Leanne Evans - Evans right in her league
Issue: Volume 28 Number 4
On the desk of her office in Coles Myers’ headquarters in Melbourne, softball coach Leanne Evans has a photograph of a group of beaming girls, proudly sporting bronze medals from the 2003 Under-19 World Softball Championships at Nanjing, China.
It is, says Evans, one of her fondest memories and proudest moments in the sport in which she has been involved since her teens.
Now 43, Evans has spent the past five years as head coach of the Australian Under-19 women’s team. Long before that, she was a player, first in the Under-19 competition in Victoria, representing Australia at the 1981 Youth World Series in Canada, then on to open competition, captaining the Victorian side from 1988 to 1992 and representing Australia at the senior World Championships in 1986.
Evans believes that her own progression through the junior ranks puts her in a prime position to work with juniors. ‘I’ve travelled their road, if you like’, she says. But she admits it’s not all easy going. Dealing with teenage girls presents its own unique issues. Also, because the team members do not physically come together very often, Evans faces the challenge of moulding the group and breaking down state and territory boundaries.
‘The players only come together a couple of times a year in camps. They all come from different states, working with different coaches who have different ideas. I have to help them get over that state-oriented mindset. I have a rule that none of the girls can wear state gear at any time during the camps. It’s part of the philosophy of breaking down those barriers.’
Evans must be doing something right. Along with the 2003 World Championship Medal came a nomination for Australian Softball Coach of the Year in 2004. She was then re-appointed as head coach to shape the team for the 2007 Under-19 World Championships.
When she starts a world championship campaign, Evans says that ‘not a lot happens in the first year. Basically we’re still trying to identify the players’.
As time goes on, Evans begins to shape the team. ‘I see my job as not only putting in good team performances, but preparing the players to become senior Australian players … to have them understand what’s required of them at senior level. That means getting the best out of them. They have to understand what’s expected of them off and on the field.
‘My approach is holistic. They need to be well-rounded and understand that being competitive is good, but winning is not everything. They are role models for Australia and for the sport of softball.’
Evans says that much of that philosophy was instilled in her by her own club coach in Victoria, Jill Lindsay. ‘Jill was someone who was very strict with athletes and helped them understand that they had an image to uphold, and to be moral and ethical in everything they did. One of the other good things I learnt from Jill was the concept of creating your own culture and really communicating with athletes.
‘I’ve tried to take this on board and to be personable and approachable, but at the same time I am strict. I think that’s the way to get the best out of athletes at this age.
‘I recently read a book by [hockey coach] Ric Charlesworth and something he wrote really struck a chord with me — that you must be honest and consistent to have players respect and trust you as a coach. I’d like to think that’s how I treat my players and how I behave.
‘I don’t believe in brutal honesty as I see this can be soul destroying and I have an obligation to keep athletes in the sport, even if they aren’t going to make it to the elite level. I see myself more as their mentor.
‘I want the athletes to reach their full potential. If that means they go on and play for Australia, fantastic. If that means they have great club careers or go on and play state and never play for Australia, well that’s great too. The important thing is that they give their all and reach their full potential. Then they can walk away from the game satisfied with what they got out of it.’
Throughout her career, Evans has often been called on to coach. ‘Like most players, you tend to dabble in coaching as you play.’ But it was Lindsay who encouraged Evans to more formally take up a coaching role.
‘Jill was my coach at both club level with the Rebels and at national league level with the Melbourne Majestics, and she identified me as someone who would be in a position to take over from her. She had coached for many years and with a new era of athletes coming through, she wanted to hand over the reins. I could have played another year, but the opportunity to coach at national league level straight away was too good to pass up. I decided to give away playing too because I truly believe that you can’t coach and play at that level.’
She does however manage two coaching jobs. Evans was appointed to the Under-19 head coach position in 2000 after good performances as coach of the Majestics and the Victorian open women’s team. She resigned from the Victorian position, given clashes with event rosters, but one day would like to return to the role to ‘help Victoria once again become the leading softball state in the country’. Meanwhile, she continues to coach a Victorian club side, the Eastern Raiders, based at Waverley.
It may seem like a punishing schedule, but Evans wouldn’t have it any other way.
‘The national team doesn’t have to be trained on a weekly basis. I have to monitor each player’s progress with their state and territory coaches but I’m not hands-on with the athletes’, she says. ‘I know a lot of elite coaches tend to walk away from club coaching the higher up the ladder they go, but I see that grassroots involvement as really important.’
Evans also feels that for her, there are greater rewards in coaching than as a player. ‘With playing, even though you’re part of a team, it is about individual achievement, but with coaching you get a real sense of satisfaction knowing that you’re ultimately responsible for everything to do with the program.’
She also says you never stop learning as a coach and says she learned much from former Australian head coach Simon Roskvist who was appointed to the position shortly after her own appointment as Under-19 head coach.
Roskvist took the women’s open team to fifth at the 2002 Women’s World Championship and to the team’s best ever Olympic result with silver at the Athens Olympics. He left his position in January this year and the position was advertised.
Evans says she considered the job, but having to give up her 11-year career as an accountant and move interstate weighed heavily in her ultimate decision.
‘I play a pretty tough balancing act between my full-time work and coaching’, Evans says. ‘I’ve had to take a lot of time off over the years and while I’ve at times had to take leave without pay, my employer has never denied me leave.
‘Ultimately, I’m single and I support myself and think I have the best of both worlds with my career and coaching.
‘Softball is not in the 2012 Olympics and who knows, the softball head coach position may go in a different direction. Perhaps it may become a part-time position. If that was to happen, I’d definitely be interested.’
Meanwhile, Evans says she can’t see her future without some kind of involvement in the sport.
‘I love it. Once you’re involved in a team sport it’s hard to walk away. Those who do, I know, miss the camaraderie. I couldn’t imagine my life without it.’
