You can almost hear Monty Hall’s voice saying, “Jay, show them what’s behind door number two!”
It was sort of like that for Evan Shepard when the COVID pandemic enveloped the country, specifically his home in Marengo, Illinois, which is located just northeast of Chicago. The town, his school, the region, all went into lockdown. With that door closed it was time to make the Big Deal of the Day.
Initially, with his school locked up, Evan moved to Fremont, Nebraska, moving in with this brother, who was attending Midland University, playing some football. Now living in an area that was not as impacted by the pandemic, Evan spent his team working out, do what he could to stay active and make himself a better athlete.
When the 2020-21 school term was about to commence Evan went back to his Illinois home, only to find school still in lockdown. Decision - hard decision - time for Evan and his family.
“I am a social person, and I needed the social aspect in my life, and that wasn’t going to happen back there,” he says. “I also wouldn’t have sports to anchor me, so our family decided to have me move back here.”
Here is actually there, the way it turns out. His brother still lived in Fremont, along with some cousins, and his grandparents lived in Lincoln so instead of returning to Fremont Evan and his family chose Ashland as a nice middle ground. Evan and his mom.
“My dad has made a tremendous sacrifice through all this, staying back in (Illinois). He has a great job as an assistant superintendent so he is back there, and comes out here as often as he can,” explains Evan, bringing a dose of the real world to our game of high school football.
Evan and his mother moved to Ashland right after the start of the 2020-21 school term, after summer football workouts and even after fall camp. Ashland-Greenwood head coach Ryan Thompson was told there’s a new kid in school, he wants to play football.
And that’s where his soon-to-be teammates came into the picture.
“Evan moved back to Nebraska last year around Week 1 of the (2020) season. We didn’t know much about him but after one practice we knew that we had a pretty special player on our hands,” remembers Coach Thompson. “We went through the state (NSAA) guidelines, and the ones of our own team, and it came to where he could play in the next game if that was OK with our varsity players.
“Let’s just say that the vote was unanimous and he has been helping our team succeed ever since Week 4 of last season.”
That helpfulness goes both ways. Here’s a kid who has moved from states away into a town where he knows nobody. That could go a couple of ways but in Evan’s case it worked out pretty close to great, thanks to some good old Nebraska hospitality.
“I was a little nervous, not really knowing what Ashland would be like. I had barely got here and (senior classmate) Cale Jacobsen had asked me to come in early and shoot some hoops before school. That really broke the ice and the kids in school have been great to me ever since.”
Once he settled in it was apparent Evan had a particular set of skills that would be very beneficial to Ashland-Greenwood football. Beyond being your basic solid contributor as both a wide receiver and safety on defense, Evan is also an accomplished place kicker, the kind of thing that can make a big difference in big games, like the ones the Bluejays are playing these days.
Make that the unbeaten Bluejays. Having won their first ten games of the season they are the No. 1 seed in the Class C-1 playoff bracket, fresh from a 23-12 win over last year’s state runner-up Adams Central. Next up is last year’s C-1 state champion Pierce, with kickoff tonight at Pierce set for 7 p.m.
And about Fremont, and Midland, and Nebraska stuff like that, it isn’t as out of left field as a person might think. Evan was actually born in Lincoln and lived in Springfield until age five - “Platteview was an option for my new high school.” He enjoys hunting and fishing with his brother and dad and is some sort of superstar at the game of corn hole, or that’s what I heard. He’s an outstanding student with a 3.7 GPA and membership in the National Honor Society.
On top of all that just last week he gave his verbal commitment to play college football at Midland and will have his signing ceremony at AGHS as soon as football season settles down. He plans to study agribusiness with a minor in accounting.
“Collectively we have put together a good season so far, making the most of the teaching our coaches have poured into us,” says Evan. “Ratings and seeding don’t really matter to me, or to my team, but I do know this is a stacked team with lots of athletes and great coaching. Our work ethic and 100 percent bond has made us a good team, and it has been fun to play football in an atmosphere like this.”
