The San Francisco Golden Gloves 75th anniversary tournament is just weeks away, and Evans is focused, training hard.

The tournament marks an important day in Evans' boxing career and her life. This will be her last fight.

Evans, an amateur boxer, is one of just a handful of amateur women boxers in Northern California. This makes finding fights difficult.

"You either have to go down to Los Angeles every weekend or do the tournaments," Evans says.

But the cutoff age to enter the tournaments is 35, a number Evans is approaching quickly. She turns 35 on May 14.

"I'm definitely sad about it," she says. "I wish I'd found boxing several years earlier."

Although turning professional is an option, Evans says, "It's a lot of commitment, and it would take the fun out of it. My priority is my company."

Evans owns and operates Foothill Mortgage in the Rose Garden.

But she isn't letting that stop her.

"I think I will definitely help coach after I am done fighting," Evans says. "Maybe I'll go into kickboxing or mixed martial arts. Just like when I started boxing, not a lot of women are doing it yet."

But for now, Evans is focusing her energy on the upcoming bout.

Before her March 21 fight, she needs to drop 20 pounds in order to make her 119-pound division.

"It's amazing to watch," says Layla Baird, who is also a boxer and Evans' friend. "She's like the incredible shrinking woman."

Baird is Evans' running companion. Together the pair is conditioning, and it's helping Evans prepare for the competition. As part of her regimen, Evans runs five miles three times a week and trains six days a week in the gym, sometimes twice a day.

"It's not the most exciting part of the sport, but it's not as bad when you work out as a group," Baird says. "It helps to keep us motivated."

This routine includes work on the punching bags, cardio and sprint and distance running. On Tuesday and Thursday nights she spars. On Sunday she takes the day off.

Evans' schedule affords her flexible time. In fact, it was her job that led her to pursue kickboxing, which eventually lead to an amateur boxing career.

"It's a stressful business," says Evans, a mortgage broker who handles client loans.

Seven years ago she sought an outlet to relieve that stress. Evans tried tai chi, running and weight training, but those activities didn't do the trick. One day, she was at the gym and watched a cardio kickboxing class. She decided to try it.

"I liked the boxing, just not the kicking part," Evans says.

Then she went to her first boxing match.

"I saw the girls that fought in the ring and thought that was awesome," Evans says.

She wanted to be part of that experience. But things did not come easily.

"Javier [Mendez], the owner of the gym told me I had to last a year in order to be taken on the team," Evans says. "It took me over a year to prove to a trainer that I was serious. There were only two other women fighting, but I stuck to it."

Baird knows exactly what Evans went through.

Determined to fight

"Val was probably at the gym for a year and a half before I started boxing there," Baird says.

Evans was one of the only women boxing at the time.

"A lot of the coaches didn't want to see girls fight," Baird says. "There isn't any money or motivation to take them on as fighters. Valerie had been begging, but no one would take her seriously. I felt the same way. Opportunities are slim; there aren't many coaches or competition."

For the first two years, both women had the same coach.

"Over the years, training led to hanging out, and Val has become one of my closest friends," Baird says.

Although Baird no longer boxes, she still trains with Evans.

Ted Lucio, one of Evans' coaches, says there were doubts about her ability in the beginning.

"She was a slow starter and was at an older age," Lucio says. "But Valerie is a very headstrong woman. When she wants to do something, she does it to the best of her abilities. She's a hard worker."

From the beginning, Lucio says, Evans pushed and made it a point to compete.

"She didn't let anything stop her," he says.

It was all new for Evans. She was not an athlete. She never competed in high school sports.

"I never thought I was competitive until I got in the ring and kicked butt," Evans says. "There aren't many women who do this sport. It's brutal. There's a lot of bloody noses and black eyes."

But Evans discovered an independent and competitive nature inside herself.

"It's very fulfilling," she says. "It started as a hobby and turned into an addiction."

It's an addiction that has become part of a growing movement, with women slowly breaking into the male-dominated sport.

"With the help of Christy Martin, Leila Ali and the movie Million Dollar Baby, many girls are coming in to the gym wanting to spar," Evans says.

Baird believes that the recognition of bigger names such as Ali have made a difference.

"She could be feminine and beautiful and still be successful at what she does," Baird says. "Girls are usually surprised to see other girls do the sport. Over the last three years, more and more women have begun boxing."

Lucio thinks women's boxing started to take off when Martin came onto the scene.

Martin put the sport on the map for women, Lucio says, making it OK for women to box like men. In her day, there weren't any women who could compete at Martin's level.

Once she hit the scene, the atmosphere in the ring changed. It became clear, Lucio says that there were women who wanted to learn and coaches who were finally willing to teach.

"Running and fighting like a girl doesn't exist out there any more," Lucio says. "They're true-blue athletes."

In the ring

When Evans first announced she was going to box in competitions as a hobby, not everyone thought it was the best recreational choice.

"It was shocking at first," says Michelle Vautour, Evans' best friend. "You don't have many girlfriends wanting to box."

But she wasn't too surprised.

"Val would try anything once," Vautour says. "She's friends with many of the people at the gym, and I knew she would do well."

Vautour, along with Baird, runs with Evans to help motivate and support her.

"Valerie is an amazing person," Vautour says. "She makes time for her friends. She still stays in touch and never cuts anyone out of her life because she has to fight. I'd be lost if I didn't have her in my life."

Evans' friends weren't the only ones who thought her decision was a bit extreme. Evans' mother, Von White, wasn't keen on the idea.

"My mom wasn't thrilled when I told her," Evans says. "I was her first child and only girl. She was very protective of me."

Her brothers, Sean Winther and Brandon Hoge, thought differently.

At first the brothers didn't think anything of it, because they didn't believe she was going to compete. But when they found out, they thought it was "pretty cool."

And her family is no stranger to self-defense.

Evans' mother, who emigrated from Vietnam in 1969, is a third-degree black belt in tai kwon do, and her brothers practice martial art as well.

Evans' father, Mike Winther, watches her fight on the videotapes she sends.

"My parents divorced when I was 5, and my dad lives in Idaho," Evans says. "I think he wishes I had chosen something else, but all my family is supportive."

Gary Owens, a champion kickboxer who also lives in North Willow Glen, is one of Evans' close friends. As she is preparing for the tournament, he is training at her side.

"I just fought with her [on Feb. 25] and worked with her on the cardio," Owens says. "She gets frustrated and tired. I know when she's not happy with a workout and where she's at."

Owens is proud of how much Evans has accomplished in her seven years at the gym.

"She wasn't athletic when she came in," Owens says. "Now, put a set of gloves on her, and she's a totally different person. She hits just as hard as some men."

The 75th anniversary Golden Gloves tournament will take place March 21- 25 at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, 99 Grove St., San Francisco. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit www. sfgoldengloves.com.