Evers, longtime East Bladen leader, chosen as coach in McDonald’s All American Game

ELIZABETHTOWN — Patty Evers of East Bladen High School has been chosen as a coach in the 45th annual McDonald’s All American Games.

The all-star showcase benefits the Ronald McDonald House Charities and will be played on March 29. The girls game is at 6:30 p.m. (Eastern time) and airs on ESPN2. It is being played in Wintrust Arena, the 10,387-seat home to DePaul University and the WNBA’s Chicago Sky on the near south side of Chicago.

The boys game follows at 9 p.m. and will be shown on ESPN.

“My mom and dad instilled in me a work ethic like none other,” said Evers, the middle daughter of David and Patsy Evers. “This accolade is a testament of passion and love that I have had for the game of basketball. Nothing has been given. Everything has been earned and that is something as a coaching staff we demanded from our players.

“I am humbled and honored to coach in the most prestigious high school basketball game.”

Evers, in her 21st season with the Eagles and 26th overall, has a lifetime coaching record of 555-131. She’s 481-89 at East Bladen, where this year’s team is 16-1 heading into Thursday night’s game against Red Springs.

Evers was given the choice on assistants. She chose her own and will be accompanied by longtime assistants Megan Kirby and Alan West.

The reputation of Evers’ program is widely respected in coaching circles and by administrators. She relies on a foundation built in relationships, where players are no more important than any other player, manager, statistician or videographer on her bench. Her goal is to help all students.

“The coach is only as good as their players. But the coach has to lay that foundation,” Evers said in a 2019 interview with the Bladen Journal.

Evers grew up on Center Road in the Bladenboro community, and graduated from Tar Heel High in 1989. After playing collegiately at Methodist and then attending UNC Pembroke, she worked with a Lumberton ophthalmologist before finishing her undergrad at UNCP and then getting into coaching at her high school alma mater.

Consolidation closed Tar Heel as a high school and also opened a new East Bladen in 2001-02, where she’s been the only head coach in girls basketball. She finished her master’s at Pembroke in 2002.

The offense of her high school coach, Leroy Henderson, and the defense of her college coach at Methodist, Rita Wiggs, have served her teams well through more than a quarter century. The who’s who that fueled them to championships include Kristal Troy, Dorothy Corbett, sisters JaToya and Jazmine Kemp, Kayla Davis, Asha Graham, C.J. Melvin, Abby Ward and Lacey Suggs.

Evers has had only one team, her first, not finish above .500. Only two, her second and last year’s, have not made the playoffs. And the latter was in a year of the COVID-19 pandemic when the N.C. High School Athletic Association decreased the size of the field.

Her teams have two 30-win seasons and 14 others of 20-plus. There have been four state runner-up finishes, two regional runner-up spots and three regional semifinalists. She’s coached league champions 13 times.

Evers has won awards from the N.C. High School Athletic Association four times to include coaching awards named for legends Toby Webb, Pat Gainey and Doris Howard, and the Homer Thompson Eight Who Make A Difference.

On the eve of win No. 500 three Januarys ago, Evers described her satisfaction in coaching by saying, “Teaching and watching it develop. I like seeing the excitement from the girls in close games. Their energy — I feed off their energy and vice versa. That’s why I still do it.

“I know I’m on the down side of my career, I really do believe that. But they’re the reason why I still do it. It’s a different generation for sure, but that comes with it.”

Evers, in the summer of 2019, was a head coach in the Carolinas Classic All-Star Basketball Game, leading North Carolina past South Carolina 80-59. That group included 6-foot-5 Tamari Key of Cary, who now plays for nationally fourth-ranked Tennessee.

The rosters of 24 girls and 24 boys, who earn the prized distinction of McDonald’s All-American, were chosen from more than 760 nominations.

The East team will have one player from North Carolina — Apex Friendship High’s Indya Nivar, a 5-foot-9 guard headed to Stanford. One other player in the game will call a campus in this state home; that’s Ashlon Jackson of Texas who is headed to Duke. The boys game will not have any players or coaches from North Carolina, but does have three players headed to Duke.

The game used to feature East vs. West in true regional matchups. Players will be split into teams for this year’s games to help create appealing matchups, Evers said. How the 24 players split into teams has not been announced.