Tom Reck
The Tribune-Star
TERRE HAUTE —
When Red Hill played its final football game of the season last month in Illinois, it marked the end of an era for a friend of mine and for the high school.
Bill Evans announced he was retiring after the Salukis played Oblong. He had coached football for 29 years, been athletic director 14 years, coached baseball for 20 seasons and been an assistant in basketball 18 years.
His football teams finished 143-140 and competed in numerous playoff games. He says his best teams were in 1988, 1996, 2001 and 2006 and the 1996 team advanced to the third round of the playoffs.
“There have been a lot of good things happen in Red Hill football … particularly the past 15 years. I hope that it will continue,” he told a reporter after the game.
Evans is a native of Terre Haute, graduating from Wiley High School and receiving two degrees from Indiana State University. He began his coaching and teaching career at Clinton Central and began coaching at Red Hill in 1982.
In addition to coaching for more than 30 years, Evans has been an official for 39 seasons and worked 10 state finals in basketball in that time. He may have to sit this season out after undergoing knee surgery.
He has been a member of the coaching staffs for the Illinois and Wabash Valley all-star games and was the South coach in one of the Wabash Valley games.
Evans has been inducted into the Illinois Football Coaches Association and Wabash Valley Coaches Association Halls of Fame.
He and wife Kathy have been married 33 years and are the parents of two children and one grandchild — “a pistol of love” says grandpa, who says he and Kathy plan to move back to Terre Haute soon and will be closer to the grandchild.
Nice work, Bill.
• Prep patter — Sectional football championship games will be played this week in Indiana and one of the biggest games of the tournament will be played in Class 5A.
No. 1-ranked Warren Central will take on No. 2 Carmel at Carmel in a matchup of Metropolitan Interscholastic Conference powers.
In last week’s USA Today national prep poll, Warren Central was 13th in the Top 25. It also ranked first in the Midwest Region with Carmel fourth.
Ben Davis and Center Grove are two other MIC teams still alive with Ben Davis playing at Avon this week and Columbus North at Center Grove.
In the Wabash Valley, Linton will put its 11-0 mark on the line against North Daviess, while North Vermillion and Rockville will vie for Sectional 38 Class A honors.
In Illinois, Marshall hosts Bismarck-Henning and Casey is at home to Carlyle in second-round playoff contests.
State champions will be decided in volleyball in Indiana.
Eastern Greene will be in the Class 2A game against Wapahani, while Trinity Lutheran — which beat Riverton Parke and Loogootee — is in the Class A title tilt against Wes-Del.
In the other contests, Penn meets Avon in Class 4A and Yorktown takes on Chatard in Class 3A.
Tom Reck may be contacted by telephone at (812) 232-3231, by e-mail at tm_reck@yahoo.com or by mail at 4284 S. Fifth Street, Apt. 3, Terre Haute, IN 47802.
