Looking Back On Moon Area Athlete: Jarrod Simmons

There is a chance that at this very moment, Jarrod Simmons his practicing his basketball skills and working out so he can get ready for his sophomore season of basketball at the University of Pennsylvania.

Simmons scored a total of 58 total points this past season for Penn as he did not have much playing time at all as he was only on the court for 147 minutes in 24 games. I feel that by the time Simmons is a junior he will become a big time star at Penn. During a game against Penn State Brandywine, Simmons came off the bench and scored 16 points in the ten minutes he played in that game.

Penn's Men basketball team did make the NCAA March Madness Tournament this past March as they were ranked the number 16 seed in the Midwest section of the tournament. Penn faced number one seeded Kansas in the Midwest section and Penn lost 76-60. Simmons did not play in that game.

The difference between Jarrod playing at Moon and him playing at Penn is that at Moon he was playing with and against other high schoolers who probably would not play Division 1 basketball and at Penn he is playing with and against other basketball players that have a dream of making it to the NBA. We also have to remember that in Jarrod's freshman year in high school through his junior year in high school he was attending Cushing Academy, a coeducational college-preparatory school in Massachusetts. While Jarrod was playing basketball at Cushing Academy he was playing with and against other very good basketball players so he does have experience playing with other skilled basketball players before he went to Penn.

Simmons decided to move back to Pittsburgh after his junior year at Cushing Academy and attend Moon Area High School so he could finish his high school career with his childhood friends in the WPIAL. He attended Moon Area from kindergarten through 8th grade before he went to Cushing. He already had a bunch of college offers to play basketball while he was at Cushing Academy. So he probably thought to himself that since he already had a bunch of options of where to go to college that he did not have to stress that much about basketball his senior year of high school. He then probably thought to himself that as a result he could enjoy the game of basketball a little easier for a year and not have to stress that much before he would have to go to college and stress about basketball as much as he did when he was at Cushing. Besides Penn, Simmons had offers from Boston College, Georgia Tech, Pitt, Yale, Princeton, Providence and other colleges.

While Simmons was at Moon for his senior year he was considered the man who came back home and gave his team a championship. Just the whole story of Simmons returning Moon and winning a WPIAL championship for the school reminds me of LeBron returning to Cleveland and winning an NBA title for the Cavaliers.

When Simmons came to Moon the whole rest of the boys basketball team probably decided that Simmons should be the captain of the team and that the rest of the teammates should just listen to what he says. Simmons was an absolute monster at Moon because basically all the other high school basketball players that Jarrod was facing were not high knowledge in basketball the way he is. Every day during the basketball season Simmons probably woke up to himself thinking that he wanted to be the player that turns Moon to a better basketball program and I honestly think that him going back to Moon his senior year turned that whole program into a very well developed program as they will be good for years to come.

While Simmons was at Moon he definitely had to teach the other Moon Area basketball players like Austin Ryan and Connor Ryan about leadership. Both the Ryan twins probably took Simmons' advice because the Ryans and the whole Tigers team were good this past season as they made it to the WPIAL playoffs but lost in the second round to Franklin Regional 28-26. Yeah, it was a very low scoring game.

I have to tell all of you that when Paul Paterra, employee of Trib Live HSSN, interviewed Simmons after the 5A WPIAL championship game in 2017 Simmons seemed like one of the most mature human beings ever as he was professional and so polite while interviewing with Paul. I believe with Simmons' positive attitude that he will become a star at Penn and have a chance of playing in the NBA someday.

Everyone who follows the WPIAL closely has to wonder what Moon's basketball program could have been if Jarrod played with the team for the first three years of his high school career. Perhaps if he was on the team for the first three years of his high school career the program could have won more WPIAL championships, maybe win a state championship, he could have scored over 2,000 points and perhaps he could have been known as one of the best high school boys basketball players in the whole state of Pennsylvania.