Words from the Shocker family: Todd Wessel, father of Evan

Todd Wessel remembers Evan sitting in the lap of his grandfather, former Shocker basketball player and high school coach Ev Wessel, listening to him preach the virtues of hustle and team play.

It’s been surreal or like a dream. Evan’s been very fortunate to play on a lot of great teams and have a lot of success. It’s more of a once-in-a-lifetime situation, because not everybody gets to follow their kid around and watch them have that kind of success.

As he gets older, I do take more to just enjoy him and the team having success. Earlier in his career, I was a little bit more hands on. There’s always a lot of yelling, ‘Don’t miss that free throw’ or ‘Get down there.’ Now, I’m slowly getting used to just enjoying it.

He brings an aspect to the game that you kind of have to know the game to understand it or really appreciate it. He does whatever he can to help the team win. His grandpa was a basketball coach and they spent a lot of time together. Evan listened. That’s always pretty cool when you see someone do the little things that add up to big things.

I’m looking forward to this year, I just wish we could make it slow down. We’re trying to savor every moment.

This story was originally published November 5, 2015 at 2:17 AM with the headline "Words from the Shocker family: Todd Wessel, father of Evan."