Evachevski, Brandy
From Spearfish Lake Tales Wiki
Brandy Evachevski is the third child, second daughter of Gil and Carrie Evachevski. Born in April 1966 whilst her father was stationed at Ft Bragg, but mainly brought up in Spearfish Lake.
Brandy is an excellent athlete, especially basketball, leading her high school varsity team to win a championship. Along with her friend Anissa Hodges, they had been one of Spearfish Lake High School's first two girl twelve-letter athletes. Mike McMahon coached her on the girl's volleyball team and they went to the state semifinals. One of her best remembered moments included the 1983 state softball finals when after an unassisted double play, she hit a three-run homer that gave the school their only playoff-determined state championship. She even spent some time during high school working at her father's appliance store.
Brandy went to Michigan Tech University (in Houghton, Michigan) with both athletic and academic scholarships. She majored in Geology and minored in math and secondary education and was the class salutatorian. While there she met Phil Wine. During the summers, the pair worked with her uncle Rod at an archaeology site (she analyzing the geology). She helped discover a soil disturbance that suggested a deep grave which provided the Toivo Expedition a chance to practice on a dig before heading to Vietnam.
Brandy in college was described as "a plain-looking girl, a little on the chunky side, and didn't look much like the superb athlete that she was. [...] Brandy had gotten a lot of mileage out of taking advantage of opponents that reasoned that because she was short and plain and on the heavy side she was a soft touch, which she never was." (FtS, Ch.27)
Whilst working on her doctorate, she invented her Magres system. She left her doctorate incomplete and went full-time working with a commercial company, Front Range Technical Services, with the system. Although financially very rewarding, she eventually felt burnt out working as a field geologist. She quit her job and, knowing that Phil was just running the Idatarod, made her way to Alaska (with the help of Jeff Waldemer FtS05and Shelly Goodlock and a charter flight FtS07, arrived in Nome in time to meet Phil as he finished 17th in the race FtS10. Later, they both returned to Spearfish Lake. She and Phil get married in spring of 2000.
After getting married, Brandy joins the staff at the high school as Basketball coach and geology teacher (see Facing the Storm). While gifted in many ways, Brandy is not a good cook.
