JASPER, Ind. — It doesn’t take much exploration to trace Jasper High School’s football program back to the Dwight Eisenhower administration, before the days of spread offenses, blitz packages and stringent weight-training.
There’ve only been three men running the show:
Jerry Brewer, an Indiana Football Hall of Fame inductee who went 368-105-2 from 1959 until 2002.
Tony Ahrens, who was Brewer’s apprentice before succeeding him in 2003 on his way to a 144-44 record in 16 seasons as head coach. Ahrens was on staff for 34 years until retiring at the end-of-season banquet last fall.
And now Tony Lewis, who has a 133-66 career record in 17 years and led Reitz (Evansville, Indiana) to the 2009 Class 4A state championship. He also coached at Henderson County, Crystal River (Florida) and spent last fall at Indiana’s Richmond High School.
The Wildcats have a program rich with success and stability. They’ve averaged more than eight wins per year since Brewer took over 60 years ago.
That’s why this year’s team motto is, “Jasper always competes.”
“It’s a great tradition and I’m excited to be a small part of it,” Lewis said. “Our community, our school, the support we get from everyone in Jasper, it’s something that drives you to work that much harder to uphold the standards of what has been done in the past.”
