2023 Daily Chronicle Girls Basketball Player of the Year

After sitting out three games, Evyn Carrier had had enough.

The Sycamore girls basketball team had not struggled in her absence. In fact, the Spartans won all three games the 6-foot-4 senior center missed because of an ankle injury.

With all three games being home games, Carrier said she missed the atmosphere of playing in front of the Sycamore faithful in her final year at the school.

“Home games, I don’t think I’ll be able to ever get that feeling I had going into those games ever again. Every minute of it I enjoyed and it went by too fast.”

—  Evyn Carrier

“I wasn’t super worried, but I knew if I wanted to try and be near 100% by postseason, I needed to take those games off, which really stinks,” Carrier said. “Especially because those were three home games I missed. I thought it would make a difference, but it really didn’t for my ankle. But it was cool to see the smiling faces of girls getting in the game more. Honestly, I knew it was my senior season, and I’m super competitive, and it came to a point where no matter how long I sat out, my ankle wasn’t going to get any better. I decided I’d just take one for the team, try to tough it out and help my team get to a decent spot in the playoffs.”

Sycamore finished 21-13 and won a regional for the third time in a row, in large part because of Carrier, who averaged 16.8 points, 9.7 rebounds and two blocks per game. For her accomplishments, she has been named the 2023 Daily Chronicle Girls Basketball Player of the Year.

The Spartans started the season 1-7, including a loss to Kaneland – their first conference loss since 2018. But they ended up winning the Class 3A Sycamore Regional by knocking off Kaneland in a game Carrier scored 27 points.

Sycamore won a regional every year of Carrier’s four-year varsity career, except for the 2021 season in which there was no postseason because of COVID-19 restrictions. The Spartans were 17-2 that season.

“We definitely started out a little shaky,” Carrier said. “As we came together as a team, worked hard at practice and were all on the same page of what our goal was, we really worked our way back up. The beginning of the season really helped us for the end of the season. We didn’t get the outcome we wanted but we were definitely a totally different team at the end of the season, which is what you want.”

In the middle of the season, Carrier suffered a high ankle sprain that forced her to sit out those three games. She also sat out the regional opener against Freeport, which the Spartans won 58-27. Coach Adam Wickness said her name was in the book even though she was not dressed. In case something went wrong, he could put her in the game at halftime.

She said doctors cleared her to play, as she was not in danger of causing more damage to the ankle. It was about tolerating the pain.

Pretty quickly she decided to play through the pain and not miss any more of her senior season.

“She’s a gamer,” Wickness said. “She loves the big moments. I think if you look back over the four years she was on varsity, she had some of her biggest games in the biggest moments for our program. This being her senior year, I knew they’d pretty much have to tell her that she was going to really, really damage her ankle if she keeps playing for her to not play. I think it meant a lot to her personally seeing it all the way through.”

Carrier said she’s hoping the ankle heals by the time she leaves in June to continue her career at Western Michigan.

She said she chose the Broncos based on the way the staff, led by head coach Shane Clipfell, made her feel welcome.

“Those early trips, I was in awe, and all I was really noticing was the different scenery or the colors or this or that,” Carrier said. “When I went back to the school the second or third time, that kind of showed me the pros and cons of each school. I just had a gut feeling with Western, the way they made their relationship with me, it was much deeper than basketball.”

Wickness said Carrier was an ambassador for the Sycamore program, which reached a supersectional for the first time in 2022.

“It’s so much more than the game of basketball,” Carrier said. “All the friendships, all the relationships I’ve had with players and coaches. Home games, I don’t think I’ll be able to ever get that feeling I had going into those games ever again. Every minute of it I enjoyed and it went by too fast.”