Services have been scheduled for Jeffrey Scott Lewis, a Northern Arizona University assistant football coach who died Jan. 5, 2013, in Phoenix. He was 39.
A celebration of life will be held at 11 a.m. Jan. 19 at Christ’s Church of the Valley’s Scottsdale Campus, 19030 N. Pima Road.
Born April 17, 1973, in Columbus, Ohio, Coach Lewis and his family moved to the Phoenix metro area in 1982. He grew up in North Scottsdale playing all sports and later was an exceptional athlete at Horizon High School, where he started on the Huskies’ football, basketball and baseball teams prior to graduating in 1991.
After earning a scholarship to play football at NAU, he put together a standout career as the Lumberjacks’ quarterback from 1992-95, finishing second on the school’s all-time lists for passing yards, touchdowns, completions, attempts and completion percentage. He earned third-team All-America and second-team All-Big Sky honors as a junior in 1994 and was inducted into NAU’s Hall of Fame in 2003.
Coach Lewis graduated from NAU with a degree in health education with an emphasis in psychology in 1996. He went on to a seven-year career in the National Football League after being selected by the Denver Broncos in the fourth round of the 1996 NFL draft. He played quarterback behind John Elway on the Broncos’ consecutive Super Bowl championship teams in 1997 and 1998, and spent the remainder of his NFL career with the Carolina Panthers and New Orleans Saints.
Coach Lewis helped mentor other young men playing football as a coach after his playing career. He was part of the University of Louisville’s football coaching staff from 2007-09, an assistant football coach at Prescott High School in 2011 and a wide receivers coach on the NAU football staff in 2012.
He is survived by his 5-year-old son, Elijah James Lewis; his mother, Sherri Lewis; a brother Sean; a sister, Michelle Shoffner; nephew Brayden Shoffner; and brother-in-law Chris Shoffner.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to the Jeff Lewis FCA Camp Scholarship Fund to send children and coaches to football camp in the summer.