WEST COLUMBIA, SC – Airport High School’s football field now carries the name of one of its best-known coaches.
It’s now Les Evans Field, in honor of Airport’s longtime athletic director and football coach. The naming of the field for Evans, who passed away in 2021, was approved by the Lexington Two Board of Trustees at its August monthly meeting.
Evans was a Midlands area high school football coach for 35 years, 25 of those at Airport. Evans’ Eagles teams made the playoffs 18 of his 25 years and were 4A Upper State Champions in 1981. As a football coach, he amassed 175 wins on the field, and teams coached by Evans won six Region Championships.
As a coach at Evans received a number of individual accolades, among them Region 3-AAAA Coach of the Year seven times, Columbia Touchdown Club Coach of the Year two times, Columbia Record Coach of the Year (1981), WIS Radio Coach of the Year (1983), and received a Distinguished Coach Award from the South Carolina Football Coaches Association (2011). He was selected as a Shrine Bowl assistant coach (1979) and head coach (1992), a North-South Game head coach (1994), and an NFL and Carolina Panthers Coach of the Week (1999). He was inducted into the Airport High School Athletic Hall of Fame and the South Carolina Athletic Coaches Association Hall of Fame, both in 2004. A South Carolina native, Evans attended the University of South Carolina, where he played baseball. Two of his grandsons attended Airport and played baseball there before going on to play in college.
Evans' contributions impacted the lives of hundreds of student athletes, with many going on to play beyond high school, among them Airport’s Duce Staley, who played and coached in the NFL.
Evans retired in 2000 from football.