By Mike Clark
Johnnail Evans was a basketball coach and a lot more at Carver.
“Coach Evans was a good man,” Carver senior Zoquan Lee said. “He would always help kids, (even) kids that don’t even play on the team. He would always make sure they’re good. If they needed clothes, he’d give it to them. …
“He was just an energetic dude. It’s going to be different now that we don’t (have) him on the sideline because we really played good off his energy. We’ve just got to finish this season out how he wanted it to get finished.”
Evans, a fixture at Carver and in the Altgeld Gardens community, died on Dec. 30. He was 61.
Delroy Folkes, who played for Evans from 2005-09, now serves as Carver’s athletic coordinator. He said Evans had been at the school for more than three decades, serving as an assistant to another coaching legend, Donald Pittman, before taking over the head coaching job.
Evans also worked in security at Carver and was head softball coach.
Folkes said Evans, who beat cancer twice, had been in ill health recently after starting the season on the sidelines. The Challengers won the Maroon Division consolation title at the Kankakee Holiday Tournament last week and returned to action for the first time since Evans’ death on Wednesday when they lost 58-50 to Leo in the Public League/Catholic League Challenge at St. Rita. Antonio Wiltz, who had known Evans for more than 20 years and joined his staff this season, has taken over as interim coach for the rest of the season.
“He’s one of the great coaches of all time, but even better one of the great people of all time,” Wiltz said. “If he had a fault in the world, (it’s that) he loved these kids too much. He’d be out there when he probably shouldn’t be out there. But he was such a great coach and a great father figure to so many kids who have come through the Carver program. And not just the Carver program, the Altgeld (Gardens) community in general.”
Carver senior Trevion Shatteen can attest to that, saying Evans was a mentor for him dating back to fifth grade.
“Like my guy (Lee) said, a great coach, a father figure, a great man,” Shatteen said. “Willing to help out anybody at any time. Honestly, he’s more like a second dad to me.”
Evans’ positive approach is something Lee appreciated.
“Coach Evans believed that we can win state,” Lee said. “We didn’t believe that, but we’re starting to see.”
The Challengers are 8-8 overall and lead the White South at 4-0. If they keep winning in the conference, they’ll move up to the Red South-Central next season to join the likes of Curie, Kenwood, Lindblom and Simeon.
Moving on without Evans won’t be easy.
“It’s going to be hard, really,” Shatteen said. “But we’ve got to push through it.”
Folkes said the school is working on some kind of tribute to Evans for this month, with details to be determined.
His legacy won’t be forgotten, and neither will his love for the school.”One of the last practices we had with coach Evans, he gathered all the guys in the middle of our court and he said, ‘When I go, bury me in the middle of this.'”
