COVINGTON — Evan Morgan has landed a dream job.
Not only has the 2009 Crawfordsville graduate landed his first head coaching gig, but he’s taking over a winning program in Covington boys’ basketball.
“It’s exciting,” Morgan said. “I’m looking forward to it. Not too many first-year coaches get the opportunity to have what I have, which is a pretty good program and a lot of good kids coming back. It’s definitely something I’ve dreamed of and been a goal of mine. As a kid I always knew I wanted to be a coach.”
As a program Covington has won 27 IHSAA Sectional titles, including five in a row from 2016-2020. Morgan takes over the Trojan program from Shaun Busick, who guided Covington for just one season to an 11-7 record and failed to win a sectional title for the first time since 2015.
“I know the expectation is a sectional and more and that’s my expectation as well,” Morgan added. “And it’s almost where sectionals are part of our goal, but it’s not part of our end goal and not to be satisfied with just winning sectionals. I think there’s obviously pressure there, but to me I enjoy that pressure, but I think in my head and my view, I see a lot more pressure on myself, because I don’t want to settle just for a sectional win.”
Morgan is ready for the pressure that comes with leading a program with high expectations. He started his coaching journey as a middle school coach and freshman assistant in Bloomington while in college at Indiana University. He made stops as an assistant at both Switzerland County and Madison, before moving back to Crawfordsville and coaching 7th-grade at the middle school. He has spent the last four years as the junior-varsity coach at Seeger.
“I’ve been around enough different types of head coaches to make my own little philosophy in my head and bring different aspects of things that have been successful for other coaches as well,” he said. “I think I’ve got enough grasp of basketball in the state of Indiana from 1A to 4A so I can kind of combine all that to figure out what’s going to work best for us.”
Morgan also expects his knowledge of the Wabash River Conference and the up and coming stars of the league to go a long way as he starts his journey at Covington.
As November approaches — Morgan will soon join a special group as head Indiana high school basketball coaches — a title he’s worked long and hard for.
“A lifelong goal of mine and it’s nothing but exciting to me,” he said. “I’ve lived and breathed basketball for a long time and I have a wife that supports that so it’s kind of her goal too. And we are excited to be in a community that is close to where I grew up. I know enough people now being around Seeger for the last four years and I think the support is great and I know they’re going to be a great fanbase.”
