Evans looks for players to get ‘crunk’ on the court

Written by: Mike Zimmerman on October 20, 2008 at 9:45 am

Cotina Evans has been volleyball head coach for two years now. Evans main goal as her first year being a head coach is just to survive.
“I had to swim and  all I was worried about is that I had to survive,” Evans said.
Evans enjoys the game of volleyball and her favorite thing about coaching is  the game.
“I will almost break my heels because I will be so into the game when they are playing,” Evans said. “Sometimes I just want to go out there and play with them.”
According to Evans, the girls have improved from last year .
“They have improved a whole lot. They are listening and learning more,” Evans said. “They are understanding the offense and defense. They are reading the hitters and beginning to understand the game.”
Before the game Evans likes to encourage her team by telling them that they have to want to win.
“With this group I tell them I cannot play for them, they have to want it,” Evans said.  “I want them to get crunk on there own because they already look down on us so I just want us to beat them.”
However, LHS volleyball faces a disadvantage because the district teams play club ball year around.
“If you do not play club you cannot play for them,” Evans said.  “But it is not about the whole picture for us, it is a race to try to beat them by 8.”
For this year, the team leaders are Thalia Alvarado and Nikki Thomas, who encourage the team on and off the field.
“I brought Nikki up when she was a sophomore,” Evans said.  “I would tell her she would need to work on something and she would get mad but she would end up doing it and improved.”
And Alvarado has improved as well.
“With Thalia I sat her on the bench for a game and she pouted for a while,” Evans said.  “She knew what she had to work on and she did now she plays all the way around.”
So far Evans has been proud of her teams performance and there record as of right now is 6-5, excluding tournaments.
“It depends if they show if I will be proud of them,” Evans said. “If they play hard and loose then I will be okay, but if we win and play bad then I wont. I expect a lot out of them.”
She also thinks that her team has a chance at district this year since they did not win a single game last year and The Woodlands are their toughest competition.
“I do think we have a shot this year but in order for our varsity program to really compete we need our younger girls to play spring and summer league,” Evans said. “I do think our district is tough. They play year around while our girls play other sports. Where it is all about football down here when you step down there its volleyball town. Our girls are just going to have to show up and compete.”