While many senior student athletes are gearing up to finish their last seasons and graduate, Ella Simpson is preparing for one more season on the women’s soccer team before she graduates with her master’s degree in sports marketing. Because she started college in the fall of 2020, COVID-19 stole her first fall season on the soccer team, giving her the eligibility for one more season as a 5th year player.
The center back of the women’s soccer team started playing soccer competitively when she was 10 years old. She began playing on club teams in Orlando, Fla., where she grew up.
“I was always into sports growing up,” Simpson said. “I kind of had to choose between basketball and soccer, and I chose soccer in high school.”
In high school, she played for fun for her school, The First Academy, and more competitively for the Orlando City team, a club team with the ECNL program. Simpson said the decision to continue with soccer, rather than basketball, was one she has never regretted.
“I did enjoy being outside, playing on a field, more than playing in a gym or on a court,” Simpson said. “I also had a lot of people commenting on my potential in that area, so I think that was really encouraging to me.”
Simpson was recruited during her sophomore and junior years of high school, eventually committing to play for Samford University in November of her junior year. However, her first year of college soccer did not turn out as planned. The COVID-19 pandemic was especially hard on freshman student athletes, and the soccer teams did not have a fall season during Simpson’s freshman year. Simpson was also unable to have the usual pre-season training in July. Because of this, she barely knew any of her new teammates.
“I think being a freshman is hard at every single school, especially as an athlete, not knowing what the team is like, not knowing how much you’re going to play, if you’re even going to play at all,” Simpson said. “So, I think it was a really hard adjustment to come in and have everything be shut down. I remember I really didn’t know anybody on the team, other than my freshman class.”
However, Simpson did not let the pandemic ruin her experience as a student athlete in college. She was eventually able to connect with her fellow teammates, and now, they are some of her closest friends.
“My favorite part in general of being on the team is probably just the culture,” Simpson said. “All of the girls are some of my best friends, and it’s just really special to be able to go to a school or university where we’re allowed to worship God and make that a part of everything we do.”
Simpson said she enjoys getting to connect with her teammates over their shared faith. Some of her favorite team-building moments have been team Bible studies, prayers before every game and chapel in their locker room. She shared that before this past season, she and a few close friends initiated a prayer walk around the soccer field. 29 of the 31 girls on the team showed up to pray with them.
“We just decided to walk around our field and pray before the seasons started,” Simpson said. “It was just so special and so cool, being able to talk with different people and reflect in gratitude on the culture and the program and also just pray over the field.”
Another of Simpson’s favorite memories was when the women’s team beat Auburn in the first round of the NCAA tournament during Simpson’s sophomore year. The team had only ever made it to the second round of the tournament one other time, in 2005, and Simpson reflected on the experience making history for Samford.
Besides playing soccer, Simpson is a member of Zeta Tau Alpha and actively attends Auburn Community Church, where she is involved in a women’s community group that meets on Wednesday nights. Simpson said she is just as grateful for her community outside of soccer, as they have encouraged her in her Christian faith throughout college.
“I think, just being an athlete, having friends outside of my sport, helps me find my identity outside my sport,” Simpson said. “I think it’s special and a gift to be able to play soccer, but it’s also not who I am, and I think being able to be in a sorority and being able to go to church with those friends, has been really helpful to me in my faith.”
Simpson also shared that her life verses, Ephesians 2:1-12, have helped her through the past four years, both on the field and off.
Simpson will move on from Samford with her undergraduate degree in spring 2025. She is currently unsure of what her future holds after graduation, but she is hopeful that it will include more soccer.
“If it’s still on my heart and still something I’m passionate about, I’d love to keep playing, even if that’s for a year overseas,” Simpson said. “I think it’d be really cool to have experience in that, but also it’s not something I’m super set on. I know that if the Lord doesn’t want me doing that, then I’m okay being done.”
Simpson encouraged other student athletes to get involved in the Samford community outside of their sport. She remembers how challenging it was at first to find her community at Samford, especially with the added pressures of being a student athlete. But she said she can now see the ways in which the Lord provided for her.
“My biggest advice and encouragement would be like, use those hard things as motivation,” Simpson said. “And trust that those hard things, God will work together for good. Just like the verse, Romans 8:28, He works all things together for good.”
Staff Writer
