The game of chess is largely about protection and strategy. It should make perfect sense that an offensive lineman like the Bearcats’ Lance Sims would be an enthusiast.
Sims’s extracurricular activities start and stop with the chess club. His Friday night obsession with Bearcat football started 11 years ago as a second grader playing little league football, and, he is acutely aware, will end this season as he is a senior.
A running back through his little league years, Sims shifted to the line, and number 75 once he moved into junior high school and has stayed in the trenches, and in number 75 since.
Like chess, as a Bearcat lineman Sims has had to learn protection from any number of angles because he has lined up as a center, a guard, and a tackle in his career.
Throw in his play as a noseman on defense and the scenarios are almost limitless.
“I see things a little different than most people,” said Sims. “I imagine a lot of stuff and situations, always thinking about what I’m going to do.”
As in chess, for a lineman, it is the obvious mismoves that are often highlighted, missing a block that results in a negative yardage play, a bobbled snap, or even a mistimed snap draws attention, negative attention, but attention nonetheless.
Otherwise it can be a thankless job, but Sims insists he does not mind being in the background because wins are the goal, but if that happens to come with some breakfast-themed award recognition, well that’s ok too.
“He is aggressive, and loves to pancake people,” line coach Jacob Hattabaugh said. “He will do whatever it takes to win.”
Like chess, football demands intense study for the ultimate level of success. For Sims that is nothing new. He has long been attracted to film work, and not just dissecting game video.
As a seventh grader he was put in charge of filming junior high games. Then he became a senior high game sidekick for Ken Glenn, now a district student resource officer who has filmed games for years, lugging equipment and learning a new level of the the ins and outs of filming high school football.
“Me and Ken became kind of best buddies,” Sims said. “And all the guys up there doing the Youtube and whatnot.”
While many youngsters can be seen playing football or any other games along the bowl surrounding Doug Scheel Field, that was hardly even the case with Sims.
“I was always sitting in the stands watching the game,” he said. “There may have been a handful of times I would be playing football, but after that I would sit down and watch the game.
“I was always like super focused on the game.”
Sims said that elementary school attention to the game both helped him learn more as well as further fueled his “desire to pursue the sport.”
You might think Sims’s attitude about focus and strategy would find him with a game controller or virtual reality equipment. You would be wrong.
“I don’t play video games. It’s a distraction,” he said.
Distraction going into his senior year would be a problem as protection will be vital early on in the 2023 season while Sims and his teammates take on Class 4A Ozark, Class 5A Camden Fairview, and Class 4A Harding Academy before moving into Conference 3A-1 play.
With the number of sophomores expected to hit the field immediately, that leaves the relatively small number of seniors with work to do to lead.
“They’re sophomores,” Sims said flatly. “They’ve got a lot to learn.”
Besides sophomores, you can also find Sims on the practice field during the middle of the day helping out with the seventh grade team.
As a senior the course load is short and, like coasting to the final horn after doing the job well throughout the game, could be termed “pretty easy,” Sims said. It includes guitar and family science besides the help with seventh graders – a college English course is coming.
As in a chess or in football games he has played, there have been some tense moments in the classroom Sims has had to fight through.
“Last year the grades were a little rough,” said Sims. “But I picked them back up. Last year I missed a lot of school because of my gallbladder, but I didn’t have summer school.”
Unless he gets the attention of college coaches Sims expects this to be his last year as a student and as a player.
“I’m not going to college unless I get a scholarship,” he said. “If I don’t go to college I’ll probably go do power lines or something.”
In other words, keep being a lineman, or sorts anyway.
Even if he is seldom noticed on a football field, Sims does not mind being seen otherwise. With flowing locks
that protrude beneath the helmet he can stick out.
“I think everyone likes it,” Sims said of the hair. “I like it. I think it looks good in the helmet.”
That helmet is also unique as rather than a couple, or even a few rungs comprising the facemask, Sims’s grill features seven narrowly gapped bars for even more protection for the lower part of his face.
Sims can also be seen riding a KP minibike around town, doing so, of course, with all the protective gear. Still a recent spill left a rather noticeable scar on his left arm.
“We left little league practice and I was going around the big curve and there was a car coming I didn’t see so I hit the grass and slid,” said Sims.
Sims also works, almost full time, at Sonic. He would work full time but the adults in his life do not think that is a good idea.
“I was working 40 or 45 hours but they wanted me to cut my hours so I did, to like 25, 30 hours a week,” said Sims.
That is on top of football, working out as required by coaches, and on his own. If there is any time left he may be hanging out with a girlfriend, or fishing, yet another strategy endeavor.
Sims is the son of Brandon and Lakyn Sims.
