“Mr. Everything” Moves on to New Things

Stingers Star Evens Laroche Reflects on Decorated ConU Basketball Career

SportsYacine Bouhali — Published March 25, 2013 | Updated April 1, 2013 at 6:42pm

After Evens Laroche led Montreal’s Dawson College to a national basketball championship in 2007, the six-foot-four, 190-pound forward was expecting to receive a scholarship to play in the National Collegiate Athletic Association, the United States equivalent to Canadian Interuniversity Sport.

But Laroche never went on to play in the NCAA.

Growing impatient with the scholarship application process and concerned about the amount of playing time he would receive as a freshman, Laroche instead accepted an invitation from childhood friend Hamza Ruhezamihigo to join him on the Concordia Stingers basketball team.

“Hamza is the one who persuaded me to come play at Concordia,” said Laroche. “I knew [the Stingers] had a good team and that I would have the chance to win a championship right away.”

The Stingers owe Ruhezamihigo, then, for Laroche’s stellar five-year career. The first days at Concordia weren’t easy for Laroche, though, as he struggled to get comfortable in his new environment.

“I got into a school where I knew only one guy, so it was really difficult for me—I had to focus on my English, do a lot of homework and play basketball everyday,” said Laroche, who first started playing basketball at École Lucien-Pagé, a French-language high school located in Montreal’s working-class Park Extension neighbourhood.

At first, it seemed earning playing time would be equally as difficult.

“Evens is able to do the dirty work, but he also has the skills and physical ability to go with it, which makes him an extremely valuable player. He’s a really smart basketball player and he leads by example. Bottom line, he’s a winner.”
—Kyle Desmarais, Stingers guard

“When I started with the Stingers I wanted to play right away, but the team was stacked,” said Laroche. “There were [brothers Dwayne and Damian Buckley] and many other good players so I had to prove I deserved to be in the starting five.”

That’s exactly what he did, however.

Thanks in large part to his versatility on the court, Laroche quickly became a regular in the starting lineup, appearing in 12 of 16 games that year and playing a major role in the team’s success that season and in those that followed.

“Evens is able to do the dirty work, but he also has the skills and physical ability to go with it, which makes him an extremely valuable player,” said All-Canadian Kyle Desmarais, who has been Laroche’s teammate since their CEGEP years. “He’s a really smart basketball player and he leads by example. Bottom line, he’s a winner.”

Indeed, Laroche has been synonymous with success everywhere he’s played, and it was no different at Concordia. In his five years with the Maroon and Gold, the Stingers made the playoffs four times and won three provincial championship titles in the Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec.

“Evens had five great years with us,” said Dore, who now faces the challenge of filling the void left by Laroche’s departure in the offseason. “He has come a long way since day one; now he’s a much more mature guy and I think he’s ready to take other steps in his life.”

That being said, Dore isn’t dwelling on the past.

“It’s not about how it affects the team, it’s more about who do we get next year,” he said. “You don’t look back, you look forward.”

Laroche will be doing the same. Like his younger brother Hernst, who is currently playing for BBC Monthey in the Ligue nationale de basketball A—Switzerland’s top professional basketball league—after a four-year career in the NCAA with the New Mexico State Aggies, Laroche hopes to take his talents to Europe.

“I’m working really hard trying to get a contract in Europe,” said Laroche. “I’m lucky that my brother is already there and that he has many contacts overseas. He’s able to tell me the things I should or shouldn’t do.”

One thing Laroche doesn’t need to be told, however, is the value of education—basketball or not.

“I’ve seen a lot of guys around me who played basketball and did a lot of other things but they never received their diploma,” said Laroche, who is poised to earn his human relations bachelor’s degree this year. “I’m not like them. I won’t give up on my goal.”

Update: The Link originally reported Hernst Laroche is Even’s older brother. He is actually his younger brother. The Link regrets the error.