SAN ANTONIO — Early in the season I was working at Gustafson Stadium covering one of the Friday night Northside ISD high school football games, and I noticed one young man with the John Jay Mustangs who appeared to have some challenges he was fighting through.
I wasn’t entirely sure, so I asked one of the assistant coaches right after the pregame stretch and before warmup drills got underway. He told me, yes, the player dealt with some daily issues. He then suggested I reach out to Head Coach Gary Gutierrez, which I did the following day. Evan Resetar deals with some ‘life’ stuff that most of us don’t. He’s autistic, although too social to be officially on the spectrum, he struggles with some physical movements and with voicing his thoughts.
I wanted to get to know Evan, and really understand why he wanted to be part of the team given the setbacks he works to overcome each and every day of his life. I could already tell by watching him on the field that #81 was as enthusiastic as anyone on the field that night, before and during the game.
So that was my question to Evan. How much does he love John Jay football? His answer was simple, but appropriately effective. "A lot," he said. I then asked him why? And again, simple but effective. "The brotherhood."
We sat down with Evan, his father, his head coach and some of his teammates to learn more about the team’s favorite player.
"He’s wonderful," said wide receiver Micah Roberts. "It brings such a joy to the team, and to my heart. He’s amazing."
Evan is not treated any differently by anyone on the team, and just wants to be one of the guys. And what struck me is his passion for his team. It is unwavering! After he told me how much he loves the team he told me what side of the ball likes to play better.
"Defense," he said without hesitating. He even shook his head smiling when I asked him if he’d ever registered a sack. We took that as a yes.
"They’ve taken him in as one of their own and that’s invaluable," said Evan’s dad, John. "I would never know how to repay anything like that."
Mustangs Head Coach Gary Gutierrez told us that Evan has lots of ‘sweat equity’ with his teammates.
"He busts his butt," he said. "He has high expectations of himself. You wanna say an inspiration to our kids, but he’s a standard setter."
And it was easy to see when visiting with his teammates just how inspired they are with Evan’s every day efforts.
"One of our mottos here is ‘FAMILY (Forget About Me I Love You)," said junior Jaden Simmons. "Evan is the embodiment of that."
Evan might never play in any game that's tied in the fourth quarter, but his coaches have found moments to get Evan into games, and to help feel that feeling, and they’ve done that just as they would with any player.
"We’ve never called a timeout to tell the other coach that, hey, we’re gonna put Evan in the game," said Gutierrez. "You know his dad told you he’s got seven or eight carries, we didn’t blink an eye."
The amazing thing about Evan, or any person with autism, is that they wakeup everyday with challenges, and he, and they, overcome those challenges every single day.
"That’s impressive," John said. "He’s an inspiration to me."
Coach Gutierrez summed it up best with Evan’s presence during anything John Jay Football. "His body language and his excitement is felt and it is worth a thousand words," he said. "He doesn’t have to say anything, and I think that is something special because not everybody has that. He’s got it."
"That’s one of the things that I appreciate about him is that he’s the ultimate teammate," said John. He picks up his brothers when they are down. He high fives them when things are going great."
There’s no doubt, even from the sideline that Evan is 100% in the game. That was easy to see. His teammates see it, too.
"When you love the game and you work towards that you can accomplish anything," said Jaden. "That’s really powerful."
I told Evan that he was an inspiration and asked if he knew that.
"Yes," he said.
John Jay opens their post season playoff run Saturday afternoon in Laredo against the Alexander Bulldogs.