Photo | Paul Adkins

Logan High School senior basketball player Trevor Andrews-Evans signed a national letter-of-intent on Friday to play collegiate basketball at Fairmont State. He joins Logan teammate Stevie Browning, who had already signed on with the Fighting Falcons. Pictured from left, LHS Principal Robert Lucas, Trevor’s dad Jamie Evans, Andrews-Evans and Logan High School Assistant Principal Mia Daniels.

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To say that it was a frustrating season for Logan High School basketball standout Trevor Andrews-Evans would be an understatement.

After a season with the Wildcats two years ago as a junior, Andrews-Evans, a native of Toronto, Canada, came back this year as a senior.

However, he was declared ineligible to play by the WVSSAC.

He lost his appeal and had to sit out the entire season.

It was a big blow to the Logan basketball program.

Andrews-Evans was seen at every Logan game this season, sitting on the bench and encouraging his fellow teammates as an unofficial assistant coach.

But despite the disappointment of not being able to play, Andrews-Evans, a 6-foot-8 forward, always seemed destined to play at the next level.

Somewhere.

That somewhere is Fairmont State of the West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.

Andrews-Evans signed with the Division II school recently and, ironically, will join Logan teammate and 6-3 all-state guard Stevie Browning with the Fighting Falcons. Former Logan player Paul Williamson, who recently left West Virginia University’s basketball program, had also been rumored to be heading to Fairmont, which is led by its new head coach Jerrod Calhoun, a former WVU assistant.

“That’s a pretty good recruiting class from Logan for sure,” Logan coach Mark Hatcher said. “They are both really good friends and have been very close since Trevor came here. I look for big things from both of those guys.”

Hatcher said it was frustrating not to have Andrews-Evans play this season. Logan ended up going back to the Class AAA state tourney but were beaten in the opening round for the second straight year after winning the state title in 2010.

“There’s no could have. It would have been a difference,” Hatcher said. “I thought that we had a pretty good team all year long. We hit a little skid there but if we had Trevor I don’t know if we were one of the top two or three teams or maybe even the best team. We played a lot of those teams last year in summer ball with Trevor and beat a lot of them.”

Two years ago with the Wildcats, Andrews-Evans averaged 7 points, 10 rebounds and 3 blocks per game.

If he had played this season, Hatcher said those numbers would have went way up.

“This year, I think that you would have seen him average 15 points and 12 boards a game and probably four to six blocks a game,” Hatcher said. “There were camps that he went to last summer where he dominated both offensively and defensively. He was starting to come into his own. He’s a great kid. They are getting a very special young man. Coach Calhoun called and asked about him and I told him that he was getting a great character kid and he was getting a kid that was going to work extremely hard. He loves his family, his school and his team. Trevor was our leader this year. Even though he didn’t play our team knew that he was one of the leaders of our team. We missed having that leadership on the floor.”

Andrews-Evans was the first signee of the Calhoun era at Fairmont and gives the Fighting Falcons an athletic presence in the paint. Several Division I and II schools had been in the running for the Canadian National.

“We think Trevor has Division I talent,” Calhoun told the school’s athletics website. “We’re really excited he’s decided to come to Fairmont State. He gives us some size and athleticism in the post that we desperately need.”

Andrews-Evans fills a front court need for Fairmont State, which struggled this past season with bigger teams in the WVIAC.

“I think he’ll help us right away, especially defensively,” Calhoun said. “He knows how to protect the rim. He’s athletic enough and quick enough to defend multiple positions. He’s a very good rebounder, too. Offensively, his best basketball is ahead of him. He runs the floor extremely well and can play above the rim. We know he’ll come in and work hard in the weight room and on the practice floor. We think we got a real steal with Trevor.”

Calhoun said he’s happy to have both Andrews-Evans and Browning, who was among the state leaders in scoring this past season at 25 points a game to go along with 9 rebounds. Browning ended up being selected first-team all-state by the media.

“We’re excited to have Stevie on board,” Calhoun said. “He showed this past season that he was one of the best players in the state. He plays really hard, and can help us immediately with his ability to score the ball. Looking down the road, I’m even more excited about what the future holds. Stevie is the type of guy who loves being in the gym working on his game. He’s really good right now, and he’s only going to get better and better because of his work ethic. They are both great guys. These are the types of players and people that we need to build our program with. I’m thrilled to welcome them into our basketball family.”

Andrews-Evans said he’s looking forward to playing some more basketball.

“I’m pretty excited,” he said. “It’s going to be a pretty cool experience to play again with Stevie.”