Davies excited to continue football career for Trine Thunder

Monday, May 27, 2019
Evan Davies of North Putnam (front, center) signed to play football for Division III Trine University in northeastern Indiana. Witnessing the signing were his parents (Amy and Chris), along with (back, from left) NP athletic director Roger Busch and NP head coach Sam Carnes
Banner Graphic/Joey Bennett

BAINBRIDGE – Evan Davies wanted to continue his football career after high school, and he also wanted to study engineering.

The recent North Putnam graduate, who quarterbacked the Cougars to the sectional championship game last fall, filled both desires when he signed with Trine University earlier this year.

Trine went 7-0 last fall to win the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association title and finished 10-0 overall in the regular season, before losing in the first round of the NCAA Division III playoffs to St. Norbert.

Davies, a 6-3, 180-pounder, completed 97 of 216 passes last year for 1,328 yards and 10 touchdowns. His longest completion was 87 yards.

The speedy Davies also proved to be a force carrying the ball, rushing 86 times for 585 yards and eight more touchdowns. He had a longest carry of 70 yards, and had one game with more than 100 yards.

The Cougars went 6-3 in the regular season, losing only to Class 4A Northview and Class 3A squads Greencastle and Sullivan, before falling to eventual Class 2A state champion Western Boone in the sectional finals.

Cougar coach Sam Carnes sees a bright future for Davies on the collegiate gridiron.

“Evan has worked hard in the classroom and on the field in order to get to Trine, I can't imagine that changing once he gets there,” Carnes said. “He will become an important part of the Thunder program, just as he did at North Putnam. I'm excited for Evan and look forward to watching his growth as a person continue.”

Davies will enjoy the football aspect of his college experience, but admits that factor wasn’t his biggest consideration.

“I chose Trine mainly for the academic purposes,” Davies said. “Everybody there was really great and helpful. All of the professors gave me their business cards and told me to call them any time with any problems we might have.

“They said they really wanted me there.”

Davies added that the straight-forward approach the professors utilized was also appealing.

“We met with a professor who showed me all of the facilities, and that was really cool,” he said. “It’s not always that way. On other visits, they didn’t do that, and I decided then that I really liked it there because of how open and upfront they were about everything.”

Davies will study mechanical engineering at the school, which has 2,204 students and was known as Tri-State University until a name change in 2009.

Davies will also enjoy the football aspect of his collegiate experience.

He is aware that many players are recruited to play different positions than they did in high school to take best advantage of their skills, but Davies was recruited as a quarterback. He is willing to play any position to make his way onto the field.

“They scouted me as a quarterback, but I could go just about anywhere,” he said. “It doesn’t matter to me all that much. I played receiver in high school before switching to quarterback, so I could do that if they need me to.”

Davies was pleased with how his high school career wound up, despite the title game defeat.

“It was really awesome to get us back to the sectional championship game,” he said. “We made it when I was a freshman, but I didn’t really understand what was going on at the time. Then doing it as a senior was a lot more gratifying.

“Hopefully last year set a precedent for the future and all the kids to come,” Davies added. “So they could see this is how you have to do it and get things done and get to where you want to be.”

Davies played both basketball and baseball following the end of football, and will be starting his workout regimen for Trine now that all of his high school obligations are over.

“I will be getting a workout packet from the coaches, and coach Carnes said I could come and work out with them,” he said. “I want to be in the best shape I could be going up there.”

Davies likes the fact that Trine is a consistent winner, with five straight winning seasons and four in a row under current coach Troy Abbs – including two straight MIAA titles.

“They haven’t lost a home game for two or three years,” he said. “It’s a very successful program.”

One change Davies and most other players going to the next level have to make is adjusting to daytime games, rather than the “Friday Night Lights” experience of high school.

“That will definitely be different with mostly 1 p.m. games,” he said.

Trine opens its season on Sept. 5 at Manchester with a Thursday night game.