By Brian Reed-Baiotto, Sports Editor

Jerry Lewallen was officially named Glendora’s new athletic director at a school board meeting on Monday night.

Lewallen, 47, is a 1990 Glendora High School graduate and he was a key member of the Tartans’ lone football championship in 1989.

He served as head football coach from 2012-2017, going 43-25 along the way.

After a 3-7 mark in his first year at the helm, Lewallen, his coaches and athletes helped flip the script the following season, finishing 7-3.

Lewallen’s high-water mark was 2015, when the Tartans went 11-2, including a Palomares League championship, as well as CIF-SS Central Division victories over South Pasadena and Colony.

The 2014 season had to be his most special, at least as a former athlete, coach and dad.

GHS went 9-3 and he got to coach and watch his son, Zach, follow in his footsteps and knock people on their (butts) from the linebacker position.

Lewallen has been married to his high school sweetheart, Stacy Roberts-Lewallen, since 1996, and along with their son Zach, they have a daughter named Maddy, who was the ASB President and spent four years as a stat girl for her dad’s football team.

Lewallen’s brothers, Clay, Luke, Cole and Wade were all GHS grads.

He also carries the title of Dean of Students.

The only thing that would have made this night more special for all involved, including hundreds and hundreds of friends that Lewallen considers family, would have been the ability for his beloved and amazing mom, Lynn, to have witnessed this milestone in her eldest son’s life.

Sadly, Lynn Lewallen passed away back in March of 2018, but she’s certainly smiling down on her son this evening.

Thankfully for ‘Tartan Nation,’ this story has yet another positive plot twist.

Rod Tilton has vacated the A.D. duties, but he’s not going anywhere.

Tilton, 52, a very popular and respected man, who spent the last eight years taking the athletics programs as a whole to a new level, is moving up the chain.

Tilton was named GHS’s new assistant principal.

The 1985 GHS grad roamed center field for coach Clint Harwick’s baseball program, as well as competing for the Tartans’ football team.

One of Tilton’s many accomplishments included modernizing the way in which the GHS parents, athletes and alumni got news on the happenings within the Tartans’ athletic programs through social media, namely the www.glendoraathletics.com site.

Tilton married fellow Tartan, Kelly Williamson, in 1993.

Williamson was a 1987 graduate.

Rod and Kelly have three kids.

Jake Tilton graduated in 2014, and his sister McKayla in 2018.

Karley begins her junior year at GHS on Wednesday.

Without question, the highlight of Tilton’s tenure, both personally and professionally was the 2017 CIF-SS Division 2 girls basketball championship.

Glendora won their first 32 games of the season, including a 52-41 victory over Righetti in the D-2 title game.

His daughters, McKayla and Karley, were members of that championship run.

McKayla earned all-CIF honors in both her junior and senior year, and she became a member of the prestigious 1,000-point club over her outstanding career.

She now competes for Concordia University in Chicago.

Not every hiring or firing along the way is a popular decision, but I can say unequivocally, as a former GHS athlete, that Glendora couldn’t have done any better in getting men of character to have a direct impact on their students and athletes, both on and off a sporting field or court.

Quotable:

New GHS assistant principal, Rod Tilton: “My favorite memory was watching our girls basketball team win a CIF title in only the third year that our coach Adam Nunemaker was at the helm. And being able to share that with my two daughters that were on the team made it even more special. With the help of the GHS leadership team, we were able to keep many existing coaches, while attracting other new coaches to GHS that “get it”. We have been able to build a coaching staff at GHS that knows “winning is the goal, not the purpose.”

Lastly, (regarding Lewallen being named A.D.) it made it even better knowing that so many of the Tartan athletes simply knew who he is. He will continue to do the same sort of things he’s been doing at GHS since 1986, his freshman year. He has been instrumental in making every program he’s been a part of not only better than it was, but he also transforms them into one of the best around.”

New GHS athletics director, Jerry Lewallen: “I am extremely grateful and humbled for this amazing opportunity to be the Dean of Students and Athletic Director at Glendora High School. GHS is a great place and it’s filled with great people. Rod did an amazing job and continues to do an amazing job for all students at GHS. Many of the current processes that are in place in athletics were created and managed by him. He is an ambassador for all sports. He has done a great job acknowledging and recognizing student-athletes successes and sharing it with our community through social media.”

GHS football under Jerry Lewallen:

2017: 8-4

2016: 5-6

2015: 11-2

2014: 9-3

2013: 7-3

2012: 3-7