Ronald Simpson is an American former professional basketball player and currently serves as a youth league coach. He had a standout college career at Rider University in which he was the 1987 East Coast Conference co-Player of the Year. As of 2021–22, Simpson serves as the founder and CEO of the

South Jersey South Jersey comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of New Jersey located between the lower Delaware River and the Atlantic Ocean. The designation of South Jersey with a distinct toponym is a colloquialism rather than an administrative ...

Titans AAU basketball program as well as the athletic coordinator for the

Robbinsville Township, New Jersey Robbinsville Township is a township in Mercer County, New Jersey, United States. The township is part of the New York Metropolitan area as defined by the United States Census Bureau, but directly borders the Philadelphia metropolitan area and ...

Recreation Department.

Playing career

High school and college

A native of Montclair, New Jersey, Simpson attended Immaculate Conception High School where he became the school's boys' basketball all-time leading scorer. He would later be inducted into Immaculate's hall of fame. Simpson graduated in 1983 and went to play for

Adelphi University Adelphi University is a private university in Garden City, New York. Adelphi also has centers in Manhattan, Hudson Valley, and Suffolk County. There is also a virtual, online campus for remote students. It is the oldest institution of higher ed ...

, an

NCAA Division II NCAA Division II (D-II) is an intermediate-level division of competition in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). It offers an alternative to both the larger and better-funded Division I and to the scholarship-free environmen ...

school in nearby

Garden City, New York Garden City is a village located on Long Island in Nassau County New York. It is the Greater Garden City area's anchor community. The population was 23,272 at the 2020 census. The Incorporated Village of Garden City is primarily located within ...

. In his freshman season, the only one in which he would play for Adelphi before transferring, he averaged 18 points and 8 rebounds per game and was named to the Division II All-Metro First Team. Simpson then transferred to Division I school Rider in Lawrence Township, New Jersey. He

redshirted Redshirt, in United States college athletics, is a delay or suspension of an athlete's participation in order to lengthen their period of eligibility. Typically, a student's athletic eligibility in a given sport is four seasons, aligning with the ...

(sat out) the 1984–85 season. As a sophomore in 1985–86 he averaged 16.6 points and 1.2 steals per game, making an immediate impact for the Broncs. The following season, Simpson's best of his collegiate career, he averaged 23.2 points and 5.1 rebounds per game. The 1986–87 was also the first season in which the

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

implemented

three-pointers A three-point field goal (also 3-pointer, three, or trey) is a field goal in a basketball game made from beyond the three-point line, a designated arc surrounding the basket. A successful attempt is worth three points, in contrast to the two poi ...

, and Simpson took advantage by setting still-standing Rider records for made threes in a game (9) and season (98). He became the first Rider player to score 1,000 career points within his first two seasons. The East Coast Conference named him to their all-conference first-team, and alongside

Lehigh Lehigh may refer to: Places United States *Lehigh, Iowa *Lehigh, Kansas *Lehigh, Oklahoma *Lehigh, Barbour County, West Virginia *Lehigh, Wisconsin *Lehigh Acres, Florida *Lehigh Township (disambiguation) *Lehigh Valley, a region in eastern Penns ...

Daren Queenan Daren Queenan (born October 19, 1966) is an American retired basketball player. Born in Norristown, Pennsylvania, he attended Norristown High School as a teenager but went virtually unrecruited by colleges to play basketball except for nearby Lehi ...

he was named the ECC co-Player of the Year. In Simpson's senior season at Rider in 1987–88, he averaged 22.8 points and 6.0 rebounds per game. Despite putting up good numbers he did not attain the same recognition as his junior year, failing to repeat as the player of the year and was relegated to the All-ECC Second Team. Among Rider's 1,000-point scorers, Simpsons' 20.0 career points per game average is the highest of all-time. He scored 1,735 points in just three seasons, which as of 2021–22 is still in the program's top 10. The 660 points he scored in his senior season once stood as a single-season school record. In 2010, Rider inducted Simpson into their athletics hall of fame.

Professional

Simpson went undrafted in the

1988 NBA draft The 1988 NBA draft took place on June 28, 1988, in New York City, New York. The length was reduced from seven rounds in the previous year to three rounds. This was also the first draft for the Charlotte Hornets and Miami Heat, prior to their i ...

. He instead went overseas to play professional and France but did not enjoy the expatriate lifestyle. He returned stateside and tried out for the former

United States Basketball League The United States Basketball League (USBL) was a professional men's spring basketball league. The league was formed in 1985 and ceased operations in 2008. The USBL started in 1985 as one of the first basketball leagues to play a late-spring to ...

(USBL) but did not make a team. It was then he decided to quite pursuing playing professional basketball and look toward a different career.

Later life

From 1993 to 2013, Simpson served in the New Jersey Division of Criminal Justice. He was a

sergeant Sergeant (abbreviated to Sgt. and capitalized when used as a named person's title) is a rank in many uniformed organizations, principally military and policing forces. The alternative spelling, ''serjeant'', is used in The Rifles and other uni ...

in the street gang unit where he led many investigations, presentations and trainings. He stayed actively involved in the community and also served as a basketball coach in various youth leagues, middle schools, high schools, and even at the junior college level ( Mercer County Community College). Since 2015 he has overseen the growth of an

Amateur Athletic Union The Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) is an amateur sports organization based in the United States. A multi-sport organization, the AAU is dedicated exclusively to the promotion and development of amateur sports and physical fitness programs. It has ...

basketball program, the South Jersey Titans. Simpson also concurrently serves as the athletic coordinator for the Robbinsville Township Recreation Department.

References

External links

Ron Simpson
@ sports-reference.com
Ron Simpson
@ LinkedIn.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Simpson, Ron Living people Adelphi Panthers men's basketball players American expatriate basketball people in France American men's basketball coaches American men's basketball players Basketball coaches from New Jersey High school basketball coaches in New Jersey Junior college men's basketball coaches in the United States Sportspeople from Montclair, New Jersey Basketball players from Essex County, New Jersey People from Robbinsville Township, New Jersey Sportspeople from Mercer County, New Jersey Rider Broncs men's basketball players Small forwards Year of birth missing (living people)