Evers ends term as N.C. Coaches Association president

When the N.C. Coaches Association named East Bladen’s Patty Evers vice-president, she knew that meant a year later she’d advance to president, making her the second woman in NCCA history to hold the position.

It would have been understandable if the veteran basketball coach and athletic director decided to celebrate. She might have considered borrowing an idea from the late Lefty Driesell and drive around with her title draped over her car.

But those who know Evers’ style know that thought never crossed her mind. “I didn’t go around talking about it,” she said, approaching the job with the same efficiency she’s brought to the East Bladen program as its athletic director, and to her secondary role as a game official.

Her tenure as president, which ended recently when she passed the reins to current vice-president Josh Brooks of Franklin, has seen some major changes.

One of the biggest was moving the annual NC Coaches Association East-West All-Star football game to December, a request the football coaches had made for some time to allow them to hold the game at the end of football season instead of during the summer when it was becoming more difficult to attract top players bound for college summer admission.

But coping with change is nothing new for Evers, and she’s had plenty of experience and guidance, having served on the boards of two other statewide athletic organizations, the NC High School Athletic Association and the NC Athletic Directors Association. Her work with the NCHSAA over the years has helped her learn an important lesson about its operation that she fears is misunderstood by many coaches and fans in North Carolina

Paraphrasing an oft-made comment from NCHSAA head Que Tucker, Evers said some think the NCHSAA officials sit in their Chapel Hill office making all the decisions.

In reality, Tucker frequently said it’s the membership, the principals and superintendents of the schools who sit on the NCHSAA Board of Directors, who establish official association policy.

“They (the NCHSAA) are there to serve us,” Evers said. The NCHSAA, NCCA and NCADA have a unique working relationship that is the envy of many other states.

“I’ve never heard any quarrels between the NCHSAA and the NCCA, even the NCADA,’’ she said. “I think all three of them work very well together.”

But don’t get the idea that everything in Evers’ world of high school athletics is perfect. There are things happening and changing that concern her a great deal.

One of the biggest is how parents deal with their children when it comes to involvement with organized sports teams. “Parents have to hold kids accountable,” she said. “There’s a lot of entitlement.”

We live in an era where everybody expects a trophy, at every school, in every sport.

But there’s a more ominous threat looming for amateur sports: name, image and likeness.

Pandora’s box is wide open and overflowing now that even high school athletes are free to receive cash or merchandise from businesses who might want to buy the influencing powers of the star quarterback or standout point guard.

While many think opportunities for NIL cash may be few at the high school level, Evers warns them to think again. East Bladen is in a rural community, yet she said she’s received calls from parents curious about NIL.

“They want to know what they can get, where they can get it,” she said.

A couple of years ago, the NCHSAA crafted a well-conceived policy on handling NIL, but a state legislature more schooled in politics than athletics aborted the policy before it could be implemented and left the NCHSAA rudderless against the NIL onslaught.

The N.C. Department of Public Instruction finally approved an NIL policy of its own in May as part of a broader Athletics Policies Series of high school rules. It officially took effect July 1.

“I don’t think they see eye-to-eye on certain things,” said Evers, in a classic understatement.

While it was tinkering with NIL, the legislature meddled in another area, limiting or eliminating the NCHSAA’s ability to deal with penalizing athletes for being ejected from an athletic contest.

Recent statistics compiled by the NCHSAA have shown the results of the softer penalties. Ejections have risen dramatically, almost 20 percent, since harsher penalties were eliminated. There have been rises in everything from fighting, profanity and leaving the bench area to join in a fight.

Viewed from her other perspective as a game official, Evers said the lack of penalties for rebellious athletes and coaches causes another problem. “We’re losing officials,” she said. “Parents are unruly. A lot of counties have had to place a 365-day ban on parents who act unruly.”

As Evers leaves coaching behind to focus on her administrative duties, she’s got another concern about the next generation of coaches and their background.

“We’ve got a lot of coaches off campus,” she said, referring to people who aren’t classroom teachers but are being hired to fill vacant coaching positions a teacher-coach isn’t available for.

That’s where she thinks an organization like the NCCA can play a critical role in helping prospective teacher-coaches with little background get the education they need.

A longtime attender of the annual summer clinic in Greensboro, Evers said half her playbook and conditioning drills came from sessions she attended at the annual clinic. “That’s where the (coaching) education starts,” she said.

And thanks to the NCCA, where it’s still available.