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Local draft prospect looks to enter league, with lifelong dream of becoming marine biologist

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CHARLOTTE — Torricelli Simpkins III has always had a goal of making it to the NFL. Now, he’s poised to capitalize on that opportunity heading into the draft.

It was one of many he’s set his sights on.

The Olympic High School alum recently earned his business degree from South Carolina, after playing his final season of college football in Columbia.

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“Football is great, but you still have to have an education,” his father said. “They can’t take that away from you.”

Before his standout season with the Gamecocks, Simpkins spent three years at North Carolina Central and was named an HBCU All-American as an offensive lineman.

Still, his time in college isn’t over just yet.

In addition to football, few topics garnered a bigger smile from Simpkins than talk of his other passion: marine biology.

“I want to go back to Central and get my last two classes so I can finish up my biology degree,” he said.

When Simpkins transferred to South Carolina from NCA&T, he was two courses shy of completing the program.

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It doesn’t hurt that his DNA is infused with the very best of both his mother and father.

His father Torricelli Simpkins Jr. is an accountant who coached him in youth football, and his mother, Tamiko Harris, is an analytical chemist.

“They’ll tell you in a minute, my mom is a scientist, I’m always going to be good at science - and I’m like, that is not how that works,” Harris joked.

The former Gamecock explained his love for the water began as a young boy who loved to swim and evolved to include marine biology when a high school teacher introduced him.

“The marine part stuck with me because I love water and I love water animals,” he said.

His favorite? The sea turtle. In part for its fighting spirit from birth.

“As soon as they come out the egg, they start off with no parents. They have one of the hardest lives,” he said.

“I feel like that just takes so much heart.”

It’s not unlike how Simpkins Jr. described the work ethic he’s witnessed from his son.

“It wasn’t given to him,” he said. ”He had to show everybody that he belonged."


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