T-R FILE PHOTO - Gladbrook-Reinbeck’s Drew Eilers has been named the Times-Republican All-Area Football Team’s Co-Player of the Year after leading the Rebels to their first appearance in the 8-Man state final.

Drew Eilers got just one year of playing primarily quarterback on offense, and he helped carry Gladbrook-Reinbeck to heights unseen in 8-Man football.

In November, the Rebels reached the state championship game for the first time in their eight seasons in the 8-Man class, and Eilers was at the center of it all. As is common in 8-Man football, Eilers was Gladbrook-Reinbeck’s leading passer and rusher after two seasons of serving as one of the team’s featured wide receivers.

Finally, in his senior campaign, Eilers took the reins of the Rebels’ quick-strike offense and put the program on his back in its triumphant return to the UNI-Dome. After reaching the semifinals for the second year in a row, Gladbrook-Reinbeck put its foot on the gas and got past top-seeded Lenox to reach the finals for the first time since winning back-to-back 11-man titles in 2015 and 2016.

And even though the team achieved the “One More” it had been looking for since starting with four-straight first-round playoff exits upon moving down from Class A to 8-Man, Eilers took the 51-12 championship loss to Remsen-St. Mary’s harder than most.

“I probably hate losing more than I love winning,” said Eilers, a 6-foot-3, 206-pound senior. “I just don’t like it. I’m a sore loser, I’ll definitely say that. Even in PE (physical education) class.”

Eilers was named first-team all-state as an offensive utility selection by the Iowa Football Coaches Association, finishing fourth in 8-Man football with 3,150 yards of offense (passing and rushing) while ranking fifth with 56 touchdowns. He threw for 1,963 yards and 26 touchdowns with only two interceptions, and he rushed for 1,187 yards and 30 more scores.

And when he gets to the University of Wisconsin-Platteville in the fall, he’s going to play defensive end — and only defensive end.

Oh yeah … Eilers led the state — across all classes — with 128.5 total tackles in his senior season.

“Offense, having the ball in your hand is so fun, but you don’t get beat up as much on defense,” he said. “It’s really fun to hit people.

“Hopefully I can be someone who makes a big impact on the team. Hopefully I can do what I did in high school and play all over, but I’m going to have to work my butt off to get there.”

According to Gladbrook-Reinbeck head football coach John Olson, that shouldn’t be a problem for Drew.

“Drew is an unbelievably hard worker,” he said. “I know coaches have said that a lot, and I know I have said that a lot about players here, but no one has ever worked as hard as him.

“Whether it is from his eighth-grade year until today and the totality of those years or every single repetition on the football field in practice, he works himself to total exhaustion each and every rep — in the weight room, the day before the state championship game, or every single play on the basketball court.

“We’ve never had a guy like him.”

Putting the ball in Eilers’s hands was an easy call when the game was on the line. Getting the opposition to run his way, however, was out of G-R’s control. And yet, Eilers led Iowa in tackles. The G-R offense ranked fifth in 8-Man in total offense and 11th in scoring average. Eilers was fifth in passing TDs (26), fifth in rushing TDs (30), fifth in passing yards (1,963) and 14th in rushing yards (1,187).

Not bad for his one season as the team’s primary signal-caller.

“Over the four years, football taught me new things like maybe sometimes life doesn’t go the way you want it to go,” he said. “I wanted to play quarterback all four years but I ended up playing receiver. But either way you make great memories with all your buddies around you and it brings everybody closer together.

“I’ve always loved playing football at recess as a kid. There’s so much going on. I like the physical contact part of it, being able to hit people for fun and not get in trouble for it.”

Eilers’s motivation toward winning has always been there too, especially after being a part of a team that didn’t advance in the postseason.

“My freshman year I think we got second in distrct and lost right away in the first round,” Eilers said. “Our upperclassmen didn’t really go to the weight room, they weren’t big into lifting, but the kids in my grade when we started in junior high, we hit the weight room pretty hard I thought and that was the biggest change for us.

“We knew if we wanted to go far in the playoffs and make it to the Dome, we knew we’d have to work our butts off in the offseason just to get there. Nothing comes easy.”

G-R finished 7-2 in 2021 before finally advancing through the first round in a 9-2 season in 2022. The Rebels reached the semifinals in 2023, going 10-2 before bowing out in heartbreaking fashion against Bedford, and one more round was the reward for all the work in 2024.

Eilers, according to Olson, was the centerpiece for the Rebels’ first run to the final round.

“He has an intrinsic motivation that you rarely see in kids,” Olson said. “He works hard because he knows it is part of the process and will allow him to be the best he can be.”