By John Clark
ELIZABETHTOWN – East Bladen Coach Patty Evers reached another milestone in her illustrious career Friday night winning her 600th career game as a girls’ high school basketball coach.
Afterwards it didn’t take long for the names of her former coaches and a lengthy list of players to be mentioned.
“Leroy Henderson was my high school coach at Tar Heel, and he taught me a lot,” said Evers. “His daughter Dawn played for me at Tar Heel.” Other notable players in her early years at Tar Heel included the Troy sisters and her longtime coaching assistant Megan Kirby.
Coach Evers posted a record of 74-42 in her 5 years leading the Lady Panthers before moving to East Bladen when the county schools consolidated for the 2000-2001 season.
In her 23rd season at the helm of the Lady Eagles, Evers has recorded a record of 526-103. The Lady Eagles have won 13 conference championships, have reached the Eastern Regionals 10 times and claimed Eastern Championships in 2007, 2009, 2010 and 2011.
Bishop McGuiness defeated East Bladen in their first 2 state title games, and Salisbury won in 2010 and 2011.
The Kemp sisters, JaToya and Jasmine, along with C.J. Melvin and Dorothy Corbett were standouts on those early regional championship teams.
“Lacey Suggs who walked on, then won a scholarship at UNCW and Abby Ward were some of the other leaders,” noted Evers. “Janet Hatcher, Brittney Johnson – it’ a long list.
“One thing that hasn’t changed is the discipline and our players know that,” said Coach Evers. “You need to be 15 minutes early – whatever the time is – you need to be 15 minutes early.”
“That is a program over there,” said West Bladen Coach Brian McCleney after an early season game against East Bladen. “People don’t realize what Patty has built and accomplished over the last 20 years. Nobody else has done that around here.”
Sheila Langley is in her 49th year as the girls’ basketball coach at SouthWest Edgecombe and is the all-time leader in career coaching wins in the state – girls or boys – with 842. “We always e-mail each other when big things happen,” shared Evers.
Evers also mentioned her college coach, Rita Williams, as sharing a lot of basketball knowledge with her.
Coach Evers was more concerned Friday about staying tied for the top spot in the race for the Waccamaw Conference championship than about her 600th win. “We need to win these last 3 games to stay tied for first,” she said.
Among her other accomplishments: Evers was the 1st North Carolina high school coach to coach in the McDonald’s All-American Game in 2022. She also coached the North Carolina team to victory in the 2019 Carolinas Classic.
She lists the John Wooden Legacy Award for 2021 as the biggest award of her coaching career. The Wooden Award goes to one boys and girls’ basketball coach from each state.
Evers has also won several NCHSAA awards including the Doris Howard Female State Coach of the Year, the Toby Webb Outstanding Coach Award and the Homer Thompson “Eight Who Make a Difference” Award.
These coaching milestones for Coach Evers seem to be coming every 4 or 5 years. The game ball for her 500th career win was presented to her by former coaching rival Eva Patterson-Heath at Red Springs in Jan. 2019. Her 400th career win was against West Bladen in Feb. 2015.
Asked about possibly going for No. 700, Evers chuckled, “I’m tired.”
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