Westminster lets go of Lewis
AD Wallhoff adds football coaching job to his busy schedule
Westminster Academy’s athletic director and basketball coach Ehren Wallhoff is adding another job to his already-busy schedule.
Wallhoff is taking over as Westminster’s new football coach after the school let coach Tommy Lewis go, Wallhoff told the South Florida Sun Sentinel.
“It wasn’t an athletic director decision; it was more a school decision,” Wallhoff said. “So our headmaster made the call and just wanted to move a different direction . ... Tommy had some good years. He came in, he tried to change some things around but
obviously this year was a different year with COVID and everything, so it was hard.”
Lewis spent four years as Westminster’s football coach after leaving Lakeland Victory Christian following the 2016 season. He took over a program that was re-entering the Florida High School Athletic Association state series after time as an independent. The Lions went 0-9 in Lewis’ first year before improving to 4-5 in 2018.
Westminster reached its peak under Lewis in 2019, going 9-2 and earning a playoff spot — the Lions’ first trip to the FHSAA postseason since 2001. Westminster made the playoffs again in 2020, receiving an automatic berth along with every other team that opted into the FHSAA state series. The Lions won their first-round playoff game through forfeit before falling to Community School of Naples in the second round.
Lewis finished his tenure at Westminster Academy with a 17-23 record.
“I thank [Headmaster Joel Slattery] for my opportunity there, and it was an honor to help build the program there, which I think we did,” Lewis said. “Like Ehren said, it’s their decision if they want to go a different direction; that’s their call. I think we did everything in an honorable manner. My two program goals are always to honor the Lord and compete, and I think we did both of those things quite successfully, actually.”
Wallhoff has been coaching the basketball team since 2002. He has a record of 327-126 and won three straight titles from 2017-19. Now he’ll have to juggle the responsibilities of both programs in addition to his duties as the school’s athletic director. He said he expects the two teams’ schedules to overlap for a week or two, at most.
“I’m excited about the challenge, but in no way does this lessen anything I’m doing in basketball,” Wallhoff said. “I think it motivates me a little bit more for basketball, just to be able to see us develop the football program but also continue to elevate the basketball program to where we can get to another state title.”
Wallhoff, who won a football state title as a senior captain on Westminster Academy’s 1990 team, said he hopes he could get some of the players on the basketball team to join the football team, as well.
“Hopefully, we can get some crossover of some our basketball players to play football,” Wallhoff said. “We have some kids that have been on the fence. It’s always. tough when you have a successful basketball program, some don’t want to tell the coach that they want to play both . ... I’ve always been an encourager — that I think they should play [more than one] sport.”