OPEN FORUM: Coach Lewis Is A Hall-of-Famer

By JON OGLESBY

Whenever his day of eligibility comes, Moapa Valley football coach Brent Lewis deserves to be in every Hall of Fame that he can be in.

Saturday’s 42-36 win over Desert Pines in the Division-1A state championship game only cements his candidacy in the NIAA Coaches’ Hall of Fame, in my mind.

He has now led Moapa Valley to three state championships, and is headed towards his third Coach of the Year award for his classification. He’s also led the Pirates to their first undefeated season since 1992, and led his team in a game that will go down as one of the all-time Moapa victories.
Sounds like a Hall-of-Famer, right?

Lewis has his critics, no doubt, although the toughest of all of them is without a doubt himself. No coach makes every move perfectly, and he isn’t exempt from that status. However, if a person honestly looked at his record, they’ll find it speaks for itself.

• Three state championships (2007, 2008, 2014)
• Seven consecutive state final appearances (2006-12)
• 24-1 record over the past two seasons
• Seven consecutive division titles (2008-2014)
• 42-1 record against schools in Southern Nevada since 2011
• Led the 2012 Pirates to the highest-scoring season in the history of Division-IA football (644 points)
• 130 total victories since 2002 (good for 12th all-time in state history, and most in school history)

The statistics are endless, and they present quite the argument. Still, not all of the statistics are flattering. For instance, the record Lewis judges himself on: the record of 3-6 in state championship games; is puzzling. And it may be the chink in Lewis’ armor.
However, it is important to objectively ask how often he was coaching the most physically dominant team in the fight, and how often he coached the best athletes.

Also, there is pressure associated with leading Moapa Valley’s football program that simply doesn’t exist other places. The Pirates have one of the Silver State’s four best programs all-time, tied with Las Vegas with 16 state titles. Every single team that plays Moapa is well aware of the “Moapa mystique,” and understands the impact beating Moapa Valley has for a program.

Another factor has to be taken into account- the school’s student body population has fallen over the past five years. So, every year there are less and less players to play, yet Moapa Valley has dominated schools in Southern Nevada- some with several times the number of students Lewis has had at his disposal.

The statistics make such a strong argument for Lewis. He’s not a coach who cares about such accolades; never has been, and never will be.

Brent Lewis loves winning, and he’s done enough of it to convince his critics that he knows how to do it.
More important, he’s suffered enough setbacks to understand winning isn’t the most important thing in the development of young men. That, more than anything, makes him a Hall of Fame coach.
The name Brent Lewis should always stand for six words when connected to Moapa Valley football: perseverance, toughness, winning, and, oh yeah, Hall-of-Famer.

Jon Oglesby covered Moapa Valley football from 2007-09, as both a writer and play-by-play broadcaster. He currently works as the Utah Jazz beat writer for KSL.com, and as a play-by-play announcer for the University of Utah.