Meet Evan Cook: Decatur’s new head football coach

Published 4:44 pm Tuesday, June 23, 2026

There aren’t many first-time head coaches that understand and are prepared for the grind that is required from being a high school head football coach. But at Decatur High School, Evan Cook seems to stick out more-so than blend in.

The rookie head coach was part of a transition initiated by former head coach and current defensive coordinator Matt Vaeena as a way to transition the program into its next era.

Cook has been the previous defensive coordinator since 2021 and when he didn’t win the Todd Beamer job, Vaeena offered Cook a job on the Decatur staff. The two connected outside of football, leading to the interest in working together. “I didn’t get the Todd Beamer job when it was open and he gave me a call and said ‘come coordinate my defense.’ After that we kind of hit it off philosophically in how we wanted to build and he gave me autonomy,” Cook said in an interview on Around the Sound Sports.

When the time came and Cook and Vaeena believed it was time to change positions, Vaeena was more than happy to step aside and let Cook take the reins.

“The whole deal was ‘When you are ready just let me know.’ For the last four seasons he has been a mentor and has given me every opportunity to prepare and be ready for this role,” Cook said. “He is probably the most excited person for me.”

As a defensive coordinator under Cook, the Gators defense turned into their best unit and one of the best units in the 3A NPSL. Cook instills strong instincts in all eleven starters on defense and creates a chaotic environment for opposing offenses. His mantra for his defense is the acronym “KISS” which was adopted from his choir teacher at Todd Beamer.

“Keep It Simple, Silly. When I teach defense that is what I try to do and that is why we have been successful. We have been able to do the little things well and the simple things really well so that we can play fast and play confident,” Cook said. “We’re gonna beat you up, we are going to play physical and play football.”

He will continue to call plays on defense, but the “menu” as he called it will be procured by Vaeena.

“I’ll still call plays. I am not ready to give that up, I’ll help scheme. But Matt and Dante Green, they have phenomenal football minds so I look forward to the menu they give me to call from,” Cook said.

Last season the Gators fizzled out, they lost momentum and could not stop from snowballing. Their final game was a 49-7 beat down at the hands of the Lakes Lancers in the week 10 playoff round.

Cook was quick to bring up that the game against the Lancers was not who Decatur was and will be a motivating factor moving into 2026-2027. “I thought the Lakes game was a culmination of last year, it was the cherry on top. We were not able to get out of our own way,” Cook said. “It didn’t make me lose much sleep, if anything I was excited to get back to work. I know that’s not who we were.”

Another notable storyline from last season was the cancellation of a game on the road at Skyview; Decatur had to cancel the game because of not having enough varsity level players due to team imposed suspensions.

“Things happened where decisions had to be made and kids were suspended in bulk and came down to people not doing the right things,” Cook said.

Skyview had scheduled their homecoming around the game against Decatur which was later canceled and caused a bit of controversy in the footballing world. Cook takes on a role in which he has to rebuild relationships with Skyview and other programs the Gators might want to play in a non-league contest.

“We’ll throw last year as an anomaly, it was an F-1 tornado that turned into an F-4. It was one of those deals that is unlike Decatur. It is the one time we have had an incident like that at Decatur since I have been there. I don’t pay too much attention to it, but I want to ensure it doesn’t happen again,” Cook said.

He did reach out to Skyview and apologized following the incident.

“That definitely did hurt us and our reputation. There was a lot of image repair that went into it, we called coaches and said we apologize. It didn’t work out how we saw it and unfortunately it caused some kids to not have their homecoming and you don’t want that as an athlete, coaching staff, parent or community member,” Cook said.

Decatur’s roster has a good bit of turnover from last season as well, with some special weapons on the offensive side of the ball.

Quarterback Antoine Williams is entering his junior season and his second with Decatur. In his first season he was a first team all-league quarterback but Cooks believes the ceiling is way higher than just postseason accolades.

Williams’ big arms, coupled with his 6’5” frame, makes him an enticing recruit for any college program. But what Cook wants to see from his play caller is to stay headstrong.

“His stats stand out the most aside from his arm, but it’s him taking that next level of ‘I am him’. I think that is the confidence piece of him coming into a different age. Coming into the confidence of him being the guy,” Cook said. “He has everything, talent wise to play at the next level. What I want to see him do is not focus on the end game, but focus on the process and the journey.”

The receiver room is also going to be a position group to watch. Scottie Dinwiddie and Idris Heyliger have game breaking potential and will need to continue to make strides as playmakers for the Gator offense.

“Scottie is probably one of the more talented receivers I have seen. In terms of route running, he dictates the tempo and the pace of his routes is great. It’s so hard to game plan for him because he can do so much in the field,” Cook said.

Decatur will open their football schedule on Sept. 4 against Kentlake at French Field. To watch the full podcast, click the link here for the full conversation.