When he’s excited, Chuck Evans’ voice tends to rise in pitch and in decibels. He wears his emotions front and center for all to see and hear. It’s not because he’s a drama queen; it’s because he cares.

Evans was given the opportunity and the responsibility of coaching the group of Regina football players that had, five years earlier, been saddled with the label of “most likely to win a state    championship.”

It was not a responsibility he took lightly. It was one he worked at and nurtured and agonized over and embraced. And finally, through injuries and illnesses and dropped passes and long road trips, Evans guided Regina to its first state football championship.

It broke his heart that he had a number of senior players with injuries that kept them off the field for various lengths of time. But he found a way to keep the team on track toward its goal.

He marveled at the players’ ability to keep their focus on the ultimate goal, but the environment he created had everything to do with maintaining optimism and focus.

He never panicked.

He believed in their strengths, minimized their weaknesses and never wavered.

Trailing 7-3 with only 3:21 left to play and punting to the opponent in the state semi-final, Evans had the chutzpah to grab one of his captains before sending him out to play defense.

“The head coach sets the tone for the kids,” Evans said. “The minute the coach throws in the towel, kids read off of that and they throw in the towel. In the drive against Dike-New Hartford, there was no doubt we were going to get the job done. I grabbed (Mike) O’Connell and I said, ‘It’s not ending today.’ He knew dang well what I meant.”

Kyle Callaghan, the lineman whose season ended in the first quarter of the first game with a knee injury, gave a senior speech in which he said he learned from the way Evans came back from cancer surgery a year earlier that it’s pointless to ask why such things happen.

You have to move on to something else, something productive.

Evans says he’s learned from every team he’s coached. Clearly they have learned as well, not the least of which is what it takes to be a good man.

— Susan Harman

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