Athlete of the Week: Woodside’s Evan Usher

Woodside sophomore Evan Usher has been full of surprises this season.

Case in point, the Wildcats’ second play from scrimmage last Friday in a critical 41-32 victory over El Camino at Bradley Field. The sophomore running back exploded for a 69-yard gallop off the left side, angling a sweep route following early blocks from his pulling lineman and fullback, before taking off toward the west end zone like a bolt of lightning.

To paraphrase a great movie hero, sometimes Usher the rusher manages to surprise even himself.

“I honestly didn’t see it open up entirely,” Usher said. “I thought I was going to get tackled. … It’s designed to be an outside sweep, but I cut in and made it work. I kind of surprised myself.”

In just the fourth varsity game of his career, Usher went on to record 27 carries for 253 yards and three touchdowns. It was a monumental performance in a battle for outright possession of first place in the Peninsula Athletic League Lake Division. The career-best outing for Usher also makes him the Daily Journal Athlete of the Week.

It was a strange week for Woodside as head coach Justin Andrews served a one-game suspension after being ejected the previous week against South City. For the El Camino matchup, Andrews was relegated to watching a webcast of the game from his on-campus office.

Two plays in, however, thanks to Usher’s big touchdown run, Andrews settled into the game quite nicely.

“Just for me, being detached from the field, I was able to breathe a big sigh of relief,” Andrews said. “And, of course, he was able to just produce and produce and produce.”

With Andrews out of action, Woodside had to exercise a coaching carousel, with defensive coordinator Josh Bowie taking over as interim head coach. Junior-varsity defensive coordinator James Carrig ran the varsity defense Friday. Andrews, the Wildcats’ line coach, was spelled by JV line coach Frank Smith. Also, wide receiver/defensive backs coach Jesse Richardson was out of town, forcing first-year assistant Tre McBride to take charge of the department.

With so many variables, Woodside turned to its sophomore running back Usher, who has swiftly established himself as the focal point of the offense.

“It definitely meant that his workload was going to increase because a lot of our bread-and-butter plays kind of run through our tailback,” Andrews said. “And when in doubt, it was: ‘Get the ball to Usher.’ … Obviously he rose to the call.”

Usher is in just his second year of organized tackle football, and his first year with the varsity ’Cats. To make his ascent even more unlikely, he missed the first two games of the year while recovering from a hip fracture suffered in the weight room over the summer.

With his confidence already a work in progress — prior to a growth spurt during his final year of middle school, he was a scrawny 5-9 and had only ever played flag football — Usher had a lot to prove, especially to himself, when he arrived at Woodside.

“I didn’t think I had the build for it, but I knew I wanted to play it,” Usher said. “And then when I got to high school, it just sort of felt kind of natural.”

Andrews took quick notice of Usher last season, and considered promoting him to the varsity team as a freshman.

“Since he was a ninth grader, I had to think long and hard if we should bring him up,” Andrews said. “But I figured at the time … let him get his footing and kind of run wild in JV, which he did. And then all throughout the offseason, obviously he was in the weight room, he was just different as a sophomore.”

Usher set foot on the field for his first varsity game Sept. 16 against Mills and was still a bit queasy about whether or not he belonged. He only had two weeks of full-fledged practice prior to his debut, but it didn’t take long for him to hit the comfort zone. His big moment? An 82-yard touchdown run. Since then, the confidence hasn’t waned.

“Oh yeah,” Usher said. “After that first 82-yard run in that first game back, I was like: ‘OK, I’m really liking this. And I think I’m back.”

Usher finished the 41-7 win over Mills with three carries for 92 yards. The next week, in a 47-14 win over Monta Vista, he set a new career-high with 11 carries for 104 yards. Another career-best followed in a 34-13 win over South City, with 27 carries for 177 yards. And, of course, he went soaring past that total for another career-high against El Camino.

The sophomore sensation is enjoying an unprecedented performance, at least in terms of Andrews’s nine years at the varsity helm. Sure, Andrews has had other breakout sophs, including two-way lineman Christian Ochoa, a 2019 graduate of Woodside, as well as linebacker Sione Halaapiapi, a 2017 grad.

“But not at the skill position like this,” Andrews said.

It doesn’t hurt Usher has an older brother blocking for him — senior Nathan Usher is a two-way senior lineman, who plays tackle both sides of the ball. But whatever apprehensions the younger Usher might have had once upon a time, he is now feeling mighty comfortable in the backfield for the first-place Wildcats.

“This year it’s been completely different,” Usher said. “I’m not feeling intimidated. I’m feeling perfectly confident in my skills.”