Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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www.BLUEANDGOLD.com DEC. 5, 2020 17 has taken advantage of the train- ing offered by Notre Dame mental performance coach Amber Selking, which has enabled him to remove much of the clutter from his cerebel- lum during games. "It centers your focus and allows you to think about certain things at certain times and not have your head filled with all of the outside noise, outside distractions that can lead you away from what you need to focus on," Simon said. Without those distractions, he can simply hone in on playing the game he loves and build on his breakout performance against the then No. 1 Tigers. "Clemson was definitely a fun game to play in," Simon said. "It's not the mountain top. There are more plays for me to make. It was a good game, but I have a lot more to prove." AN UNRELENTING COMPETITOR Alex Mirabel, the head basket- ball coach at St. Peter 's Prep, first met Simon in August 2014, when he walked into the school's main gymnasium. There he saw Simon, a freshman at the time, running up and down the court while participating in a three- on-two full-court drill. He already stood 6-2 and had a stronger build than the typical high school senior. Mirabel called Simon to the side- line, knowing that it wasn't appro- priate for football players to join a basketball open gym while on their lunch break in the middle of two-a-days. "I immediately had to tell him to stop be- cause we don't do that here," Mirabel said. "We don't have guys practice basketball in the summer when they play foot- ball. I don't want you to get hurt. You have to sit out." Simon was frustrated he could no longer practice. Still, he stayed for the remainder of the open gym to support his future teammates. "That was the moment I knew that this kid is going to be special," Mira- bel said. As a 6-3 forward in one of the most competitive high school basketball areas of the country, Simon scored more than 1,000 points over the course of his prep career and was typically assigned to guard an op- ponent's best player. For instance, whenever St. Peter's Prep faced Hudson Catholic, Simon matched up with the 6-8 Louis King, a 2018 McDonald's All-American and current member of the Detroit Pistons organization. Football was always the prior- ity, but Mirabel said that never pre- vented Simon from providing the work ethic and leadership necessary to help turn around a rebuilding St. Peter's basketball program. In order to add his desired muscle during the winter, Simon would lift after basketball practice and pack a nutritious lunch for himself, which often consisted of foods like chicken, rice and vegetables. This is not an easy feat when the rest of your class- mates are eating pizza and junk food from the school cafeteria. In four years of basketball, Si- mon was always early and almost never missed an in-season practice or workout. The lone exception was when he left for a week in the middle of his senior season to participate in the 2018 U.S. Army All-American Bowl in San Antonio. But even then, Simon proved how committed he was to basketball by flying back to New Jersey the morn- ing after the All-American Bowl, landing at the airport and heading straight to the game against Saint Joseph Regional High School. "I had scratched him out of the lineup," Mirabel said, "but his mom called me on Sunday morn- ing and said, 'Shayne is on his way. Just bring an extra uni- form for him and he'll be there.'" St. Peter 's ended up winning the game 51-44, with Simon being a major con- tributor off the bench. Being an unrelenting competitor has its advantages for a Division I football player, but it can also make those periods of time when athletics are taken away emotionally taxing. Flash forward to his sophomore year at Notre Dame when he dislo- cated his patella against Navy and was forced to rehab for the next six to seven months, missing the remainder of the season as well as spring conditioning. "It was definitely tough with a lot of dark days. Everything hurt," Si- mon said. "I got down in the dumps not being able to do stuff. When you finally get to walk, you still can't run. "But you start to see the light at the end of the tunnel, and you start getting better and better. By the time I got back in June, I was able to move fully and do everything I had to do." While his play wasn't always up to the standard of a Clark Lea-led de- fense early in the season, Simon has demonstrated he's capable of mak- ing the necessary in-season improve- ments, even on the biggest stage against a powerhouse program like Clemson. Just like Notre Dame has collec- tively as a team, thanks in great part to the overall competition. ✦ "Clemson was definitely a fun game to play in. It's not the mountain top. There are more plays for me to make. It was a good game, but I have a lot more to prove." SIMON Simon earned the starting assignment at Buck linebacker in six of the first seven games he played in, and tallied 12 tackles (one for loss) and three passes defended. PHOTO COURTESY NOTRE DAME ATHLETICS