Gary’s Dana Evans is in her fourth season on the Chicago Sky’s WNBA team and knows this year is different.
“We’re finally getting the eyes, the people in the stands,” Evans said Tuesday during her basketball camp at the Dean and Barbara White Community Center in Merrillville. “It’s more of a big deal than the past.
“This rookie class has done a great job of putting us on the map.”
She said it’s also provided a showcase for the diversity of lives the WNBA players live. “A lot of women have families now… We can do all this,” she said.
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Evans, 25, has dabbled in business ventures including vending machines that sold long eyelashes, and now she’s a Jordan Brand athlete and self-described “sneakerhead.”
In the off-season, she plays winter ball in Turkey.
The Sky has its share of high-profile rookies in Angel Reese and Kamilla Cardoso, both collegiate national champions — Reese with Louisiana State and Cardoso with South Carolina.
The Sky’s sellout game Sunday against rookie phenom Caitlin Clark’s Indiana Fever brought out celebrity fans including Chance the Rapper, comic Jason Sudeikis and New York Knicks star Jalen Brunson.
Clark, the top draft choice in April, joined the league fresh off her final collegiate season with Iowa, where she filled arenas with crowds watching her shatter the NCAA record for most career points.
Courtside seats Sunday sold for $5,000 on Ticketmaster and 2.3 million watched the game on ESPN, the most in 23 years. The Sky won 88-87 behind Reese’s 25 points and 16 rebounds.
Evans said she loves playing with Reese, whose intensity has sometimes left her portrayed as a villain in her matchups against Clark whose Iowa team lost two straight NCAA title games to Reese’s and Cardoso’s teams.
“She’s great, she’s a sweet soul,” said Evans of Reese. “She really wants to win.”
Evans, a 2017 McDonald’s All-American, played college ball at the University of Louisville. The Dallas Wings took her as the No. 13 draft pick in 2021 and traded her to the Sky the same year.
Behind Candace Parker, the Sky captured the WNBA title in 2021 and Evans made the WNBA All-Rookie team.
The Sky fell on tough times in 2022 and 2023, losing Parker to the Las Vegas Aces and failing to make the playoffs last year.
Tuesday marked Evans’ third basketball camp, an event close to her heart.
“I think it’s important for them to see me. You want to see your role to be more engaged in the process of the journey.”
Kamora Bullock, 9, of Gary, said she follows Evans and the Sky.
“I’d like to be in the Hall of Fame like my grandmother,” said Kamora, referring to Terrilyn Johnson, a 1988 Lew Wallace graduate and University of Kansas star inducted into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame this year.
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Parish Butler, who played at Lew Wallace from 2003 to 2007, brought his daughter, Kennedy, 11, to the camp from their home in Indianapolis.
“I support Dana and I want to expose my daughter to region basketball because it’s a high level,” he said.
Jessica Klidaras, of Gary, brought her daughter, Gloria Quezada, 7, at the urging of Evans’ West Side coach Rod Fisher, a regular at Great Lakes Café in Gary, Klidaras’ family restaurant.
“He even offered to train her,” she said of Fisher’s encouragement.
The camp became a reunion between Evans and Fisher, who assisted with drills at the camp. He’s now an assistant girls’ coach at the Thea Bowman Leadership Academy.
“We have a great relationship. He texts me after every game. He loves this game,” Evans said.
The season, so far, has been an uneven one for Evans who’s started 12 straight games, but has not started the last three games. She’s averaging 9.9 points per game.
“It’s been up and down. We have a whole new culture,” said Evans who’s working with her third coach in three years in Teresa Weatherspoon. “My main goal is to be better than I was.”
Fisher said he provides more support than coaching advice. “I don’t want her to get down on herself and lose that faith,” he said.
Carole Carlson is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.