From the N.Y. Daily News
March 19, 2007

Terrell Simmons uses grief as fuel for success
BY LIA EUSTACHEWICH

Terrell Simmons holds photo of his 5-year-old brother J'amir, who died in early February.

Terrell Simmons is ready to put his first season at Queens College behind him. The season ended three weeks ago, but Knights coach Kyrk Peponakis is promising that the team's 4-23 record will never happen again. That's why the Knights are set to begin practicing this week - for next season. While meeting with Peponakis to talk about improving his game, 18-year-old Simmons will be simultaneously meeting with his own family to talk about how to deal with emergencies in the future.

The family endured the loss of Simmons' 5-year-old brother, J'amir, to a genetic disease called leukodystrophy in early February.

"My little sister was sitting with him at home, and all of a sudden my mother noticed that he wasn't breathing; his fingernails were turning blue," Simmons said.

J'amir was diagnosed with the disease, which prevents nerves in the brain from functioning normally, just one year earlier, and its quick progression rendered him blind and unable to talk.

"He wasn't able to talk to me but I guess he connected with me with his smile," Simmons said. "When I would talk to him, he would just keep on smiling. That's what everyone remembers about him."

The 6-6 forward from Coney Island battled throughout his freshman season to keep his personal problems from affecting his play. Somehow, Simmons found a way to turn his brother's struggle into a source of personal motivation.

"I really try to choose my life one step at a time," Simmons said. "Do I have to be a ballplayer, or should I just be there for my family? I try to be there for both, because basketball is my life."

Simmons has chosen between basketball and his family before. When he was a sophomore at Adams HS in Queens, his family moved from Rosedale to Tobyhanna, Pa., where they currently reside. Simmons stayed behind, moving in with his grandmother in Ozone Park, saying that he knew he could trust Adams coach James Pitman to make him a better ballplayer.

"I remember thinking, I'm gonna have to become a man on my own; My family was far away," he said. "My mother taught us to have to learn how to take care of ourselves and prepare for the future."

Simmons is still doing that. With one hectic season under his belt, he's already pursuing personal improvement. Simmons averaged 26.3 minutes a game and hauled in 4.9 rebounds a game, third-best on the team. With J'amir finally at rest, he said, he knows that "there's nothing holding him back anymore."

"You can see when my brother was living, it was hard for me to play real good sometimes," Simmons said. "But a couple of games after he died, you could see my stats went up."

While Peponakis is encouraging other players to find their role on the team for next season, he knows that Simmons already found his niche during this past season.

"He's a very good defender; I put him on the best guys," Peponakis said. "He shoots the ball 500 times better than when he got here."

Simmons is gearing himself up for "no days off" this semester; he'll take on schoolwork, a possible job and basketball, but says he's eager to "get focused."

And, he added, knowing that J'amir now has the best seat in house gives him more than enough encouragement.

"I know he's watching from heaven; he's in a better place," Simmons said. "It makes me feel better that he's able to watch over me and that he's actually able to see now."