With Evanston High School students currently under a statewide shutdown of all school-related activities, Uinta County School District #1 activities director Bubba O’Neill has challenged EHS to show the community that Red Devils Care.

O’Neill and his staff have created a Facebook page called Evanston Red Devils Care, designed to encourage and inspire athletes to give back to their community by participating in the “Study with a Red Devil Challenge.”

“As Red Devil athletes, you are examples to the younger kids in our town,” it reads on the Facebook page. “Coach O’Neil, our athletic director, has challenged us to be helpful in this uncertain and unique time period. One way we can do this is by recording ourselves doing the right things.”

Red Devils who choose to participate are encouraged to record themselves reading children’s books aloud, working out math problems, exercising or playing an instrument, “anything that shows you using this time to improve yourself and could give a younger student inspiration to improve themselves.”

Athletes can then post their recordings on the Red Devils Care page for others to enjoy.

“I put that out there as a challenge for our coaches and our athletes to come up with something that might help pass the time for our younger kids,” O’Neill explained. “Our soccer coach — Brian Richins — really took off with it, and developed a program using his kids and programs to put that together, and I think our girls’ soccer coach was going to do the same. I think it’s a worthwhile project.”

O’Neill went on to explain that kids need contact now more than ever, and this is a way to stay connected.

“We talk about social distancing, and I’m not a fan of that,” he said. “I understand the physical distancing, and that we have to do that. Social distancing I think hurts us all, and I think those kids need to be able to communicate in their way — and their way is on social media. What a great opportunity to let kids do what they love to do.”

O’Neill said his office continues to be busy despite the shutdown, as school districts across the state work to find solutions to problems such as whether to offer online courses and if a spring season can be salvaged for sports and activities.

There’s always stuff going on, though it’s definitely not the same,” he explained. “I talked to Dauna [Bruce, activities secretary] and Boyd [Child, activities specialist] yesterday, and I think the thing for all of us is from about the third week in August to state soccer and track, we’re really busy, and that’s a great thing. To see it grind to a screeching halt has been difficult.”

March was a difficult month for school districts nationwide, as schools and student athletes have had to deal with unprecedented shutdowns and cancellations. While safety continues to be priority one, O’Neill said it’s a disappointing turn of events, especially for seniors, who look forward to two things in the spring — sports and graduation.

“It’s been a downer, because we didn’t get to finish state basketball, which is an extremely important thing for the kids and coaches who have put a lot of time and effort into that,” he said. “Then to not be able to kick off the spring sports season — those kids, especially seniors, have worked a long time to get to this point, and now it’s on hold. Right now, none of those things can even be thought about, because we don’t know where we’re headed as a country.”

After initially setting Monday, April 6, as the date teams could return to the practice field, the WHSAA has since pushed that date back to Monday, April 20. O’Neill said he’s holding out hope that answers will be in place by that time, and a truncated sports season will be a possibility.

The longtime coach and educator is also looking forward to a time when ‘social distancing’ is no longer a part of the vernacular.

“I read a thing yesterday about how we didn’t realize how important physical contact is for human beings,” he said. “We always talk about how we [as a society] are going to go digital, and that it’s not important to be able to do face-to-face stuff — we can go digital, and everything will be OK. But what we’re finding out is, we’re not OK. Keeping people hemmed up in their houses and playing on their computers is all well and good for a day or two. But in week number three here in Evanston, Wyoming, people want to be out.”

For now, however, Wyoming — like the rest of the nation — will continue to wander in unchartered territory, waiting to see how the COVID-19 pandemic plays out.

“For me, I live in Wyoming for the great outdoor spaces and all that I can do, but I also love the social contact,” O’Neill said. “I love coming into work and saying hello to my assistants and the other folks in the office. I like talking to our kids, and I like talking to our coaches. Those things are important — and when they’re taken away, it’s pretty somber. Everyone in this world that believes we can do everything digitally, we’re learning a valuable lesson as far as that goes.”.