Stuttgart’s Kai Lewis gets a pass off Friday, Sept. 5, 2025, while teammate Sam Johnson provides blocking support in the Panthers’ 55-0 victory in Vicenza, Italy. (Kent Harris/Stars and Stripes)

When Kai Lewis was thrust under center after Stuttgart’s first game last fall, he picked up some of the intricacies of the position.

Something was still missing by season’s end, though. The former wideout could see he had a teammate open, but he often hesitated, losing the chance to hit his receiver.

At a football camp over the summer, a Cal Poly coach explained to him how that pause was often the difference between a positive play and an incompletion or worse – an interception. He told Lewis to believe in himself.

It resonated with the Stuttgart quarterback.

“You have to trust yourself and trust your teammates. That was the main thing,” Lewis said. “I took that into the season. I was like, ‘Look, I believe that my receivers can catch the ball if I put it in the right space,’ and it worked.”

That mentality helped Lewis make a huge leap in his junior campaign.

He went 53-of-71 passing for 1,327 yards, 15 touchdowns and just two interceptions over eight games. Lewis added another 227 yards and six scores on 27 carries on the ground.

Lewis also led a defensive unit that allowed just 22 points all season from his middle linebacker position. The Panthers finished the season undefeated and reclaimed the DODEA-Europe Division championship with a 35-0 rout of rival Ramstein in the final on Nov. 7.

For his efforts, Lewis has been named Stars and Stripes’ 2025 Europe football Athlete of the Year.

“It just felt easy from start to finish,” Lewis said of his play this fall. “Obviously, I had an amazing team around me that made it even easier. I knew that if I do what I need to do, my team is going to back me up and we’re going to win every game, which we did.”

Along with heading to football camps back in the United States, the son of Genene and Mark Lewis watched numerous videos on the play of three quarterbacks in particular – Kansas City star Patrick Mahomes, Baltimore leader Lamar Jackson and New England and Tampa Bay legend Tom Brady.

Lewis said Brady’s mental game is what made him stand out. Lewis praised the seven-time Super Bowl champion for work prior to games, which included having binders full of information on his opponents.

That inspired the Panther junior to boost his own football IQ. The first example of that jump came in a 58-0 victory over Vilseck in Week 2. Lewis said he pointed out possibilities to offensive coordinator Ian Wingfield, who went with his quarterback’s instinct to great effect.

Mahomes and Jackson fit Lewis’ skillset better – as well as being players currently in their primes. He said he likes Mahomes’ improvisation skills, and he appreciated Jackson’s ability to use his legs when necessary.

Both traits were on display during games this fall.

“Sometimes, I’d drop back and the play would break down, but I was able to roll out, beat out the D-end or linebacker and we were able to make plays to my receivers,” Lewis said. “When we’d do our option plays or our designated QB runs, I was able to get the yards we needed to succeed.”

All that knowledge boosted Lewis’ performance on the other side of the ball, too.

A true field general on offense, he replicated that role from the middle linebacker position. He made the calls for the defense and often seemed to be able to anticipate his counterpart’s thinking.

The Panthers produced five shutouts during the season.

“By being a quarterback, I was able to know what the other quarterbacks were thinking,” Lewis said. “I was able to apply that being a linebacker because there’s some base stuff that every quarterback has to do and I was able to realize that, kind of exploit it.”

His jump in play has him thinking about playing the sport collegiately, following in the footsteps of his older brother. Ian Lewis played a couple of seasons at Olivet Nazarene, an NAIA school in Bourbonnais, Ill.

Kai Lewis has received some interest, but it’s still early in the process, he said.

Before that, Lewis has one more high school season left. He described how he and his Stuttgart teammates aren’t satisfied with returning to DODEA-Europe’s peak – they want to stay there.

“We’re looking to do the same thing – dominate and win that championship,” Lewis said.