference in who I am."
Plus, I always liked hearing his old stories"
• Having coached in Germany, Simpson was on hand in Berlin when The Wall came down in 1979.
• Simpson played for UC Davis men's coaching legend Bob Hamilton and the subsequent yarns can be long, some unprintable.
• Sandy, even with his 6-foot-8 frame, laughs when he talks about being "the world's worst big-man recruit" when he came out of Hillside High in San Mateo in 1974.
• At one point he had to quit Aggie basketball and went to work to pay for his UC Davis education (he earned a degree in history). His job? At first helping build the Rec Hall (now called The Pavilion), then supervising it when it opened.
I realized just before meeting with Simpson, I couldn't keep him all to myself. I asked if I could record some of our breakfast ...
I'm glad he agreed.
Most in Aggie Nation still see Simpson enough around campus to know his wife Chris — a former Aggie hoops standout herself — and their three kids are doing well. Olivia, 20, is a student at Solano College. Sebastian, who Dad coached as an assistant at Dixon High, attends the University of San Diego. Ingra, 15, is a multi-sport freshman at Davis High School.
"Things are pretty good," Sandy told me, almost immediately asking about how I was doing. As he does with most people, Simpson got me talking about my family — for a while forgetting I wanted to hear about his life in retirement.
Sandy likes to travel. He has a couple of trips planned with one of his best friends, then when his wife comes up for air as director of Valley of the Sacred Heart Academy, there surely will be more travel planned.
But remember, we're coming off one of the most storied UC Davis basketball seasons on record. It wasn't long before I went into journalist mode.
I asked about influences in his career. He told me about the brilliant work that early 1970s coach Pam Gill-Fisher did to elevate women's basketball from intramural status to intercollegiate prominence. Simpson dwelled on how Title IX wasn't being implemented fully at other schools, but at UC Davis, then-Athletic Director Joe Singleton had the women's backs:
"He is one of the people I admire most in my career," Sandy explained. "He was unbelievable. He had a big, booming voice. His presence would (allow) him to come into a room and take over.
"But he had an acute sense of right and wrong; of fairness and unfairness; of equality and inequality. From the very beginning, he bought into the spirit of Title IX — not just the letter of the law. Before schools were forced to, UC Davis and Joe Singleton were enacting changes to meet Title IX guidelines."
Simpson also remembers Gill-Fisher and former administrator/teacher/coach Marya Welch working hard to effect change: "It was slow, but steady. Those three really set the tone for the program, (not just women's sports) but the Davis athletic programs overall."
In the meantime, Simpson slowly creeped up on his bachelor's degree from Davis (which he received in 1981). Along the way, he earned a chance to assist Gill-Fisher with her women after which he headed to Washington State, George Washington and the University of Washington for further study and assistant basketball coaching gigs.
Simpson told me after he coached in Germany, then-UC Davis women's hoops coach Jorja Hoehn called and asked if he would like to return to Davis.
"Oh, I leapt at the chance," he recalls. "Once you've been somewhere else, you have even a greater appreciation for how special and unique it is here. Aggies are truly student-athletes, not athlete-students.
"The Davis athlete has always been ... extremely bright, and you can't tell them to just do something — you have to tell them why you do something. That's different from a lot of schools — most schools."
Simpson was learning from a three-time national Division II Coach of the Year in Hoehn, had already been tutored by women's sports pioneer Gill-Fisher and now was about to stumble into a situation that would forever reinforce the course of UC Davis women's basketball history.
Current women's basketball head coach Jennifer Gross had told me previously about how Simpson had recruited her to Davis. Over the years, I had to find out from others what a profound impact Gross had on the program as a four-year starter: She was an All-American, set the school record for assists and shooting acumen (both since broken) and propelled the 1996-97 Aggies to a 29-3 record and a Division II Final Four appearance.
As luck would have it, Hoehn took that year off and Simpson was Gross' interim head coach.
"Of all of the players I ever coached, there wasn't a player that combined the leadership, intellect and the basketball IQ — and the genes for the clutch shot — more than Jennifer Gross," Simpson told me. "She would will you to win."
While Gross always has supreme praise for the influence Simpson had on her as a player and now as the Aggie boss, this week I pressed Jen to once more put into words what Sandy means to her:
"When you think about the people that have impacted your life the most, you think of your parents," she explained. "Probably next to my parents, (Sandy) is somebody who shaped my path in life more than anyone else — just in the fact that he recruited me to play here at UC Davis …
"Then he recruited me back to coach with him. … To be able to come back as a coach and be at my alma mater is so special.
"He was the one person who drew me into Davis; four years as a student-athlete and 15 years as a coach, I've spent the majority of my life here at Davis."
Gross says "with Sandy, coaching the whole person was so big and so important to (us). … It helped me shape my philosophy, which is so much about relationships and about providing this amazing experience for student-athletes."
Simpson remembers Gross as such a dynamic player that she already had his ear — a kind of coach on the court — during that spectacular senior season. When Simpson brought her back to UC Davis, he entrusted the offense to her and together they further grew one of the West Coast's best women's basketball programs.
As we polished off breakfast that morning, Simpson thought back one last time ...
"Jen is the common denominator between the success the program has had with her as a player, an assistant coach and now as head coach.
"She's as good as it gets."
You know, Sandy, you weren't so bad yourself.
— Reach Bruce Gallaudet at bgallaudet41@gmail.com or 530-320-4456. Also read Gallaudet's "Aggie Corner" weekly in The Davis Enterprise.
AGGIE EVO
Established during the 2017-18 academic year, the Aggie EVO System is UC Davis Athletics' investment in the primary mission of preparing student-athletes for a successful "launch" after graduation.
Thanks to a collaboration of alumni, university resources, corporate partners, coaches and Student-Athlete Outcomes staff, all Aggies are guided over four years to acquire the skills, knowledge, opportunities and tools to better know and navigate the "World of Work" after graduating from UC Davis.
Follow the Aggie EVO system on Twitter and Instagram at @AggieEVO.
ABOUT UC DAVIS
Providing a small-town community feel while providing a world-class academic experience, UC Davis is home to more than 37,000 students and centrally located between San Francisco, Lake Tahoe, and the Napa Valley.
The No. 5-ranked public university in the nation, according to the Wall Street Journal and Times Higher Education, offers nearly 100 graduate programs and more than 100 academic majors across four colleges and six professional schools, ranking among the world and nation's best in numerous disciplines, including veterinary science, agriculture, and plant and animal programs.
