Written by: Noelle Maxwell
“You get into the state tournament in Indiana, anything can happen,” Greensburg High School
girls’ basketball head coach Jason Simpson said regarding the upcoming tournament. Girls’
basketball sectionals begin Tuesday, February 3 at 7:30 PM with the undefeated Lady Pirates
facing the Lawrenceburg Tigers in Lawrenceburg.
Led by seniors Leah West, Emma McQueen and Mylie Wilkison, the team went 21-0 in regular
season, 7-0 in Eastern Indiana Athletic Conference play. West, a four-year starter and Indiana
Junior All-Star in 2023-24 is third all-time in career points for Greensburg girls’ basketball, with
over 1,500 points, behind Sarah Reideman and Kyra Whitaker. “I call her the pied piper,”
Simpson described West, “because everybody just follows her in the best way, she’s got the
best personality you could ask out of a senior captain – she’ll get on you if you need it, but she’s
also going to wrap you up in a hug and pick you up when you’re down.”
Then there’s McQueen, “she’s all of 5’3, 5’4 on her best day,” Simpson explained, “but you’re
not going to find a tougher kid – I’ve always called her the heartbeat of our team because
whenever she’s on the floor you can see our pace pick up in a very good way,” as her
teammates feed off her energy. “It doesn’t matter if somebody in front of her is five foot or six
foot two,” Simpson said, “[McQueen] is going at them, she’s going to battle if the ball is going
into the stands, she’s going headfirst after it.”
Miley Wilkison, the third senior on the team, as of January 31 is just 20 points shy of scoring her
1,000th point – “what’s impressive about that,” Simpson explained, “is she missed her entire
sophomore year so she will have done it in only three years. Not even three full years” he
clarified, “two full years; she tweaked her knee and missed probably six or seven games in the
middle of the season last season. To see her ability to persevere through all that and stay so
mentally tough,” is impressive. “Then,” Simpson went on, “you’re not going to meet a more kind-
hearted soul,” than Wilkison who he said genuinely cares for others, “she wants everybody to
just be happy.” All three seniors will be pursuing collegiate sports – Wilkison and West will be
playing basketball at Indiana University – Indianapolis and Belmont University (Tennessee),
respectively, and McQueen will be attending IU Columbus and playing soccer.
Simpson has coached the GCHS girls’ basketball team for 11 years. He’s spent 27 years, total,
coaching basketball and was previously an assistant coach on the GCHS boys’ basketball team
under then-head coach Stacey Meyer. He got his 200th career win January 28 in a 70-33 victory
against New Palestine and was an assistant coach for the Indiana girls’ All-Star team last
season. He attributes this team’s success how much they genuinely like and care about each
other, “I’ve never seen a group of kids, a team, like this. They are all tremendous friends.” As a
coach, Simpson preaches a concept called “Mudita,” which he described as “living vicariously
through the accomplishments of somebody else. You get extreme joy because somebody else
is successful – this team has bought into that. They want their teammates to be successful –
obviously they want to do well, themselves, too, but they do a great job of being each other’s
biggest fans and supporters.”
Greensburg’s program, according to Simpson, has mirrored programs statewide in terms of
interest, though Greensburg isn’t one of the larger schools. Participation has fluctuated over the
years, which he attributes to how many activities students can do. “Basketball,” he elaborated
“isn’t the most difficult sport to play, but, basketball season is the most difficult to make it through
in any sport because we start practice in October and don’t end, hopefully this year, until the
end of February.” The team is usually going six days a week between practices and games.
“Where we’ve really grown, and what I really enjoy is watching our high school kids be invested
in the younger kids who play in the Biddy Buc program” at the elementary school, he said – the
girls coach their own teams at the elementary school “so, those younger girls become fans of
not only the high school team,” but have a connection to one of the players, “and really latch
onto them.” Seeing their enthusiasm for the program and for the high school team grow has
been pretty cool!”
Simpson also shared how attendance at the girls’ games has improved, citing the Senior Night
game as both an example and one of his favorite memories from the 2024-25 season so far.
“My very first day on the job, I said my goal is to make them pull out the top sections of the
bleachers,” he said, “it used to be these top bleachers for girls’ games were not pulled out,
ever.” During the senior night game earlier this season, “if I just came in as a random fan and
didn’t see the teams on the floor – say both teams were back in the locker room – I would’ve
said this was a crowd for a boys’ sectional game,” Simpson observed, “there was that much
support for these girls. I was so excited for them, because they deserve all of the praise and all
of the eyeballs they can get on them for the work and dedication they’ve given.”
Other memorable moments from the season include the one day shootout where the Lady
Pirates, then ranked number one in Indiana, played Silver Creek, then ranked number two in
Indiana, at Evansville North High School. These were two teams that, Simpson said, “like to
compete. It was great to see us persevere and come out with a victory in that one.” The Lady
Pirates were also victorious in the holiday tournament against Plainfield on their home court –
“they’re a top ten team in the state,” he said of Plainfield, “regardless of class, and we were able
to beat them on their home floor. I saw so much growth in the things we’ve been preaching.
Things that might’ve been our Achilles heel in the past, you could see we might start inching”
towards making mistakes, “but they’ve matured so much, they recognize it on their own and
would fix things on the fly. To be able to come out with a victory like that was a pretty rewarding
thing as coach.”
As for sectionals and beyond? “We want to get farther than we did last year,” Simpson said –
heading into the regular season that and winning conference were the goals – “and I’d be lying if
I said we didn’t have a state championship as one of our goals,” but for that to happen, a lot has
to go right. “On Tuesday night, when sectional starts,” he said, “we can’t be worried about
winning a state title. We’re going 1 and 0 every night. That’s our goal.”
