Elaine Evans, 19, collapsed for unknown reasons Monday. She died later in the hospital.
By GREG AUMAN
Published February 3, 2004
ST. LEO - Fran Reidy's first bond with freshman basketball player Elaine Evans was that she had graduated from Gaither High in Tampa, where he had once coached. What he quickly grew to like her for, however, was her relentless smile and an upbeat presence even on a struggling team that had yet to win a game this season.
"She was one of those people who always had a smile, always seemed upbeat," the Saint Leo athletic director said Monday afternoon. "Her team was going through a difficult season, and yet you never saw that in her. She was just a great, beautiful young woman, very popular, very personable."
Reidy, Evans' teammates and friends and the small college campus were stunned Monday by news that Evans, 19, had died at East Pasco Regional Medical Center after collapsing and going into a seizure in her dormitory room around 9:30 a.m.
There was no indication of any previous health problems for Evans, who had participated in the team's most recent practice on Friday and had worked out on her own at the campus fitness center, Reidy said. Evans had woken up fine on Monday, like any other day, he said, but had encountered respiratory problems shortly before she collapsed.
"We don't know what the cause of death was," said Reidy, who broke the news of Evans' death to her teammates in a meeting on campus Monday afternoon. "The girls were greatly saddened and shocked. It's a pretty small campus, so everyone here knew her."
Evans' father, Phil, said her death was unexpected. "She was in good shape. She seemed to be fine," he said. Evans visited her family in Tampa for dinner Sunday and returned to campus, planning to work out and study. He said she was enjoying her freshman season at Saint Leo, looking forward to her next game with the same spirit he saw every time she played.
"Basketball - and athletics - was a big part of her life, but never the only thing," Phil Evans said Monday night. "It was an important thing, and she was always a person who would take up with an underdog. When someone was down, she was the one to encourage her, and when someone was struggling, she was strong for them."
The team gathered Monday night "for a meal and to be together," Reidy said, at the home of coach Kerri Reaves, who could not be reached for comment. Father Michael Cooper, a priest at Saint Leo, met with her grieving teammates as well.
Evans, who turned 19 last month, graduated from Gaither last summer as the school's all-time leading scorer, talented enough to be honored with the Dottie McGahagin Award, given to Hillsborough County's top girls basketball player. No girls player in Gaither history had scored 1,000 points in her career, but Evans left with 1,535.
That success continued at Saint Leo, where the 6-foot-1 forward stepped on campus as the tallest player on the team and quickly moved into the starting lineup. She averaged 5.6 points and 5.6 rebounds a game. The team is winless in 19 games, but it came closest to victory in its most recent game, losing 61-59 in overtime at Lynn University last week.
The team's next scheduled game was Wednesday, at home against Florida Southern College, but that game has been postponed indefinitely.
"She was just a quality person," her father said. "Always a positive influence, strong and positive, even in difficult times. She touched a lot of lives, had a ton of friends."
