QHS All-Time Starting XI: Absorbing coaching enables Evans to elevate himself, teammates

This is the ninth installment in a series highlighting the Quincy High School boys soccer players the Muddy River Sports staff has named to the program’s all-time starting 11 in conjunction with the Blue Devils’ 50th season.

Jerrod Evans, Defender, Class of 1991

QUINCY — Matt Longo sensed there was something unique about Jerrod Evans’ approach to soccer the first summer the eventual three-year starter joined the Quincy High School boys soccer program.

All he had to do was look in Evans’ eyes.

“He just listened,” said Longo, the Hall of Fame coach who won 386 games at QHS during a 23-year career. “When you said something, you could see him absorb it in his eyes. The thing we talk about with every kid and hope they do is what Jerrod did. He went out and applied what he was taught and what he was told to do.

“He wasn’t anything flashy. He was a smart, tough, talented player who listened to his coaches, not just the head coach. Not only in soccer did he absorb everything, but in life he absorbed things. It made him a more mature freshman and sophomore and made him a leader his junior and senior seasons.”

It made him the anchor defensively of some talented teams, too.

Evans helped the Blue Devils win 41 games over his three seasons as a starter, including a state quarterfinal berth his junior season in 1989. He went on to play at Quincy University, passed along his passion for soccer to both of his kids and helped coach and teach a generation of players how to see the game.

It all comes back to those eyes and the way Evans views everything.

“He understood the game and knew how to anticipate,” Longo said. “We talk about having that soccer IQ. He could anticipate and almost be ahead of the game. I tell the kids all the time I’m two plays ahead of you. When I see the ball coming back to somebody, I’m two plays ahead. I’m taking the pass, I’m moving it over here and I’m hoping the next person pushes it up there.

“Jerrod was that kid. When the ball was coming to him, he knew exactly where he wanted the ball to go. And he did it.”

He did a lot, earning all-sectional and All-Western Big 6 Conference honors as a senior while also being named team MVP. He walked on at QU and became a four-year fixture in the lineup and the bonafide leader his senior season. That’s when he started coaching youth teams as well.

Some of those accolades, like the wins and losses, fade from memory over time.

The camaraderie with the guys and the lessons learned never fade.

“The people that you play with are special,” Evans said. “Whether they are three years younger than you or three years younger, that era you play with is special. You meet a lot of really good people that you stay in touch with and are friends with and know and see in town or at events. It’s really neat.”

It wasn’t just soccer. Evans was a starting outfielder on the QHS baseball team and developed bonds across the board.

“These are guys you work hard with,” Evans said. “There are a lot of tugs and pulls, a lot of sweat with people that you form bonds with for a long time.”

Soccer gave him a blueprint for life.

“I started to learn how hard to really play while in high school,” Evans said. “There is always more in the tank. You just have to figure in your brain how to bring it out. In college what it led to was understanding my attitude and my effort can affect my teammates every day.

“You can help everyone get better if your mindset is proper in the right place. I’ve taken that to business. Soccer has taught me you can impact the people around you by the things you do, say and act. Sports and soccer taught me that, and now it’s in life that I see it.”

The ability to absorb everything around him makes it possible.

“When you talk to kids, sometimes you see those glass eyes because they’re not listening to you or taking it all in,” Longo said. “But when you’d stand there and look or walk through the room and talk to your players about something, his eyes were focused on you like he was saying, ‘Yeah, I need to listen to you. You’re what I need right now and what you’re telling me is going to make me a better player.’

“But he didn’t just listen. He went out and did it. I think that’s what separated him in becoming the player that he was.”

To read more of the Starting XI profiles as they are published, follow the links below:

Speed, skill allow Abbey to develop into dynamic scoring machine

Work ethic enables Bradshaw to seize opportunity to be great

Finding footing as freshman helps Smith become part of tradition

Deft touch, high IQ turn Reeves into one of Blue Devils’ greatest players

Playing up paves way for Sandercock’s Hall of Fame career

Berry becomes maestro at midfield in leading Blue Devils to state tourney

Sohn’s control of pace and play leads to magical state run by Blue Devils

Ability to communicate, control back line led to Higgins’ historic career