Kevin Everly, a health teacher at Westfield High School, was a multi-sport athlete during his adolescence. Everly attended Dayton High School in Springfield, New Jersey, and played football, basketball, baseball and soccer. He mainly focused on basketball and baseball during the last two years of his high school career. Everly spent his time off from school in the summer grinding basketball with a little bit of baseball practice every now and then.
Even though Everly attended high school school in Springfield, he would often find himself working on his game in Westfield. He would work out and practice with a friend at the Westfield YMCA. Everly went to local parks for pickup games throughout the summer, and would find himself at Tamaques Park constantly. “Tamaques park on Sunday morning were great runs,” said Everly. “I enjoyed the constant action of basketball and that’s what led me to decide what I wanted to do in college.”
Everly was recruited by attending spotlight camps such as 5 Star and the Eastern Invitational.
He graduated from Dayton High School in 1987. “I often worked on my shooting, and that was what attracted teams to me,” said Everly. “Unfortunately the year I graduated high school, the three-point line came to be.”
Everly decided East Stroudsburg University was the right fit for him because of the proximity to home, the coach, the good players in the program and the opportunity to play right away. He ended up starting as a freshman.
“Playing basketball in college was a big commitment,” said Everly. “[A commitment] I enjoyed.” Everly described that his day started at 6 a.m. and involved workouts and games of pickup basketball. He also had to balance his athletic career with his school work as study hall occurred late at night.
While at ESU, he originally planned on majoring in hospitality, but ended up majoring in physical education and health.
Everly’s team was very successful in his four years at ESU. In his sophomore year, ESU won its conference championship and went to the Division II Tournament.
Once he was done with college, Everly was offered a job at WHS. He coached the JV basketball team for 2 years before he took over the role as head coach. He also found an interest in volleyball, as he coached the JV volleyball team with Ms. Torok for 6 years.
When asked about what his biggest takeaways have been from his basketball experience, Everly said, “You have to make sacrifices in life, and you are in full control of your own work ethic.” He also added, “Enjoy the ride and don’t worry so much about the destination.”
