Story Photos
 Rene'e Evans, seen holding her 18-month-old son, Sean, has returned to the Northwest and to the basketball court after attending Coastal Carolina University in South Carolina. Greg Ebersole / The Daily News
|
LCC's Rene'e Evans balances basketball, school and life as a mother
Sunday, February 3, 2008 7:08 AM PST
By Rick McCorkle
rmccorkle@tdn.com
Printable version
E-mail this articleRene'e Evans is a juggler.
It's an elaborate balancing act - going to class, slaving over homework, caring for her young son and playing women's basketball at Lower Columbia College.
With so many balls in the air, it's surprising that Evans hasn't crumbled under the strain. Instead, she thrives.
"I really enjoy the part of coming back to school and playing basketball, so I don't have to work right now," said Evans, after a recent LCC practice. "It's harder to go to school, play basketball and take care of Sean (her 18-month-old son) than it is to work, but it's rewarding."
The 22-year-old Evans, a reserve center, is a key component in the success of the LCC women's basketball team this season.
"Rene'e has a lot of potential, and it's good for the team and her that she got back into playing," LCC coach Chad Meadors said. "It's great the other kids have accepted her onto the team halfway into the season, knowing that her potential could be taking minutes away from them."
But it's been a long road since Evans, a 2003 Knappa High graduate, played on the LCC hardwood and earned Most Valuable Player honors in the 2003 Lower Columbia Area All-Star Basketball Game.
Evans scored a game-high 22 points and grabbed 16 rebounds in the exhibition game, which culminated an all-star prep career at Knappa.
Soon after the game, she received a scholarship to play women's basketball at the University of Portland. A dispute over playing time led to her decision to leave the Pilots after one season.
"I left because of a little bit of stupidity," Evans said. "It's one of the sore subjects in life. I shouldn't have left."
The transition from high school to the college game was too much for Evans at the time.
"I was used to playing 32 minutes a game in high school, and I was playing about 10 minutes at UP," she said. "It was a lot of fun, but I left."
School, work and Sean
Shortly after leaving UP, Evans enrolled at Coastal Carolina University in Conway, S.C., and joined the track team as a javelin thrower. She didn't play basketball while attending school, but her life soon took another turn.
"I got pregnant during my junior year and didn't compete with the track team," Evans said. "After I had Sean, I stopped going to school. But his father continued going to school and was a member of the track team."
Evans worked 70 hours a week at two jobs to support the family and pay for day-care, and Sean's father worked one job while going to school and running track.
"I'd work at night, then I'd pick up Sean and take him to day-care while I went to my other job," she said. "The pay for jobs in South Carolina is really crappy, and I was literally getting no sleep."
Evans became homesick, and an illness in the family prompted her to return to Knappa.
"My mom was undergoing chemotherapy for breast cancer and I wanted to be closer to her," she said. "I was thinking about coming home last year and playing basketball at LCC with my younger sister, Nadra, but I wanted to get back on my feet."
After a two-week visit with her family, Evans returned to South Carolina, packed her belongings and trekked with Sean on a cross-country driving adventure.
Nadra Evans, one of LCC's team captains, had been working on getting her older sister back to the Pacific Northwest and with the Lady Devils since the beginning of last season.
"Nadra had talked to Kirc Roland (LCC athletic director) and (former coach) Jason Hoseney about me playing my last season here," Evans said. "They called me a lot of times, but I was skeptical because I hadn't played since I was at Portland and I was a little out of shape. After a lot of convincing, I decided I'd give it a try."
Scraping off the rust
Evans finds that although she's young at heart, she still has the body of a 22-year-old mother who hasn't been active in sports - particularly basketball - for several years.
"My lungs and legs are in shape, but I'm not as quick," she said. "I've been having trouble with my feet and ankles with arch problems, because I haven't been in basketball shoes for a few years.
"I think they believed they were getting the old Rene'e to come back and play, but instead they got the OLD, OLD Rene'e."
Despite Evans' extended layoff from basketball, Meadors sees a lot of potential in the former all-star.
"She's had to battle some foot issues, along with the normal aches and pains of being an older basketball player," he said. "She can definitely move on and play at the next level, and she has flashes of her former self in practice where you step back and say, 'Wow, that's nice.' "
Returning to the area has also given Evans a chance to re-connect with Nadra. The sisters last played basketball together in 2003 when Rene'e was a senior at Knappa and Nadra was a freshman.
"Neither of us were into partying in school like our friends, so we hung out together," she said. "We got a lot closer, and we're best friends who tell each other our deepest, darkest secrets. She knows everything about me and I know everything about her."
Nadra has welcomed her older sister and Sean into her apartment, along with teammate Megan Holmes, and has taken care of the toddler on occasion.
"Sean is with me in the morning," Evans said. "My older sister also lives in town and she watches him while I'm in class, at practice and at games. I can go to school to further my education, do something I want to do and come home to be with Sean at night."
Evans doesn't take Sean to her games because "if he sees me, he goes nuts," she said.
Although she's interested in continuing her basketball career next season, Evans isn't sure if anyone is interested. After two transfers, she's no longer eligible to play at a Division I school, but she has two years of eligibility remaining at either a Division II or NAIA institution.
Meadors said Chico State University has contacted him about Evans' availability next season.
"I need to get a lot better and back into the swing of things," she said. "It'll also depend on Sean's situation. His dad will be joining us when he finishes school in May. He misses his son very much, and Sean really misses his dad."
Rick McCorkle
is a sportswriter for The Daily News. He can be reached at 577-2529.
Past Month's Most Commented Stories