Canon-Mac football coach returns after second battle with cancer in five years
· Yahoo Sports
Football has been a part of Mike Evans’ life since before he can remember.
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“Last year was the first year I didn’t have a football season since I was like 10,” said Evans.
The Canon-McMillian Head Coach was sidelined, battling cancer for the second time in five years.
“I always thought I was coming back,” said Evans. “I don’t know what else to do. I can’t do anything else, so this is it. I coach football or I’m unemployed.”
In February, after he was cleared by his doctors, Evans returned to the team.
“He came back his first day in school in February and 12 of our players every lunch period were in his office just wanting to talk,” said quarterback Ty Jansma.
In Evans’ absence, his close friend offensive coordinator Brian DeLallo stepped in as the interim head coach.
“I don’t want to get emotional,” said Evans. “The guy really helped me out.”
“It’s been a lot of fun coaching with him,” said DeLallo. “It’s like getting your best friend back.
There aren’t enough words to describe Evans’ gratitude for DeLallo. Even when, against his wishes, the players put stickers on their helmets last season in support of their coach.
“He said ‘I told you not to do that,’” said DeLallo. “I said ‘the kids overruled me. the kids wanted it, and that’s why we did that.”
“Sometimes they don’t always see the tender, emotional side of me,” joked Evans. “But I was touched that they would do that.”
The toughest team wins, Coach Evans’ favorite saying, is something they’ve embraced this season. His fight setting an example and providing his players with a heavy dose of perspective.
“He gives us so much motivation because of how much he cares about us and how much he cares about the game,” said Jansma. “I don’t even have words for it.”
But his impact on the team is far greater.
“They love him like he’s a father figure,” said DeLallo. “To some of these kids he really is a father figure. To have him back with our program as a technician, as a master of scheme, as a motivator and as a friend to the kids, you can’t put a value on that.”
And for Evans, who’s back on the sideline where he’s been practically his entire life, he can’t help but stop for a minute, and be filled with gratitude.
“One of the motivations was to come back,” said Evans. “I mean obviously it was to live, but this is living.”
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