Blue White Illustrated

THE WILKERSON FILE S T A T I S T I C S Finished with 369 re- ceiving yards and three touchdowns his senior season at DeMatha High. ... Made 49 tack- les, including nine tack- les for loss and six sacks. ... Forced four fumbles. Cyle Nunemaker H O N O R S Named second-team All-Metro and All-Catholic League by The Washington Post. ... Named a three- star prospect by Rivals and Scout. I Wilkerson already knew a thing or two about coaching changes. Shortly after he announced his verbal commitment in March, Bill McGregor, DeMatha's head coach of 29 years, resigned from the program, meaning Wilkerson would begin his final season with a brand new coach in charge. After conducting a lengthy search, the private school promoted Elijah Brooks, the running backs coach who also played for the Stags in the early 2000s, to succeed McGregor. But with only four starters returning from the previous year's 9-4 squad, Brooks faced an uphill battle his first year in charge. Luckily for him, he said, Wilkerson was one of the four. Brooks said it wasn't Wilkerson's pass-catching ability or his blocking finesse or his pass-rushing instincts that assisted him the most (though he did speak highly of how Wilkerson "moves like a basketball player, has great hands, great speed and he can stretch the field"). Rather, it was Wilkerson's maturity and leadership skills that helped smooth Brooks' transition from assis- tant to head coach. "He was kind of like the medium be- tween the coaching staff and the play- ers," Brooks said. "Whenever we had any issue, we could go to Brent, and as senior captain he could relay that to the team and get everyone on the same page. His participation was in- valuable to the team." W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M BY RYAN SNYDER Blue White Illustrated Challenges on and off the field have instilled a strong sense of maturity in Eugene Lewis THE LEWIS FILE TAKING THE LEAD ncoming freshman wide receiver Eugene Lewis is already a fan fa- vorite. The Plymouth, Pa., native is the top- rated prospect in Penn State's Class of 2012 and the No. 141 prospect na- tionally according to Rivals.com. With his tremendous versatility, it's only natural to wonder what he'll be able to accomplish in the offense that Bill O'Brien plans on installing. Of course, its unlikely he'll ever play quarterback as he did the past two years at Wyoming Valley West, but it's his ability to make the right decisions on the fly that have made some of his plays look effortless at times. But if you ask anyone who knows the 6-foot-2, 181-pound Lewis well, they will tell you it's no surprise he is such a remarkable athlete. In ad- dition to having the physical charac- teristics needed to excel at football, he is unusually mature for his age. That's because making the right play during a game was easy com- pared to some the difficulties he faced away from the field. "For the majority of my life, my dad wasn't really around that much," Lewis said. "He fought an addiction to crack cocaine for the majority of my youth." Originally from Philadelphia, Lewis was forced to become the man of the house at a young age. Before he was old enough to shave, he was taking care of his three sisters and little brother. With his single mother work- ing long hours just to provide for everyone, he did the best that any fifth-grader could do, leading by ex- ample. "I learned pretty early that I had to always make sure that my brothers and sisters were doing the right things," he said. "The best way to do that is to make sure you're doing the right things – in school, with your friends, wherever you're at, just make S T A T I S T I C S Finished with 2,546 yards of total offense and 38 touchdowns during his senior season. H O N O R S Was named Class AAAA All-State by pafootballnews.com and The (Harrsiburg) Patriot-News. ... Was an Offense-Defense All- American. ... Named a four-star recruit by Rivals and Scout. ... Chosen to play in the Big 33 game. Logan Cramer III sure you're doing the right things." Shortly before Lewis entered his teens, his father began to make pos- itive changes in his life. A former Di- vision I basketball player, Eugene Lewis Sr. had been trying for a few years to kick his self-destructive habits. While attending church one day, he had an epiphany. "I had a very impactful moment with Rev. Wallace E. Smith, who was the pastor of the New Covenant Christian Fellowship Church in Wilkes-Barre," Lewis said. "He was a very impactful and powerful person in changing my life. I found a calling of sorts." Smith's impact was so substantial that Lewis chose to follow him into the ministry. He's now the Rev. Eugene Lewis Sr. of the First Church of Christ in Wilkes-Barre. After his father got his life back to- gether, Lewis moved to Plymouth in 2006, hoping to get a better educa- tion and live in a more stable commu- nity. It was there that he developed into the kind of player who would gar- ner the attention of college coaches from across the nation. Lewis committed to Penn State in August. Like the other members of Penn State's class who had announced their choice prior to the Jerry San- dusky scandal in November, he was faced with a difficult decision as to whether he should follow through on his commitment. To help him sort out his options, he sought advice from his father. While he left the final decision up to his son, the elder Lewis did frame the matter in a way that inspired Eu- gene to sign with Penn State. "I tried to compare it to being with a girl," Lewis Sr. said. "I said, if you go out and visit these other schools, how do you think that will make Penn State feel after everything they've done for you, or are preparing to do for you, regardless of what the school was go- ing through at the time? "I just said be loyal to your girl, be loyal to Penn State, stick with them, because everyone will respect you so much more knowing you weren't the one who visited this place or that place. In the long run, what I'm teaching him is that football is a gift, and that gift is going to give you an op- portunity to have a good job someday. So when it's all said and done, it's go- ing to be those very same people who are going to help you get a job, help you move on, and they will remember that loyalty you had with him." M A R C H 2 3 , 2 0 1 2 35

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