A passion for softball keeps Nicole Evans motivated on and off the field. She loves to win but knows that bumps along the road can sometimes make that ultimate victory more meaningful.
Recalling a game against Florida State University at the start of the season last year, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) senior says, “I just remember the feeling of ‘I only have a few more games left. I only have a few more seasons that I get to play.’ And I just remember standing in the outfield and looking out at the field after our win, and just, you know, relishing the moment and how great it was.”
Evans was always athletic, a characteristic her mother noticed and cultivated from an early age, putting her in dance, tap and gymnastics classes in their hometown of Glen Ellyn, Illinois, a suburb west of Chicago. Evans says she knew that dance and gymnastics were not quite the right fit for her temperament even then, so she switched to soccer before settling on softball.
“The funny story there is that I decided that I really didn’t like running, so we decided to try softball instead,” Evans says. After trying out for a traveling softball league in fourth grade, Evans was initially cut, but she got a call back when another player dropped out. From there, her softball career blossomed. Yet even when she reached high school, Evans played primarily for the love of the game and spending time with her teammates, not with the goal of being recruited.
