Leo Cassidy, a senior at Evergreen Park Community High School, has been named a Chick Evans scholar. Cassidy is the second EPCHS Mustang to win the prestigious scholarship award for golf caddies this year and the fourth in the last three school years.
“I’m so grateful,” said Cassidy, who will be headed to the University of Illinois on the full-ride scholarship.
Cassidy said he found out about the award when a package was delivered to his home that included a flag declaring him a Chick Evans Scholar from the Class of 2023 along with paperwork congratulating him and informing him of the next steps.
The University of Illinois was No. 2 on Cassidy’s list of preferred colleges, as the Evans Scholars Foundation selects where the scholars will attend based on not only their preferences, but availability. Although Indiana University was choice No. 1, Cassidy said he couldn’t be happier to become a Fighting Illini.
“1 and 2 (Indiana and Illinois) were really interchangeable, so I was so happy I got that one,” he said. “It made total sense.”
The University of Wisconsin, University of Missouri, Notre Dame University and the University of Illinois-Chicago were also listed on Cassidy’s application.
Cassidy will major in Sports and Recreation Management at Illinois, and hopes to go on to law school and become a sports agent.
He’s been involved with sports at EPCHS since he was a freshman. The three-time boys golf Most Valuable Player and two-time individual golf conference champion also broadcasts many of the home football and basketball games as a founding member of EPTV, the school’s YouTube broadcast channel.
Golf in particular, though, has been something Cassidy has loved for years.
“My dad was a longtime player and would take me out all the time,” he said. “I fell in love with the nature and beauty of the sport, but I also wanted to be good, and that skill came.”
Winning the conference golf title in back-to-back years with his parents in attendance was “magical,” Cassidy said.
“With golf, I wanted to make them proud, and wanted them to see me win,” he said.
Outside of sports, Cassidy is the president of the school’s Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) club, vice president of the National Honor Society (NHS) and involved in student leadership.
The Chick Evans Scholarship is open to golf caddies with a strong caddie record, excellent academics and outstanding character, among other attributes. Cassidy has been a caddie at the nearby Ridge Country Club in Chicago’s Beverly neighborhood for six years.
Having a Chick Evans scholar from EPCHS has become the norm. Recent Chick Evans winners from EPCHS include Jack Donnelly (2022-2023), Danny McQuillan (2021-2022) and Nellie O’Grady (2020-2021). Both McQuillan and O’Grady are currently enrolled at Indiana University, and Donnelly recently found out he will be attending Kansas University with his scholarship.