Former Colquitt County cross county and track runner Laurie Ann Simpson Pitts is now a coach at Southeast Bulloch High School.

MOULTRIE — In the spring of 1989, after an outstanding career in cross country and track at Colquitt County High School, Laurie Ann Simpson signed to continue her career at University of North Carolina-Wilmington.

During her first year in Wilmington, she suffered severe injuries to her legs, ending her collegiate career.

But she never left running behind.

Now Laurie Ann Pitts, she is in her seventh season as the cross country coach at Southeast Bulloch High School in Brooklet, outside of Statesboro.

And she has devoted the same focus and intensity she exhibited as a high school runner to her young Yellow Jackets.

“It’s been a dream come true,” said Pitts, who also teaches biology and environmental sciences at the school.

And she has had the opportunity to coach two of her four children.

Laurie Ann, the oldest of Mike and Gloria Simpson’s three talented daughters, was introduced to competitive running when she ran a timed mile as a junior high school student and turned in a 7:05.

Her teacher suggested she consider going out for the cross country and track teams.

As a ninth-grader, she was one of the top five on the Colquitt County cross country team and went on to qualify for the state meet four times, winning three straight region individual championships in her high school career.

As a senior, she ran a 20:28 in the region meet held at Reed Bingham State Park, easily winning over the second-place runner who had a 21:57.

After the 1988 region meet, Colquitt County coach Mark Campbell called her “a tough runner. She’s a competitive kid.”

She also qualified four times for the state track meet in the distance events.

Pitts said she ran five-minute miles while in high school.

“I just took it for granted,” she said.

To keep her competitive edge in high school, she ran in the rural area around the family home on Dunn Road near Hartsfield.

“I put in many miles on those country roads,” she said.

She also responded to the coaching of Campbell and of Robert Aultman, who started the Colquitt County cross country program and quickly built it into one of the best in South Georgia.

When he left Colquitt County and moved to Oconee County, Aultman started a successful cross country program there as well.

“He left quite a legacy,” Pitts said of Altman, who passed away last year.

Following her senior year track season, she signed with UNC-Wilmington, but suffered compartment syndrome in both legs.

The ailment occurs when the blood flow to an area of the body is restricted causing possible damage to the muscles and nerves.

Doctors suggested surgery, which she declined. She did take nine months off from running, ending her collegiate running career.

Pitts went on to earn her degree from Georgia Southern, where she met Lofton Pitts, who became her husband.

While raising their four children, she remained involved in the sport and became a community coach at Southeast Bulloch.

In 2017, she became certified to teach at the school and became the head coach of the cross country team and an assistant on the track team.

She is pleased with where her cross country program is.

“There is not as much parental support as there was when I was in school,” she said. “But the kids have been buying in. We are seeing progress. Most of them can train on their own while I watch for problems.”

Also as a coach, she was able to have a bigger role in the cross country and track development of son Quinn and daughter Hattie.

Quinn was a fine athlete at Southeast Bulloch and had offers to run at the collegiate level, but decided not to pursue his career when he graduated.

Hattie also was an outstanding runner and after graduating in 2018 went on to compete at Southern Wesleyan University in Central, S.C.

She graduated from Southern Wesleyan last May and is now studying to become a behavioral therapist.

Pitts’s son Gable graduated from Southeast Bulloch last year and son Garner is a sophomore at the school.

Pitts has spent the early part of this school year preparing her boys and girls cross country teams for the Region 3-4A meet at Benedictine Military School, where the boys placed first and girls were third, both qualifying for the state meet, set for Saturday, Nov. 5, in Carrollton.

But her working with young runners will not end with the conclusion of the school year.

During the summers, she has helped train youngsters and for nine years, she has taken area runners to a camp in Brevard, N.C.

“It’s really been good for them,” she said. “It has made all of their times better.”

And the camp has allowed her to add to her network of college and high schools coaches she can turn to.

She still enjoys running in the woods herself and especially likes the north Georgia former wagon trail from Young Harris to Brasstown Bald.

She did have two scary encounters with bears while running earlier this year, one on a trail near Helen.

She and her companions escaped unharmed both times, but in July, at Canada Creek in Suches, she fell on a log while getting away and suffered a large hematoma on her leg that still has not healed enough to allow her to run.

And running seems to be part of the Simpson DNA.

Middle sister Michelle Wright, who graduated from Colquitt County in 1992, was a freshman on the 1988 Colquitt County cross country team when Laurie Ann was a senior and later competed three years at Valdosta State.

And Michelle’s daughter Brooke Wright ran for the Lady Packers and this year is a member of ABAC’s first-ever cross country team. Her son Logan Wright competes for the Colquitt County junior varsity team.

But the Simpson name also is synonymous with trap and skeet in Colquitt County.

Mike Simpson has long operated the Bridge Creek Clays and the South Georgia Youth Shooting Club.

He was USA Shooting’s National Coach of the Year 2013 and the Dunn Road complex that is just yards from the Simpson home has been named a regional training facility.

Emma, the youngest of the Simpson sisters, was once one of the nation’s top young trap shooters and traveled to compete internationally as a member of the United States World Cup team.

Michelle still helps her father with the shotgun team operation.

“I was pretty good,” Laurie Ann said when asked about her ability with a shotgun.

But, clearly, her passion is running and passing that passion on to others.

“I love it,” she said. “It’s what keeps me going.”