Lakeridge’s Weiler brothers honor late father with every snap

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PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — When the high school football playoffs start this week, the Lakeridge Pacers football team will be playing with a chip and an angel on their shoulder.

In 2022, the program was rocked after Jeff Weiler — a prominent youth football coach — died by suicide.

Three and a half years later, his sons, Drew and Joe, start for the team at quarterback and right tackle, respectively.

“My rib protector says Dad on the back,” said Drew. “And the other one is the date he died, so I keep him with me everywhere that I go.”

The brothers don’t know football without one another.

Drew takes the snaps, and Joe has been protecting Drew’s blindside their entire lives.

Until their freshmen year of high school, they also didn’t know football without their father.

“I’m honestly just happy to have him with me,” said Joe, motioning to Drew. “Just sharing the field with him in honor of our dad and playing the sport that he loved, and he engraved into us growing up. It’s an honor, honestly.”

It’s not just the Weilers who honor their father.

Lakeridge traditionally has not had the strongest of football programs.

Jeff was determined to change that with his son’s class. Now, those players are determined to change that for him.

“I think when it happened, it hit home to a lot of guys. A lot of them still say that their favorite coach was our dad and they play for him too,” said Drew. “We’re going to go out on the field and put our heart on the line to win, and I think a lot of that came from our dad and the other coaches that built this class up.”

“Oh, I’m just so proud,” said their mother, Brittany. “I’m proud of the legacy. I think we can only hope to have that much of an impact for the love that you share in your life to be lived out after you’re gone.”

That love has also been lived out off the football field by the family as well.
“I just think I became a better person,” said Joe. “An event like that, either you let it hold you down or it pushes you forward.”

“We needed to have a mindset that was and versus or,” added Brittany. “That we can be grieving the loss, and we can be living for today. We can be honoring him and loving him, and we can be setting dreams for a new future.”

A future for the brothers and their teammates alike that will always include Jeff in it.

“I’m proud that his legacy is lived on until this day, and that means he did something right in his life,” said Drew.