Westminster’s new football coach, Nelson Stewart, had spent his entire life in Louisiana and 38 of his 48 years in the same community. Leaving his high school alma mater, New Orleans’ Isidore Newman, a place he coached for 27 years (19 as head coach), wasn’t on his list of things to do this offseason.
Stewart’s Isidore Newman teams were 162-54 with state playoff appearances in all 19 seasons. Current Texas quarterback Arch Manning (a nephew of Eli and Peyton Manning) was Stewart’s star player for four seasons. Peyton Manning was Stewart’s classmate and teammate there in the early 1990s.
Yet Stewart was confident Westminster was perfect his family, even framing this move as a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.” He noted that the previous coach, Gerry Romberg, held the position for 33 years before announcing his retirement in November.
“I really talked to a lot of people,” Stewart said. “I was really thorough. Did my research and was 100% in. It wasn’t an 80-20. Even if it was 99, with that 1%, I wouldn’t have left.”
And just to be certain, Stewart watched every snap of every Westminster game from last season to get to know the team he could be inheriting before accepting the job in January. What he saw from Westminster — and the opponents — was impressive.
“Georgia football is its own world,” Stewart said. “There are no off-Friday nights — every program’s good. Everyone’s well-coached. The talent is second to none. There’s a huge challenge there. I get it. … It’s not anything that’s going to sneak up on me. It’s what I anticipate.”
Stewart said that Arch Manning’s fastest receivers at Newman ran a high 4.6- or 4.7-second 40-yard dash. He knows most Georgia teams will have faster players than that. Even his son, Buddy, who is entering eighth grade, sounded worried. He looked at the schedule, saw what players were on the teams and gave his dad the hard truth.
“He said, ‘Dad, I look at these numbers, you’re playing Benedictine and Blessed Trinity. Everybody’s got a five-star, a few of them,’” Stewart said.
Stewart said that the former coach, Romberg, told him, “You know, Coach, I didn’t build you a schedule for wins.”
At that moment, Stewart realized, “That’s what Georgia football is.”
Stewart did not arrive in Atlanta full time until May. He had virtual meetings with the Westminster players and drove back and forth on the weekends from New Orleans — eight-hour drives — while coaching the offensive line at Newman during its spring practices. Most of his family won’t arrive for another year. His wife, Emily, is a teacher who will complete her 20th year at her school before moving to Georgia.
Stewart, now on campus every day, says his Westminster players look bigger than they did on film, and he’s been impressed by how the players have competed this offseason.
“I think this is the toughest — from a strength-and-conditioning standpoint — group I’ve seen,” Stewart said. “Whether it’s 20 gassers or how we push them — from a max standpoint, velocity standpoint — they’ve embraced it.”
Westminster, a Buckhead private school, was 5-6 in Class 4A last season. It won a state title as recently as 2015.
Stewart believes he has difference-makers at Westminster, but not where one might expect. Instead, he’s excited about his specialists, punter Aditya Kaul, who has a scholarship offer from Duke and is ranked by Kohl’s Kicking as the No. 3 punter in the country, and kicker Vikas Reddy, who has an offer from Sewanee University.
Westminster is known, not only across the state but also across the country, as Kicker U (Kicker University) because of the number of talented kickers and punters who’ve graduated from the school. The list includes punters Alex Bacchetta, Connor Weselman and Blake Gillikin and kickers Charlie Ham and three-time Super Bowl champion Harrison Butker.
At Newman, Stewart had only two full-time coaches. At Westminster, he has 12. It took until midsummer to complete the staff, as he spent weeks networking across the state to find coaches who met the Westminster standard.
Many of the offensive assistants remained, but there was some turnover on defense, an area Stewart focused on. He chose not to bring anyone from Newman, not wanting to leave his former program in a difficult spot. Instead, he hired Jake Robertson from Fellowship Christian to coordinate the defense, with a stamp of approval from Fellowship coach John Thompson.
When hired, Stewart’s ties to Arch Manning and the Manning family were widely reported. Stewart was a high school teammate of Peyton Manning at Newman, playing guard. Stewart would go to Tulane for college and return to his high school as the offensive line coach before taking over the program after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
“It (feels) just like yesterday when he (Peyton Manning) took me to lunch the day after I was announced (as Westminster’s coach),” Stewart said.
Peyton was excited for him, but the talk centered around the expectations at Westminster.
Stewart says Peyton Manning has been influential in his coaching career. Stewart has coached quarterbacks for the Manning Passing Academy for 18 years. Through the academy, he’s met coaches who have shaped his advanced understanding of the game.
He and Arch Manning developed a strong relationship while at Newman. Stewart actively shielded him from the outside noise to make his life as normal as possible as Arch emerged as the nation’s most famous and highly recruited prospect.
Now that Arch Manning is at Texas, Stewart said he’s continued learning from the Longhorns’ staff, particularly co-offensive coordinators Kyle Flood and AJ Milwee, whom he credits with shaping his philosophy and approach to game planning.
Stewart didn’t even have a resume when Westminster sought him out. He credits Westminster athletic director Shannon Soares for her hiring approach.
“She knew my career record better than I did,” Stewart said. “This was more about their relationship and finding me. It wasn’t about Arch or the Mannings. That was very important to me.”
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