Glynn Academy student wins on and off the baseball field


BRUNSWICK | Johnny “Buckshot” Simmons is a winner in the classroom and on the baseball diamond.

The Glynn Academy senior has come back strong, academically and athletically, from a devastating eye injury last year.

Simmons, a pitcher, was practicing with his Red Terror teammates in May when a line drive struck him in the left eye crushing the socket, breaking his nose and causing his right eye to swell shut.

He spent the next four weeks either hospitalized or recovering at home after surgeons at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville saved his eye and his sight. Surgeons performed a cornea transplant, and reattached his retina in his left eye.

Initially told by doctors that he would never play baseball again, the soft-spoken Simmons politely rejected their prognosis then set about proving them wrong.

“I tried to just keep going,” Simmons said. “You push forward through it. There was nothing I could do about it [the accident], but I could do something about what happened after it.”

As hard as he trained to get back into shape to return to the team, which rallied to support him after he was hurt, Simmons worked just as hard to catch up on his studies.

“He’s always been a good student and a great kid,” Glynn Academy Principal Scott Spence said. “He did not let his injury impact socket him at all.”

Simmons’ focus has earned him state recognition. The 18-year-old became state champion in precision machining technology March 18 during the SkillsUSA Georgia Leadership and Skills Conference in Atlanta.

The day after he won the state competition, Simmons returned to Brunswick to pitch a winning game against Ware County, Spence said.

Representing Golden Isles Career Academy, Simmons will compete in the 47th annual National Leadership and Skills Conference June 19-24 in Kansas City, Mo. He will be among nearly 6,000 students showcasing their  skills, Principal Ralph Gornto said.

The competition will test Simmons in reading blueprints, completing milling projects and working with a lathe, Gornto said.

“Throwing a curve ball is a lot easier,” Simmons said.

Simmons is as passionate about the metal work as he is about baseball.

“I’m good at it and I like doing it,” he said with genuine modesty. “I like working with real-life objects and making things that people are going to use.”

The son of Johnny and Michele Simmons, he plans to major in mechanical engineering in college.

“I’ll be the fourth- generation machinist if I go into it,” said Simmons, who explained that his father is a reliability engineer at the Georgia-Pacific Koch Cellulose mill in Brunswick.

Simmons hasn’t decided which college he wants to attend, but he knows he wants to play baseball there.

If his record is any indication, he should be a welcome addition to any college team. He has a 3-0 record this season, and his earned run average ERA is under 3, his coach said.

“I wish I had 20 more kids just like him on the team,” Glynn Academy head coach Bobby Link said. “He’s a great athlete and all-round great kid.”

Simmons said his teammates, Glynn Academy’s Diamond Club and the community rallied to help him recover and return to do the things that he loves.

“Everybody has been so supportive and I can’t thank them enough,” he said.