By STEVE KRAH
As a long-time member of the Gary (Ind.) Police Department, Donald Evans Sr., has made it a point to be beneficial and a positive influence.
“I try to lend a helping hand,” says Evans, a corporal who will mark 29 years with GPD in September 2024.
Evans, who has been a School Resource Officer all around the district, was asked to fill another community need and became head baseball coach at Gary West Side Leadership Academy — Gary Community School Corporation’s lone remaining public high school — for the 2022 season after the sport was on pause during the pandemic.
“I was just going to be a parent,” says Evans. “Coach Lee and Coach Hank said we don’t have a coach and I was hired.”
Robert Lee is athletic director for Gary Schools and handles grounds and finances.
Hank Kilander is Gary West Side’s athletic coordinator and attends to daily operations.
“It’s good to have him,” says Kilander of Evans. “He’s invested in our kids.
“We’re getting a lot kids out that just want to participate and be a part of something.”
Kilander says the big picture is that a feeder system including junior high and younger players needs to be established for the long-term success at the high school.
“You drive around Gary and, unfortunately, there are abandoned baseball fields everywhere,” says Kilander. “It’s hard to be super-competitive with kids who are playing baseball for the first time in high school. The kids have a great spirit and energy to them. Hopefully, we’ll make some strides each year.”
That’s where Evans and his assistants come in.
“The thing that is important for me is for them to learn a game they haven’t played,” says Evans. “A lot of these boys have never played baseball. Period. In the past three years I want to say six or seven boys have played baseball before.
“Most of them are football and basketball players looking for another sport. If they’ll come in and put the work in, we’ll do something with it.”
Some baseball players also participate in track and field.
Attitude is key.
Says Evans, “When everyone is positive, it makes it a little easier.”
A 1988 graduate of the former Gary Roosevelt High School, Evans played and coached baseball in town at Junedale Little League and then coached at Gary Metro Area Little League and Calumet Region Little League. He has coached many of the players now with him at West Side.
The former Roosevelt basketball manager has also guided young hoopsters at Daniel Hale Williams Elementary School in Gary.
“It’s been a blessing just to be around kids,” says Evans. “A lot of them are from foster homes or broken homes. Some kids don’t see their parents until late, late at night.
“I’d like to bridge that gap. I get to give back to kids that never get a chance to experience things.”
Evans credits former Roosevelt baseball coach Benny Dorsey, former Gary Metro Area coach Milton Mathis and uncle, former track star and University of Illinois Hall of Famer Willie Williams as mentors.
Mathis taught an adult Evans how to develop a kid into a baseball player.
“I knew how to play the game,” says Evans. “I did not know how to teach game.”
West Side (enrollment just under 1,000) is a member of the Great Lakes Athletic Conference (with East Chicago Central, Hammond Central and Hammond Morton).
The Cougars are part of an IHSAA Class 4A sectional grouping in 2024 with East Chicago Central, Hammond Central, Hammond Morton, Hobart, Lake Central, Merrillville and Munster (host). West Side’s lone sectional title came in 1986.
Other teams on the schedule include 21st Century Charter, Bowman Academy, Calumet New Tech, Hammond Academy of Science & Technology, Hammond Baptist, Indianapolis Washington, Lake Station Edison, Marquette Catholic, South Bend Clay and Thornton Township (Ill.).
The Cougars have 22 rostered players. Five are captains — Class of 2024’s Jordan Harris and Emmanuel Smith and Class of 2025’s Donald Evans Jr., Ladarrion Newell and Kaleb Parker.
The coach sees college baseball potential in all his captains plus Class of 2027’s King Cloma.
At a school with many multi-sport athletes, Harris, Evans, Newell and Parker are all football players. Newell is also a wrestler. Cloma plays basketball. An ROTC member, Smith is preparing to enter the military after graduation.
“Many of them might have the opportunity to participate (in college baseball),” says Evans. “We just have to find the right fit for them.”
The West Side coaching staff features Ivy Evans, Lyndell Strickland, Ovell Yanders and Dr. Roland Walker.
A 2023 West Side graduate, Ivy Evans has signed play baseball at Columbia-Greene Community College in Hudson, N.Y., in 2024-25. Strickland is in IT at the school. Yanders is a steel mill supervisor. Former Roosevelt runner Walker is a pediatrician.
Located in the southeast corner of the campus, West Side’s baseball diamond can be viewed from the parking lot.
“The only draw-back for that field is the backstop,” says Evans of the fence that is a great distance from home plate. “It’s a monster.”
A low fence and a woods right behind the field makes for many lost baseballs. A recent search turned up 25 from last year that were water-logged and moldy.
Many youth games were played on the diamond last summer.
“Every year they do something to improve this facility and make it better,” says Kilander.
Donald and first wife Kimberly Evans raised more than a dozen foster children. A long-time police officer, Kimberly died in 2019.
Oldest son — Oscar Chatman — was an athlete in school. He has been a part of “American Idol” in Season 12 and is now a professional musician. An R&B indy artist, he goes by the stage name Soulo.
Donald is now married to Tiffany. The couple has four children at home. Besides Ivy and Donald Jr., there’s Bowman Academy athletes Jovan Love (14) and Jordyn Evans (12). Eighth grader Jovan is a left-handed pitcher and seventh grader Jordyn a softball player.
Over the years, West Side has produced many college and professional athletes. Class of 1991’s LaTroy Hawkins pitched 21 seasons in the major leagues.
Hawkins is an inductee in the Gary Sports and Indiana High School Baseball Coaches Association halls of fame and currently works for the Minnesota Twins.
The Cougars can be found on GameChanger and MaxPreps.
There is a Gary Community School Corporation Facebook page.
www.IndianaRBI.com 