By DON FLETCHER
News Staff Writer
Tommie Lee Lewis Jr., who has enjoyed success at the collegiate coaching level for a decade but has never coached a high school team, was introduced last week as the latest to accept the challenge of rebuilding a once-proud football program at Escambia County High School (ECHS) while overseeing all the school’s other athletic programs.
The Escambia County Board of Education voted unanimously to hire Lewis at the regular meeting Thursday, March 20, at the recommendation of Superintendent Dr. Michele Collier.
Lewis, a Birmingham native who was a standout at A.H. Parker High School and has coached at the collegiate level for the past 10 years, becomes the school’s sixth head coach-AD since 2010, when ECHS advanced to the Alabama Class 4A state semifinals.
That is the last time the Blue Devils — who won state titles in 1974 (with a 7-6 win over Sheffield) and 1983 (14-0 over Emma Sansom) — have earned a postseason appearance.
“I want to thank you for taking a chance on me,” Lewis told the board, expressing his desire to put down roots in the community. “I’m here to stay, and for Escambia County High, the best is yet to come.”
The new coach brought his family — wife Alexia, daughter Bri, and sons Tommie III and Kyler Gary — with him to the meeting. He said they are the reason he accepted the ECHS job.
“Why do I want to come to Atmore and coach football?” he asked, sweeping his arm to include each family member. “They are the reason. I’ve moved six times in the last 10 years, and it’s been rough on them.”
While Lewis has never coached at the high school level, he has paid his coaching dues with stints at Southwest Oklahoma State University, Alcorn State University, University of Southern Mississippi, Miles College and Tuskegee University. He served most recently as interim head coach for Lane College’s Dragons, for whom he also served as defensive coordinator, director of football operations and equipment liaison during his time there.
Lewis, who earned a bachelor’s degree in physical education and a master’s degree in athletic administration and coaching from Alcorn State, replaces Vincent Harris, whose teams went a combined 12-18 over the past three seasons. That win-loss mark makes Harris the school’s most successful coach since Mark Heaton’s Blue Devils put together a combined 14-9 mark in 2010 and 2011.
Heaton was followed in succession by Lev Holly, whose 2012 and 2013 teams were a collective 5-15; Royce Young, who coached ECHS to a 4-26 mark over three seasons (2014-16); Rico Jackson (a combined 8-12 record for the 2017 and 2018 seasons), and Scott Mason, who led the Blue Devils to a 9-21 mark over three seasons (2019-2021).
Mason’s 2020 team posted the school’s last non-losing season. ECHS’s squad won its first three games and earned a No.-9 state ranking that year before ending up at 5-5.
Gill said she feels good about her selection, confident that Lewis’s experience will rub off on the school’s football players and other athletes.
“I feel very good about it,” she said after the BOE session. “He is coming in with experience and he has an opportunity to extend that to our kids. He’s a winner and because of that, our kids will become winners.”