By Ty Sanges
When you get to the top of the ramp leading up to Blake Arena, the wall is covered with decades worth of plaques, spanning all the way from the athletics offices all the way to the left to the ticket booths all the way to the right. Thousands of student athletes have donned the maroon and white for Springfield, yet only a certain few receive the honors of getting on one of those plaques, signifying that they were inducted into the Springfield College Athletics Hall of Fame. For Springfield College alumnus and Class of 2025 Hall of Fame Inductee Ty Evans, there were no doubts about what the ultimate goal was. He was going to be in the Springfield College Hall of Fame one day, and nothing was going to stop him.
“As soon as I saw the Hall of Fame in Blake Arena, I was reading all of the plaques, looking for gymnasts,” Evans said. “And I was like, ‘Yeah. I’m gonna go here. And I’m gonna put my face on that wall.’ That’s literally what I said in my head. And I got it.”
Evans’ journey as a gymnast started at a young age, where he was exposed to gymnastics very early on. His mother, a girls’ gymnastics coach and single mother, often brought him to her practices, and he fell in love with the sport almost immediately. At these practices, he went over the moves that his mother taught the girls on his own. He eventually improved to the point where his mother realized that Evans was performing the moves better than most of the girls she was teaching, beginning his passion for gymnastics and displaying the raw talent he possessed.
“I did soccer, baseball, track, swimming – all that stuff,” Evans said. “I was just like, ‘Nope, gymnastics is my thing.’ It kind of clicked from there, so I started competing at eight years old and then it took off from that.”
Evans used his natural ability and drive for gymnastics to improve nonstop, wanting to become the best gymnast possible. The owner of the gym he trained at helped to host the West Point Open, a meet hosted in New York, featuring both college teams and high school gymnasts who qualified for the meet. After traveling to the Northeast for the competition, Evans saw this as a major opportunity to get his name out to the colleges attending, hoping to compete at the collegiate level following his high school career.
“I went to introduce myself to Springfield, and they were super accepting,” Evans said. “I could tell everyone on the team was really happy, and it was a smart group of kids who were super positive and open. So I ultimately think that’s what made me go [to Springfield].”
Once committing to Springfield College, Evans’ determination for the sport did not waiver. He would go on to find great joy both in and out of the classroom. With a passion for athletics, Evans studied sports science, with a minor in coaching, enjoying the coaching classes that helped shape his future career. In the gym, he excelled to new heights, earning countless honors and winning at the highest level.
Evans would claim 16 USA Gymnastics (USAG) All-America honors throughout his historic career at Springfield, including becoming the second athlete in any sport at Springfield to earn five All-America honors in a single season. Evans won multiple national championships at Springfield, winning the Eastern Intercollegiate Gymnastics League (EIGL) Vault Championships and being a USAG Nation Champion for Vault in 2009, while claiming 2011 USAG National Championship victories in the All-Around and High-Bar. Additionally, in 2012, Evans competed with the USA Men’s Gymnastics Elite in the Winter Cup in an attempt to make the U.S. National Team. His efforts earned him NCAA Collegiate Division National Men’s Gymnast of the Week honors.
Evans added that all of his success couldn’t have been achieved without coach Steve Posner, who is also a member of the Athletics Hall of Fame Class of 2025, as well as all of the teammates he had that pushed him greatly throughout his tenure at Springfield. One of which was his teammate, Josh Fox, who Evans attributed much of his achievements to.
“[Fox] was one year ahead of me,” Evans explained. “He was the star of the team, not only because he was really good, but also because he had the best mentality out of everyone. We looked up to him as he worked hard even when things didn’t go his way, making sure he didn’t get frustrated, and leading by example, where he would get up and do something a thousand more times until he gets it right.”
Following his illustrious career at Springfield, Evans was met with a tough choice. He was at a crossroads in what the future held for him, as he could either try to make a career out of the skills he had developed over many years of training, or use the skills he knew to make the youth around him the best versions of themselves as gymnasts.
“I was stuck,” Evans shared. “I initially thought of doing Cirque du Soleil. I could get paid to do what you’re already doing, and if I want an education, they’d cover it. I was getting better and better, so I had to decide, do I keep getting better and try to make the national team?”
Evans found his answer after coaching back at home in San Jose, Calif. while training and trying to improve his craft.
“I was like, ‘Man, I could make these kids better than me,’” Evans said. “Why am I putting myself before them? So it was kind of like a soft retirement. I was going to stop competing and put my focus on these kids and make them the best they could be.”
This decision was the correct one for Evans, as he has found great success in his coaching career, developing kids into standout gymnasts and growing the California Sports Center training program, which Evans coaches at. After starting as an assistant coach, Evans worked his way up to be the head coach of one of the buildings the gym owns. This year, Evans coached gymnast Nolan Prim, who committed to the Springfield College Gymnastics program in the fall, completing a full circle moment for the standout athlete.
Evans will be inducted into the Springfield College Hall of Fame on Saturday, April 12, 2025.
Photo courtesy of Springfield College Athletics.