The coach’s little black notebook looks tattered. The binding is loose, and the cover is peeling. At this point, almost 14 years after a younger Duane Simpkins wrote his first entry in orange ink, the book jacket leaves traces of tiny specks everywhere it’s placed. These days, Simpkins rarely opens the thing. He can’t stay stuck in the past. Not while he’s losing sleep as his American University men’s basketball team tries to complete what might be the program’s best season in 11 years. Oh, and there’s that grand target of his: trying to raise the profile of his entire school. So there’s no time for reminiscing.
Still, there’s rich history in that book. It reads like Simpkins’s diary and reveals the motivations of a coach who has waited patiently and planned intentionally for this moment.
In August 2011, its pages were empty. And Simpkins, recently hired as the director of basketball operations at Towson, was full of ambition and fresh ideas. Two months into his first college job, Simpkins would fill the opening page with simple notes jotted down during a department meeting.
“Go Green as much as possible,” Simpkins reminded himself.
“Develop relations w/ All Levels of Media,” he scribbled in legible penmanship.
He also added a bullet point in all capital letters: “FIND WAYS TO TELL OUR STORY.”
As the pages turn, the ink changes colors and the notebook’s author thinks bigger.
He plots out his “Vision for 2016” and lists his Hall of Fame references for whenever he would get to interview as a head coach.
He even goes granular by writing his solution on how to handle game day preparations, ducking into another room and away from the players when coaches are uptight.
Then, he gets personal, logging line after line of his prayer list for a head coaching job. He chooses words that represent the values he would like to build his own program around one day: character, work ethic, toughness and humility.
“I had a couple black notebooks, and I would just make notes for when my day did come, God willing, and I was a head coach,” Simpkins said. “You would see some of the coaches that you worked with, both good and bad, you would pick certain things from and … I just settled on those things that I thought were really, really important for you to have a good program.”
Over time, more jobs came and went — he was an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at UNC Greensboro, he was a George Mason assistant, and he served on the Atlantic 10 Commission on Racial Equity, Diversity and Inclusion — and Simpkins kept writing down his thoughts. He drew offensive plays in pencil. He borrowed quotes and ideas, looking to anyone from former Oklahoma women’s coach Sherri Coale to Sun Tzu. He planned for the future of his grandchildren, even while his three kids were still attending grade school. He wrote a checklist on how to be the best husband for “Kiki.”
Nothing was too intimate or far afield in that black Under Armour notebook. Simpkins believed in looking forward and preparing himself for the life he wanted. He didn’t know it then, but while journaling his dreams, Simpkins was writing the story of this season.
