Anahuac native leads Tatum to title game

[KFDM COOP]

Anahuac native leads Tatum to title game

By Dave Rogers

 

Published December 15, 2007 - Updated 22 minutes ago

Andy Evans couldn’t imagine a better time or place to grow up than in Chambers County in the 1970s.

He’s a native of Anahuac who graduated from high school there.

“Anahuac was a great place to grow up,†he recalled Thursday. “I had a great group of kids and I liked to fish and water ski. We were surrounded by water, so it was a great place to grow up.â€

Evans spent his middle school “Wonder Years†attending school at Barbers Hill when his father coached there in the last half of the decade.

Those truly were Wonder Years.

“I can remember when Barbers Hill won the state championship,†he said of the 17-8 win over DeLeon for the 1976 Class A title.

“I went to those games and I was in the press box with my dad the night they beat DeLeon and we won it.

“What I remember about Barbers Hill was that every kid that ever went there when I was there talked about the tradition Barbers Hill had. There were expectations, if you grew up there, that they were going to have great teams every year.

“Even today, when I hear the Barbers Hill fight song, I want to stand up and sing.â€

Fast forward three decades and little has changed at Anahuac (it’s still surrounded by water) or Barbers Hill (except the Eagles compete in Class 4A now).

And those high expectations ride with Evans and his father now in east Texas.

Tonight in Corsicana, Andy Evans will lead the team from Tatum, a town of 1,200 located 20 miles south of Longview, into the Class 2A Division I state championship football game against Farmersville.

Tatum and Evans will be going for their third straight state championship win, after taking the 3A-Division II title in 2005 and 2A-Division I crown last winter.

“We’ve been really fortunate, I can tell you that,†says the soft-spoken coach who is 53-5 in not quite four seasons at Tatum and 124-33 overall in 13 years as a head coach.

Having previously coached East Chambers to nine playoff berths in as many years, he’s a perfect 13 for 13 in qualifying his team for the post-season.

And he’s done it all with his dad, Joe Evans, by his side.

“I never thought I’d do anything but be a coach,†he says. “My mom was a teacher, Dad was a coach, so I grew up in the school business.

“I knew I wanted to coach from the time I was little bitty.

I really scrambled to get out of college so I could coach together with my dad for one year.

“It ended up I’ve been coaching with him for 20 years now.â€

When Andy was just starting school, Joe was coaching on the staff of Elmer Thompson in Anahuac.

“When Thompson left Anahuac to take a job in Mexia, my dad promised my mother he would not ask her to move again,†the younger Evans said. “Out of loyalty to coach Thompson, he didn’t stay in Anahuac, but he took a junior high job in Barbers Hill.â€

Joe Evans was on Carroll “Pudgie†Richardson’s staff at Barbers Hill for the 1976 title team, then spent two years as Barbers Hill head coach after Richardson departed.

“Then he retired the first time,†said Andy. “He’s been retired about five times.â€

Joe came out of retirement when Andy graduated from college and was an assistant at Anahuac for three years. Then Joe followed Andy to Winnie for another assistant’s job at East Chambers High in 1990. He continued the commute after Andy was promoted to head coach in 1995.

Joe Evans, now 74, followed his son to Tatum and for three years commuted nearly 100 miles a day from his fishing cabin.

“I’ve been fortunate that everybody who’s hired me was willing to hire my dad, too,†said Andy.

Joe, who coaches Tatum’s tight ends and defensive backs, finally abandoned the commuting about a year ago, buying a new home and moving he and wife Mary Ann near the job.

Don’t look for any of the Evanses to depart Tatum any time soon.

Though the town is small, its school district thrives on revenues generated by lignite coal mining and a power plant that serves the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex.

Since Evans arrived in 2004, at the behest of a former East Chambers principal turned Tatum superintendent, the district has spent nearly $10 million on athletic facilities.

There’s new artificial turf on the football field and a basketball coliseum that’s a carbon copy of the one at Angelina College in Lufkin. An indoor football practice field nearly 70 yards long is in the plans.

Then there’s the players.

“We’ve got phenomenal athletes,†Andy Evans said.

And their post-grad success backs him up.

Tennessee signed running back Bryce Beal and wide receiver Darrius Moore off last year’s team. Former quarterback Stephen Hodge is a starting linebacker for TCU and two other ex-Eagles signed with Houston.

Chance Blackmon, a receiver on this year’s team, has committed to sign with Colorado.

Running back Bryce Beal, a 1,900-yard rusher who also leads the team in tackles as a linebacker, and quarterback Cashas Pollard lead this year’s team. Pollard, 41-5 as a starter, would be the second-winningest quarterback in Texas schoolboy history with a win tonight.

You can be the ‘winningest’ at a lot of things when you win 91 percent of the time, as the Eagles have under Evans, whose EC teams never got past the second round of the playoffs.

“What’s happened the last three years is probably the most humbling experience of my life,†Evans said.

“I think everybody dreams of getting to coach in one state championship game in their life. For us to get to coach in three is just unbelievable.â€

[Guest ECBucFan]

You can be the ‘winningest’ at a lot of things when you win 91 percent of the time, as the Eagles have under Evans, whose EC teams never got past the second round of the playoffs.

Congrats to Andy for breaking through. Andy is a good man who deserved sucess. Wished it could have happened at EC though. Never really did, but at least the Bucs "went down swinging" most of the times.

[24 over par]

andy evans is a really nice guy couldnt be happier for him unless he was at deweyville

[DP#1FAN]

andy evans is a really nice guy couldnt be happier for him unless he was at deweyville

[/quote

$100,000  ?