Junior Brittany Evans, left, and 2006 Far East champion Nadine Mulvany pose together across from Thew Gym on Yokosuka Naval Base on Monday before joining the rest of the Nile C. Kinnick Red Devils cross country team for a practice run. After helping the Kinnick volleyball team to its best record in 11 years last season, Evans decided to follow her heart and joined the cross country team. (Tim Wightman/S&S)
YOKOSUKA NAVAL BASE, Japan — Decisions, decisions. What can an athlete do when two of her favorite sports take place during the same season?
Junior Brittany Evans faced such a problem from the minute she stepped into Nile C. Kinnick High School as a freshman two years ago.
She’d played volleyball and run cross country in different seasons at McCool Elementary and Middle School on Guam, but those sports take place in the fall at the high school level.
For two seasons, she set for the Red Devils volleyball team, helping Kinnick to its best regular-season record in 11 years a season ago.
But the siren song of cross country courses kept beckoning Evans, partly because she loves running, and partly because she wanted to follow in the footsteps of her older brother, Matt, the 2005 Far East cross country boys champion.
So far, Evans has posted one second-place, one third and four total top-10 finishes behind teammate and 2006 Far East champion Nadine Mulvany. Kinnick’s cross country team is now poised to achieve its best Far East finish ever.
The volleyball team isn’t doing too shabbily, either. With Marina Nakayama stepping into Evans’ setting shoes, the Red Devils broke out of the gate 13-0, the team’s best start ever.
"It’s really exciting to see our school improving so much," said Mulvany, who’s won three of four races this season after going winless in 2007.
Evans might seem to be at the center of the improvement, providing competition and friendship to Mulvany and an inspiration to the boys runners, while opening the door for Nakayama to shine on the court.
Mulvany, Evans said, didn’t twist her arm to get her to run. "She almost broke it," Evans joked. "But it’s fun. I like it."
Still, she found it hard to break the news to her coach, Al Garrido, that she was leaving the court. "I gave it a lot of thought, for about a month," Evans said. "I felt conflicted. I had to choose."
Evans had been an integral part of a 2007 Kinnick volleyball team that went 14-8, its best Kanto Plain finish since 1996. But she wanted to run "for myself, the runner in me," she said. "I thought it was time."
The thought of emulating her brother as a Far East gold medalist played "not a huge part" in her decision, "but I thought about it. We were really close. We used to do everything together," Evans said.
Having not run since 2005, Evans said she worried about how she’d do.
"But I’m working hard, trying my best and not doing too badly," she said of her second-place finish Sept. 13 at Nagasaki and third on Sept. 27 at Misawa in two DODDS-Japan meets. Her season best is 21 minutes, 50 seconds on a 3.1-mile course.
Her coach, Philip Bailey, sees a potential top-10 Far East runner in Evans, saying it makes him wish she had gone out for cross country as a freshman. "She would have been stronger, having that background behind her. [But she is] definitely making up for lost time," Bailey said.
"She has a lot of desire to run and she’s a competitor."
Her natural enthusiasm — Mulvany describes her as "energetic and bouncy" — has rubbed off and had a positive effect on the team.
"She always has a positive attitude and it cheers everybody," Mulvany said. "She’s my best friend on and off the course."
Kinnick’s boys seem to have picked up on that enthusiasm. The Red Devils placed five boys in the top 10 at Misawa and six at Nagasaki.
"They have one goal in mind, to do the best they can at Far East," Bailey said of his boys’ hope of beating perennial powers Kadena and Seoul American. Mulvany and Evans, meanwhile, "definitely have their eyes, Nadine on winning and Brittany on the top 20, perhaps top 10."
Does any part of Evans miss volleyball?
"As much as I miss my team, I’m glad I switched to cross country," Evans said. "I do miss the girls and I still wish them the best of luck, and it turns out they’re doing pretty well."
Nakayama has ably manned the setter’s spot, averaging more than 20 assists per match.
"I knew we would be good; it was just a matter of putting it together," Garrido said. He describes Nakayama as "the glue" that’s helped make hitting teammates Camille Kawamoto and Mary Niemeyer "look better and their job easier."
So is it possible? Might Kinnick’s boys cross country runners win their second Far East team title in four years? Might Mulvany — or Evans, for that matter — capture the girls race? And could Kinnick win its school-first Class AA Volleyball Tournament title?
"I would be so happy to see that," Mulvany said.
"Wow," Garrido mused. "You couldn’t write that in a Hollywood script."