Evaun Malicki Boatman was once a three-sport star for the North Branford Thunderbirds, helping the field hockey squad win the Class S State Championship as a junior in 1980 and then the Class M crown the following year. Evaun played goalie for the T-Birds and was also a member of the basketball and softball squads.

Evaun didn't agree with the circumstances surrounding the 1981 title, seeing as though there were co-champions as the result of a 0-0 tie.

"To this day, it never felt like we actually ever won it. They never let us play it out. It was a 0-0 tie and, at the end of a couple of overtimes, they said that both teams win," says Evaun. "As a goalie, I thought they weren't going to score on me so I wanted to play it out or go to penalty strokes to settle it."

Evaun went on to play college field hockey and softball at Hofstra University and then returned to North Branford to help Head Coach Babby Nuhn as an assistant until 1997, when her fourth son was born. Evaun worked around a busy schedule to coach the middle school team a few years ago, but once again had to step down due to family obligations.

With four boys and an ailing father, Evaun needed to take a hiatus from the coaching world, but in the fall of 2014, she's reconnected with Nuhn and has returned to the T-Birds as assistant coach.

"She brings a new element of higher expectation for each athlete on our team. They look to her for just knowing what she's going to share is the absolute truth," says Nuhn. "It's just how she portrays herself and, meanwhile, she's extremely tech savvy and bringing in a lot of other teaching techniques through media, which is wonderful."

Using media is a way Evaun can visually show players any mistakes or analyze a play, which has been an effective tool to the field hockey's strong start to the season.

"I have them film the games and we use that to look and analyze what's going on on the field and there are times where I'll take my cell phone out during practice because I think it's important for kids to see," says Evaun. "I'll record it and show it to them right away so we can work on adjustments so we can get the types of plays that we're looking for."

As a goalie herself, Evaun works primarily with North Branford's sophomore keeper MacKenzie Kaiser, but still offers a helping hand on the offensive end to show the attackers how to easily break down a defense.

"As a goalie, I always felt that the shots I wanted were the ones I was controlling so I would have the defense play a certain way so I would get shots that I wanted to see," says Evaun. "The flipside is I know what it takes to score. I know what it takes to beat the defense and what goalies don't want to see so I try to lend a hand to the forwards in terms of what's the best way to deflect the ball. I've seen it and I know what I didn't like so we try to teach them to do that."

Evaun is still adjusting to how the game has changed since she last played and coached, but sees great opportunity with the new rules to get more production out of the offensive skill players that North Branford boasts.

"The rules have changed that have allowed for a much more physical style of play," says Evaun. "Not to say that the girls are more athletic nowadays, but aggressive teams do better with the new rules. We have a good group of girls that play really hard, play well within the rules, and understand that being first to the ball is important. They're not passive players. It's very nice to see the kids play hard within the rules and to their advantage."