Two brothers, on the same high school football team in North Texas, are having a breakout season, motivated in part by their other brother who is unable to be with them between the lines.
While carrying on their family's football-rich tradition, sometimes it feels like football players -- and brothers -- Simeon and Titus Evans seem to know what the other is thinking at all times on the field.
"They're definitely on the same page," said Timberview football coach James Brown. "They've been doing this for a long time together."
Simeon, the Timberview senior quarterback, and Titus, a sophomore wide receiver for the Wolves, are on the same page and approach the game of football the way their family taught them to approach life.
"That's instilled in us at the beginning, at a young age," said Titus. "If you're going to do it, do it all the way. Don't do it halfway. That's what my dad always teaches us."
That's what Efram and Kim Evans have taught Simeon, Titus and their other seven siblings, and why all the Evans kids to this point have been able to play sports in college, with the boys locked in on football at a young age.
"Whenever we have a game, postgame speeches and postgame advice with critiques of advice of what we could have done better," said Simeon. "It is kind of fun getting all those different aspects from my brothers."
But the brother who might have taught Simeon and Titus the most is the one who has never played in a football game. Their 13-year old brother, Nathaniel, who was involved in an accident as a baby that resulted in a condition similar to cerebral palsy.
"I've never seen him with a frown on his face or mad," said Titus. "I always see him happy. Any time I feel down or depressed, I just look at him, because he's always laughing and smiling."
"It's amazing really because you're always learning something from him that you've never seen before," said Simeon. "It's for all of us too. You can see how he affects all of us in different ways and how he affects our character and how we act and how we carry ourselves."
Nathaniel makes a tremendous impact on their character even though he is unable to speak or walk, motivating Simeon and Titus Evans to carry on their family's football-rich tradition, seemingly knowing what the other is thinking at all times on the field, while remembering together their brother who inspires them to never take a game or even a play for granted.
"It really translates to the field for them because things don't bother them," said Brown. "The adversity they see on the field, they can push it aside and move forward and go to the next thing. They are well beyond their age, that's for sure."
