A former BYU–Hawaii basketball coach Dave Evans is replacing another former Seasider basketball coach Quincy Lewis as the head coach at Lone Peak High School in Highlands, Utah.
Lewis left to take a new job as an assistant coach at BYU in Provo working with Head Coach Dave Rose, who was Lewis’ coach when he was going to school at Dixie State.
Evans came to BYUH on a full-ride scholarship for basketball. He started school in 1994 and played for one year, then he was off to Alaska for the next two years to serve his LDS Church mission. He came back to Hawaii in 1997 and graduated in 2000, majoring in exercise and sport science.
While playing for the Seasiders, he scored an average of 30 points a game, was a national scoring champion and a three-time All-American.
“He was the winner of the NCAA post-graduate scholarship in 2000, and the first and only recipient to date from BYU–Hawaii,” says a Provo Daily Herald story about him. “Evans was an assistant coach at BYU–Hawaii during the 2000-01 season, then again from 2011-14. He teaches basketball camps throughout the United States and Asia.”
In high school, Evans played for Ponderosa High School in Sacramento, Calif., where he was the high school MVP and the leading scorer in the state, said the Provo Daily Herald story. “He played professionally in Norway and England and received a try-out for the Dallas Mavericks in 2001.”
Besides his degree from BYUH, Evans has a master’s degree in sports coaching, and he has done some doctoral work. Evans will be a full-time teacher at Lone Peak, teaching physical education and AP academic studies.
“We had some amazing coaches apply for this position,” said Rhonda Bromley, Lone Peak principal. “It wasn't just about who was the best coach, but also about who was the best fit for our school, community and program.
“We’re excited to have David join our LPHS staff and look forward to his leadership in continuing the legacy of an excellent basketball program. We believe that David will not only maintain the legacy he’s inheriting but will move forward and continue the progress of the program."
Lewis worked at Lone Peak for 12 years leading the Knights to seven state titles, 10 region titles and a record of 250 wins and just 45 loses, says a story about Lewis on Utah Valley 360. He worked as an assistant coach at BYUH from 1995 to 1997, went to Utah Valley State College from 1997 to 2002, then to Southern Utah from 2002 to 2003 before taking the job at Lone Peak.
Evans said he’d known about Lone Peak for years because of the connections that he and Lewis both have at BYUH, reports the Daily Herald. Some of the Lone Peak players who were recruited and played for BYUH include Ryan and Cory Chase, Bracken Funk, Brandon Reeves, Brody Berry and others, it says.
“When Quincy got the job at BYU, I saw this as a great opportunity for me,” Evans said in the Daily Herald story. “We want to continue the winning tradition he’s had; the first goal will be to keep that going.”
Evans continues, “I love up-tempo basketball. Quincy’s style and my style are very similar, since we’re from the same roots.”
With both a bachelor's degree and a master's in sports, Evans thought he was going to be a professional coach. But things changed when he bought a home here in Hawaii, fixed it and started helping others fix their homes. He started up his own construction businesses with himself and a few workers that grew in a few years to a company with 25 employees.
In 2009, he was selected as one of Pacific Business News Forty Under 40 and was named Best Contractor of the Year from Home Depot two times in a row. Those who were nominated for the award had to be less than 40 years old and must be recognized industry leaders with a consistent take-charge attitude and have impacted a number of people on the island.
In a Ke Alaka‘i article about him receiving the awards, Evans said BYUH definitely contributed to the type of person he has become. He said he learned a lot of life skills by being a student-athlete. Plus he said BYUH is such a unique campus, very diverse, and has a lot of opportunities that other universities cannot offer.
Evans came back to coaching and teaching, however, rejoining the Seasider team as an assistant coach in 2011 and teaching EXS courses.
Evans’ wife, Amy, is from San Diego and the couple has five children. He has relatives in Utah County and attended the BYU basketball camp every summer while growing up, reports the Daily Herald.
“We’re very excited to become part of the Lone Peak community,” Evans said in the Daily Herald article. “We’re very impressed with the school and the quality of the players there.”
Talking about his new job at BYU in Provo, Lewis said in the Utah Valley 360 story that Rose has built an outstanding program for the Cougars. “I’m really excited to get started and to be a part of his staff.”
Over the years, several of Lewis’ former Lone Peak players went on to play at Provo as well. Some of them include Tyler Haws, T.J. Haws, Nate Austin, Josh Sharp, Jackson Emery, Nick Emery, and Eric Mika, reports Utah Valley 360, but only “freshman Nick Emery and senior Nate Austin, assuming his medical hardship comes through, will appear on the BYU roster for the upcoming season.”
The article says “Rose and Lewis met when Rose was an assistant at Dixie State for Lewis’ freshman year and the head coach for his sophomore season, the two years Lewis played for Dixie.”
“After earning his associate’s degree at Dixie, Lewis played his final two years at Wagner College in Staten Island, New York, where he earned all-conference honors and graduated with a degree in sociology in 1993,” says the article. “In 2012, Lewis was inducted into the Wagner College Athletics Hall of Fame. Lewis also earned a master’s degree in exercise science from the University of Utah in 1995.”
Lewis said, “I’ve known Coach Rose and his wife Cheryl for a long time, having played for him at Dixie. They’re very good people and it’ll be great to work with him.”