West Side’s back at bat
Jones and Evans building new foundation for Cougars’ program
Julius Jones wasn’t sure which high school he’d attend.
There hadn’t been a baseball season at West Side since 2019, so Jones was weighing other options last year — until he got a message from Ivy Evans.
“He told me they were going to play and his dad was going to be the coach,” Jones said. “So I told him, ‘I’m on my way.’ ”
Now Jones, a freshman, and Evans, a junior, are West Side baseball teammates building a new foundation for the program.
West Side’s 2020 season was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic, but when sports returned the following school year, there were only three West Side students who came out for baseball.
Evans, a pitcher and infielder, was one of
those three and is one of the few players on this team with playing experience. After the disappointment of 2021, Evans became the team’s biggest recruiter.
“I was reaching out to everybody I could, telling them to come play baseball,” he said.
Evans’ father, Donald, did the same thing after being named the team’s coach. Donald Evans’ efforts involved sitting behind a table displaying a hat and a jersey in a busy hallway at the school.
“The next thing I know, we had 48 kids sign up,” Donald Evans said. “And most of them were freshman and sophomores.”
There are 23 players on the roster, which includes just one senior and four juniors. Because of that youth and inexperience, Donald Evans said the main focus this season has been keeping the mood light while teaching the basics.
“We just want to keep the kids here, keep them excited and keep them engaged so they’ll continue to have fun,” he said. “And not put the emphasis on winning. Put it on fundamentals and learning the game. Once we learn the game, the competitive part will take place.”
Ivy Evans has embraced the added responsibility of bringing along his inexperienced teammates while still sharpening his skills. But he also knows the best way to keep building the program is by having even more players involved.
“I just want there to be a bigger program with more students coming out to play baseball,” he said. “In the last year, we’ve went from just three to this.”
Jones, one of the team’s four captains despite being a freshman, said the more experienced players are learning to be patient as the skills they mastered years ago
are being introduced to their teammates.
“Most of my teammates here are new to the sport, so they’re going to make errors,” Jones said. “And we can’t get mad at them because they’re new. It’s our first year as a team working together.”
There also is an undeniable passion for baseball in players like Evans and Jones.
Jones, in particular, brings an energy and charisma that has made him the team’s “hype man.”
That passion poured out of Jones as he talked about his offseason plans to play more baseball wherever he can and find more teammates to add to West Side’s roster.
“If we can get some people to just watch it and then play it, they’ll love it,” he said. “We just have to get them out here.”