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Hoppy Rewis gives his induction speech at the FACA Hall of Fame ceremony on Saturday.

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published: Wednesday, January 14, 2009

'Blessed' Rewis inducted into Hall of Fame

By SCOTT DRESSEL

Scott.dressel@newssun.com

DAYTONA BEACH —  When it comes to his career in athletics, Sebring High School baseball coach Hoppy Rewis told the crowd assembled at the Daytona Beach Hilton Saturday afternoon to watch him and six others be inducted into the Florida Athletic Coaches Association Hall of Fame, he’s been “blessed since day one.”

Blessed to play for great coaches as he grew up in Avon Park. Like his Little League coach, Raymond Cook, high school coach Ralph Hill and then Dunning Terrell at South Florida Community College.

“I thought he was the toughest man I’d ever seen,” Rewis said of Cook during his induction speech. “He’d throw batting practice and we’d hit it back up the middle and he’d stick his leg out and stop it. I thought, ‘Wow, Mr. Cook is not only smart and a great coach, he’s one tough dude.’

“Then I went to his house for a swimming party and he took his wooden leg off before he went swimming. “

But even then, at the age of 9, Rewis said his experience with Cook set his life’s path.

“We learned things we didn’t even know we were learning, and I think at that point I knew I wanted to be a coach,” Rewis said. “I wanted to do what Mr. Cook did.”

Blessed, also, to have a mother and father who let him be a kid as long as he could, Rewis said, something he said is lacking in today’s society during his emotional speech.

Rewis also said he was blessed to have a wife who supported him while he played college baseball at Southern Arkansas University and has been his biggest supporter since, putting up with the sacrifice that goes with being the coach’s wife.

And blessed to have a son who has grown up to follow in his father’s footsteps and also made him a proud grandfather.

But having his son Steve, now head baseball coach at district rival Hardee, sit in the other dugout hasn’t always been easy. The first few times they played, it was the elder Rewis who came out on top, something that weighed heavy on both coaches, but especially Hoppy.

Until the first time Steve’s team won.

Then, he said, he realized that if somebody was going to go home with a loss, he would rather it be the Wildcats than the Blue Streaks.

Rewis earned his induction into the Hall of Fame by being successful at every sport he’s coached. That career started out at Avon Park High School, where he coached for 10 years and won back-to-back state titles his last two seasons.

He then moved on to establish the softball program at Avon Park, something he thought would be easy since the game then was slow-pitch.

Shortly after he started, however, the state switched to fast-pitch, and the learning curve was steep.

“You think you’ve been scared, try playing fast-pitch softball without a pitcher,” he said.

In 2001, Rewis moved to Sebring to coach the Blue Streaks, and has led the program to five district titles and, in 2007, to the state final four for the second time in school history.

Around 30 people from Highlands County made the trek to Daytona Beach to see Rewis’ become one of the 206 coaches now in the Hall of Fame. Among them were now fellow Hall of Famers Ronnie Jackson of Avon Park and Gary Rapp of Sebring, who were inducted in 1996 and 2004, respectively.

“Hoppy and I have known each other since we were eight years old,” Jackson said. “We played on the same Little League team together, played high school ball together, played junior college ball together, coached together and been friends since 1957.

“He probably deserved to be here a lot sooner, so it’s great. It’s an honor. It’s something he and I will both cherish the rest of our life.”

“It’s quite and accomplishment and well-deserved,” added Rapp. “He should have been in here long before now.

“Rewis was on hand to see both Jackson and Rapp inducted into the Hall of Fame, and told the crowd that those two ceremonies and the one Saturday were “the only three things I’ve ever been to during hunting season.”

After the ceremony, Rewis said that the experience was fantastic.

“It was really important to me that I went in as an active coach. I look around at the people that are in there, and it really takes something to get there.,” he said. “A lot of people in Avon Park in Sebring over the years – they made it happen. I’ve hung around with really great people and been very fortunate with some of the things that have happened to me.

"Where we live, we down them a little bit, but we have such great kids compared to what a lot of people have. They’re not perfect, but we have great kids. If they weren’t, I wouldn’t have been there for 35 years.

“I’m a little bit different,” Rewis went on, having to pause to control his emotions. “I’ve got friends that look forward to retirement, but my last day of school will be one of the worst days of my life. I don’t look forward to leaving there at all because I love those kids and I love what I do. I know it will have to happen, but it will be a sad day in my life.”