By: FH Journalism Students
Adventurous, smart, and caring; these are three words to describe Federal Hocking Local School’s Athletic Director. Stephanie Evans was born in Parkersburg, West Virginia in 1981. However, she grew up in Southeastern Ohio, where she graduated from Eastern High School.
“It’s one of those small schools where everyone knows everyone”.
Becoming an athletic director was nothing surprising for Evans. She was involved in administration and she has always been involved with sports. Evans loved going to watch games and playing in them. Her father, being an official, was a great influence. Her father made sure she would be involved with sports and it kind of just stuck with her when she got out of school.
“I’ve literally been involved in sports my entire life; my dad has been an official since before I was born so I have been going to ball games since I was born.”
Evans’ career did not start with the AD role, as she had to start somewhere.
Evans’s first job was a memorable one—picking and packing tomatoes in the fields at the age of 15.
“I will never forget the feeling of picking up a rotten tomato,” she laughed, reflecting on the challenges of that summer job. It taught her the value of hard work, a lesson she carries into her current role.
She also worked in community health care and has immense respect for the elderly.
“I worked in a nursing home in Coolville and worked there for 16 years. I worked on the weekends and summers when I was teaching during the school year.”
Evans wanted to continue being involved in sports when she began college at Ohio University but decided not to play at collegiate level. Instead, she got her masters in sports administration.
She began her educational journey as an English teacher for a short amount of time before quickly becoming the AD for Belpre for 12 years. She then moved to Trimble for only one year before changing up her career and subbing at Southern High School for one year. Finally, she began her journey at FH.
If Evans didn’t go to college to be an AD, she thinks she would be a lawyer.
“I like to argue and I think I’m pretty good at it.”
Evans played volleyball, basketball, and softball in high school. Her favorite was volleyball, but she was best at softball. Because of this, she decided to not play basketball her senior year to focus on pitching so that she would be ready for her final season of softball.
She was a setter in volleyball, a pitcher in softball, and a shooting guard in basketball.
It’s no surprise that Evans has been a sports fan her whole life.
“I’ll go to any sporting event even if it’s not my team playing.”
Not only did Evans play sports, but she also coached them. She shared some advice about coaching.
“You have to learn your team,” Evans explained.
She thinks it is important to know each kid individually and how they perform as well as best take advice. She said some kids may take something lightly, while others take it to heart, which could affect their mentality and performance. She thinks the hardest thing about coaching is learning the different strengths, weaknesses, and personalities on the team and how to coach them. She loves to see the kids she coaches reaching their full potential.
Despite her heavy workload being an athletic director, Evans still finds time to be an active member of the Ohio High School Athletic Association. OHSAA controls all Ohio high school sports and they host and run all state tournaments. In 2014, Evans was the female representative for the southeast district board. She has a three-year term on the state board where she votes on bylaw changes and things that will affect all sports in Ohio. Each month there is a board meeting in Columbus, OH.
Although her career is big, Evans’ personality is even bigger. She considers herself a ‘crazy cat lady’.
Evans likes to think her spirit animal is a tiger because of her sassy personality.
“I can be cute and cuddly, but I can also be fierce and mean.”
She has three cats: Pumpkin, Milo, and Otis. Pumpkin is a random cat that she lets sleep in her house. Milo and Otis are Evans’ actual house cats. Her kitties aren’t the only thing she loves to spoil, as she is named the best aunt in the world.
She has two nephews and one niece. Her oldest nephew, Brayden, graduated from high school in the spring of 2024, and Evans took him on a graduation trip, which landed on his 18th birthday.
“I had the most wonderful summer,” she said.
The love Evans has for travel is unreal. This past summer, she went to Dayton, Chicago, New York, Ireland, Liverpool, Boston, Hilton Head, and many other places in Ohio. Some were for work and some not.
Two of the baseball games checked off boxes for a bucket list tradition that she shares with her family. The tradition is watching the Cincinnati Reds play in as many different MLB parks as possible.
Evans is a Taylor Swift fanatic. She has seen her three times.
“One was in Columbus, Ohio with my sister and they got the worst seats, that was in 2018. The second was in Pittsburg in 2023, Pennsylvania for the Eras Tour in 2023, then there was the one in Liverpool with my Nephew Brayden this year. “I will never, ever, ever let my sister buy the tickets and pick the seats again.”
The highlight of seeing Swift in Liverpool was that it was Brayden’s best birthday that he has yet experienced.
“Braeden said that Taylor looked directly at him and he got so excited.”
This was not Evans’ first time going to London; she also went in 1999 when she graduated. She went with her French teacher and three other classmates. They went to France, England, and London. She loved it and that is why she decided to take Brayden there after his graduation as well. It is now something that she will continue to do for her niece and other nephew.
Evans’ other nephew and niece are already trying to plan where they want to go when they graduate. Hopefully, for her sake, one of them decides that they want to go to Italy. Evans would love to go to Italy because she loves the architecture and she also loves the language and thinks that both are very beautiful based on what she has seen.
“It looks beautiful based on pictures because obviously I have never been there.”
Evans will only travel to destinations that have basic amenities though.
“I don’t want to go anywhere without running water and electricity because I love my showers.”
You might think Evans would want some kids of her own seeing how fond she is of her niece and nephews, but she thinks otherwise.
“I am married to my career for now.”
Evans is perfectly content and her devotion to her career is clearly paying off.
