Mike Simmel

Despite having epilepsy since age 2, Mike has turned a passion for basketball and helping children into his life’s mission. A star player at Don Bosco Prep, the Hun School of Princeton, and Purchase College (SUNY), “Mighty Mike” Simmel then played and was the chief dribbler for the World-Famous Harlem Wizards Professional Entertainment Basketball Team from 2001-14. He was even a ball-boy for the New York Knicks, from 2000-02. Simmel has spoken and performed at over 450 youth basketball and special needs camps. He performed on NBC’s It’s Showtime at the Apollo with Steve Harvey and at the NCAA Final Four.

In addition to appearing on ABC, NBC, FOX News, NBA TV and in USA Today. In 2005, Simmel and his father started the non-profit Bounce Out the Stigma® Project, because at age 16, Mike was asked to leave an elite basketball camp for having an epileptic seizure one morning. Currently, the Program has held its basketball camps/clinics for special needs children as well as school assemblies in nearly 30 states, instilling in youth the motto: “Limits will NOT define me...my WILL defines MY Limits!” In May 2019, Bounce Out the Stigma was named Jr NBA Program of the Year, edging thousands of “mainstream” programs from across the country.

Mike has garnered many individual accolades, which include: the prestigious TOYA Award; being named a Kentucky Colonel; and being honored by the New York Yankees, Philadelphia 76ers and New York Knicks on special Disability Awareness Nights in front of thousands of fans. Simmel has also co-authored a children’s book called Mighty Mike Bounces Back, published in 2012, by Magination Press. For more information on “Mighty Mike” Simmel and the Bounce Out the Stigma Project, log onto Bounce Out the Stigma's website or follow him on Instagram and Facebook.