Aug 16, 2025 By Jerin Steele 5 min read

CANONSBURG – Ty Jansma admitted the first time he met Canon-McMillan coach Mike Evans he was a little intimidated.

“In our freshman year, I wouldn’t say we were scared of Coach Evans, but he’s a big guy and he yells a lot,” Jansma said.

Jansma, Canon-McMillan’s starting quarterback, quickly learned how much Evans cared about his players, and that caring was reciprocated.

Some players would eat lunch with him in his office and talk football.

When they found out Evans wouldn’t be coaching this season because he’s battling liver cancer, it hit the locker room hard.

They want to give everything they have to honor him this fall.

“We want to play for him, because it’s tough on him not being here with us,” Jansma said. “At the end of practice when we break down we say, “For Ev.” It’s a huge motivation for us.”

Evans took a one-year medical sabbatical.

Former Bethel Park coach Brian DeLallo has stepped in to coach the Big Macs. He’s a longtime friend of Evans and said Evans is doing well, but it’s hard on him not being at the football field. He talks with him nightly about how practice went.

“The kids ask about him all the time,” DeLallo said. “I wish he could have more contact with him. With a medical sabbatical, part of the agreement is you can’t come to work. He’s really limited in how much he can see the kids. I think it’d be good for him and the kids if he could come around a little more. He can come to games to watch, which is good.”

Ben Gottschalk, a senior offensive lineman, said Evans had a major impact on his development and is determined to make him proud.

“In 10 games last year, from Week Zero against Peters Township to the last one against Central Catholic, I made massive improvements,” Gottschalk said. “There’s not a lot of high school coaches in the country that could help me do that. He’s a college-level O-line coach with college-level schemes and it shows. He’s been a great mentor for me.”

The coaching transition has been smooth because DeLallo spent 2023 as an assistant with the Big Macs.

DeLallo has plenty of returning starters to work with, including Jansma and tight end/defensive lineman TJ Sabatucci, a Buffalo recruit.

He’s really excited about the offensive line. It’s an intriguing camp battle where multiple players could earn a starting job.

“Other than Ben being at left tackle and TJ being the starting tight end, I couldn’t tell you who’s going to be in the other four spots,” DeLallo said. They are all up for grabs.”

Troy Stimpson, last year’s running back, is not playing this fall to focus on baseball.

DeLallo has options at running back and he likes the wide receiver trio of Ethan Campoli, Roman Cimarelli and Braelon Wingfield. The passing game will be leaned on with Jansma being much more comfortable going into his second season as the starting quarterback.

“We feel like we have three really good receivers, so we should be able to spread the ball around offensively, which will help with the absence of Troy,” DeLallo said. “We’ll probably have to throw the ball a little more than we thought, but we like what we have at wide receiver.

“Ty started as a sophomore last year and that comes with some growing pains. He is doing a good job taking care of the ball in camp.”

Canon-McMillan finished 3-7 last year and missed the playoffs in Class 6A. The Big Macs were in a lot of the games they lost, but mistakes, whether it be an ill-timed penalty or turnover or a missed assignment that led to a big play, cost them.

North Allegheny, Central Catholic, Mt. Lebanon, Seneca Valley, Hempfield and Norwin are the other Class 6A teams.

The Big Macs believe if they play clean football, then they’ll compete for a playoff berth.

“We have to take a step forward in terms of fundamentals and mental toughness,” Gottschalk said. “There wasn’t a first half of a game last year where we were overmatched. Upper St. Clair we were right in it. We led Peters Township at halftime … North Allegheny, Central Catholic … all of those games we were either in it or leading in the first half. We just have to finish out games. We’ve been running Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday since May. We do champions workouts on Fridays which are our hardest workouts of the week. Sled pushing, hill running, high intensity drills … those kinds of things. It starts with conditioning, mental toughness and our bond. All of those factors are better right now than they’ve ever been.”