When Evanston junior Trey Dawkins tells his twin brother Drew that he has his back, he means it.
Trey Dawkins, who is 6-foot-1 and 250 pounds, is the Wildkits’ starting left tackle and is tasked with, among other things, protecting the blind side of his quarterback, who just so happens to be Drew Dawkins, a 5-8, 155-pound righty.
Trey, the elder Dawkins by two minutes, said it’s not hard to get motivated to block when you’re protecting your own flesh and blood.
“Yeah that really does help,” said Trey Dawkins, whom coaches praise regularly for his stellar blocking technique. “I have to compete and play hard and keep him safe, so he can play to his full ability. When he can do that, we are a good team.”
The Wildkits (3-0) will have to be at the top of their game this week as Barrington (3-0) comes to town on Friday, Sept. 16, on the heels of an attention-getting 41-27 win over Maine South in Week 3.
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Evanston rallied from a one-touchdown halftime deficit to win 24-17 at Conant in Week 3. The winning score came early in the fourth quarter when Drew Dawkins threw a 10-yard touchdown pass to senior Andrew Baumann.
After starting one varsity game as a sophomore last season, Drew Dawkins has been efficient throwing the ball and crafty when running with it in 2016, according to Evanston coach Mike Burzawa.
Drew Dawkins went 7-for-12 with a touchdown against Conant and was 7-for-10 with two touchdown passes in the opener against Hubbard. He played sparingly in a Week 2 blowout-victory over Foreman.
“(Drew Dawkins) has sound fundamentals and throws a tight spiral, he’s got some mobility and athleticism,” Burzawa said.
Drew Dawkins is not the first Dawkins brother to start at quarterback for Burzawa. In 2009 and 2010, Burzawa’s second and third seasons in charge, oldest brother Byron Dawkins started at quarterback for the Wildkits. He led Evanston to the playoffs during his senior season, starting a stretch in which Evanston has reached the postseason in five of the last six years.
Though they all are different sizes, Byron Dawkins was about 6-3 and 185 pounds when he played, Burzawa said the Dawkins brothers have one thing in common — coachability. Perhaps that’s not surprising considering their father Tony Dawkins was the baseball coach at Evanston for eight years from the mid-1990s to the early 2000s.
“(The Dawkins brothers) listen and they work for everything they get,” Burzawa said. “You can tell their father was a coach by the way they always accept responsibility and have great attitudes every day.”
Drew and Trey Dawkins played baseball when they were young, but ultimately gravitated to football. While Tony Dawkins’ expertise may have been on the diamond, Trey Dawkins said his father was instrumental in shaping him and his brothers as athletes.
“I feel he had a huge influence,” Trey Dawkins said about Tony Dawkins, who was a standout baseball player at Evanston and the University of Alabama. “He always talked to us about doing everything for our coaches, showing them respect and giving 110-perecnt effort on every play.”
Drew Dawkins, meanwhile, said his older brother also was a major influence. He said he quit baseball in seventh grade and decided to concentrate on football because he wanted to be like Byron Dawkins, who played collegiately at Robert Morris Chicago.
Now, he’s the Evanston quarterback like Byron Dawkins was, though the two have different styles of play.
“My game is basically to get out of the pocket, so I can see the field. He was a drop-back (passer). That’s the main difference between us. Though I’m faster than him,” Drew Dawkins said.
In a move that has excited the entire Dawkins family, Byron Dawkins has returned to the Evanston football program this fall as a sophomore assistant coach and the program’s quarterbacks coach.
Perhaps nobody is enjoying this latest development more than Tony Dawkins.
“It’s a dream come true,” he said. “To be an alum of a school, which I love and have a passion for, and then to see all my boys, not only play, but now one is a coach and the twins are playing at the highest level. It’s a joy whenever I can get out there and just watch them practice, watch how they’re being team players. It’s amazing how they’ve grown up over the years from Pop Warner (youth football) all the way to high school.”
Dan Shalin is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.
Twitter @danshalin