By Chris Parker
Pleasant Hope football has a new head coach in alumnus Josh Evans. Evans, who played college football at Evangel, was the linebackers and wide receivers coach last year for the Pirates.
Football has given Evans many opportunities, which is why he wanted to take over as the head coach of the Pirates.
“I grew up here, this town and these kids are important to me. I know football is a powerful tool to teach kids about life and discipline,” Evans said. “Football changed my life, and I will do whatever it takes to keep football around and make it successful so that kids from Pleasant Hope will always have the opportunity to play and have their lives changed as I did.”
Pleasant Hope has lost 20 consecutive games dating back to Week 9 of the 2016 season and is just 3-66 since 2012.
“Changing the culture is the most important thing right now. Winning is a habit and so is losing. We are doing everything we can to teach these boys how to become winners in everything we do and develop a culture around ownership and hard work,” Evans said.
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Offensively, Evans wants his team to run the ball and control the clock. That will start with junior quarterback Brendle McDaniel and senior running back Mason Williams. Up front, senior Cooper Choate along with juniors Preston Carpenter and Matthew Burdette will anchor the offensive line.
When Pleasant Hope airs the ball out, junior Andrew Page and sophomore Damon Lockmiller will be the top receiving threats.
“We have a lot of guys that are tough and run the ball hard. Our running back group will be able to grind out tough yardage,” Evans said. “We will need to play faster, and more physical than any Pleasant Hope team ever has.”
Defensively, Pleasant Hope will look to use speed to blitz and fly to the ball in the open field. Linebackers Cody Mitchell and Mason Williams along with Andrew Page and Damon Lockmiller in the secondary will key the defense.
“We have a lot of skill guys with the ability to fly to the ball and aggressively fill gaps,” Evans said. “Open field tackling is tough for every high school football player to learn, and we are spending a lot of time to perfect this with our players.”
Pleasant Hope enters its second season as a part of the Southwest Conference. Evans would like to see improvement in the win column, but also off the field.
“Success is measured pretty easily on Friday nights, we either win or we don’t. Until we become a winning team, we are not successful,” Evans said. “I will write this year down as a success though if we see progress outside of the football field in grades, attendance, and character development. We are here to make these boys into men.”
Pleasant Hope opens the season on Aug. 30 at Marionville.
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