On Sept. 17, Wyatt Evensen started for the Mt. View boys soccer team in the midfield at 10 a.m. in a home game against Maine Central Institute.
With 10 minutes left in the game and Mt. View losing 2-1, Evensen left the match to play in another home game — this time with the football team against Orono, where he ran for 287 yards and three touchdowns in a 49-27 loss.
Evensen has been lighting up the football scoreboard all fall, while also being a key component in Mt. View’s boys soccer team that sits at 8-3-1 with just two games left before playoffs. While most high school athletes play just one sport a season due to the rigors of training and balancing game schedules, Evensen has found a way to excel playing two sports at once.
Evensen has always played football, but this year the junior added soccer to his plate. The school’s football team has struggled in recent years, and Evensen wanted to join his friends on the soccer team that went 14-0 last year in Class C North in the regular season.
On the soccer field, Eversen has left his mark already.
“I have coached 23 years between college and high school and there are only five kids that I can count that when coaches say leave it out there, there’s five that have left legit nothing on the field and he’s one of them,” Mt. View soccer coach Jeremy Von Oesen said.
The Mt. View of Thorndike football team is 1-5 in the eight-player small school North division with one game left in the regular season.
Now, Evensen practices about 75 minutes a day with each team. On days that there is a boys soccer game, the football team works more on defense, saving more of the offensive work for when Evensen, the team’s running back, can practice with the group.
“I am still fast so I am able to still play soccer,” Evensen said. “I had a soccer game today, and yesterday I did an hour and a half for soccer and then for football. I’m a captain. I go back up for the last half to practice offense or whatever we’re doing. I am a big part of the offense so I like to be there more.”
While taking on two sports in a season can pose scheduling conflicts, so far Evensen has only had to miss one soccer game, a Sept. 24 match against Belfast, so he could be fresh for the homecoming football game that same day against Mattanawcook.
Mt. View football coach Rick Leary said that Evensen is “the real deal.”
“He’s the best running back on the team and he’s right up there as the best running back in the league,” Leary said. “He’s a run threat, pass threat and outstanding defensive player.”
Evensen scored 23 touchdowns in the team’s first five games.
He scored eight touchdowns against Stearns on 475 rushing yards, and in a 58-8 win over St. John Valley, Evensen scored seven times and accumulated 386 total yards.
“I just try to find open spaces as much as I can,” Evensen said. “Last game we switched things so I had more blockers. I had basically two full backs running up one hole for me to pen up more. Once I get by the backers I am basically gone. There aren’t many people who can catch up to me.”
Leary hasn’t seen any problems with Evensen playing both sports at once, except for some soccer tendencies that follow the running back into football. Leary said that when Evensen gets the handoff, he “dances” behind the line, moving side to side like he has a soccer ball at his feet rather than going up the field.
A recent game against the then-undefeated Stearns Minutemen on Sept. 30 was a pivotal moment for Evensen, who talked to the team beforehand about the importance of the game.
Evensen and the team felt good heading into the season. The team’s numbers grew and they felt they could be “really good,” according to Evensen. When the Mustangs entered the game against Stearns with a 1-3 record, Evensen wanted to prove he could compete against the best.
“I wanted to show that we could compete with an undefeated team in our league and I was really pushing for it,” Evensen said. “I told the guys we need to come together, they need to block and if they do it, then I’ll do it. We just pulled together.”
Evensen had his best game statistically but Stearns pulled out a 70-67 victory.
The football team has just Houlton left on the schedule before the eight-person small school playoffs.
Evensen also plays basketball for Mt. View and his AAU team, Midcoast Elite. In the spring, Evensen is a sprinter and jumper for the track and field team.
Last spring, Evensen ran a personal best 100-meter of 12.06, a 400-meter of 55.73, and finished in third place at the Class C state meet with a long jump best of 20-0.5.
Football is still his favorite sport, but track and field has crept up the rankings.
“I like jumping a lot,” Evensen said. “It goes by season normally, and right now football is my favorite because I’ve done pretty well and because I’ve always played it. But track is pretty close. I’ve done pretty good in the past two years.”
