Lung Transplant Survivor Inspires, Teaches Through Football
By
Doug Donnelly
Special for MHSAA.com
September 1, 2021
ADRIAN – As the final seconds ticked off the clock in the 2019 Division 8 Regional Football Final at Reading, Adrian Lenawee Christian assistant coach Jon Willett started looking for his wife.
Reading would be going on to play the next week, while the LCS’s season was over. Willett desperately needed oxygen. He could barely breath.
Hillary Willett, Jon’s wife, pulled the car as close to the Reading field as she could, and Jon opened the door.
“I got in the car and sat down,” Willett said. “And I looked at her and I said, ‘I just coached my last game.’”
As miracles go, Willett was wrong. Less than two months after that football game that Willett thought was his last, he underwent a double lung transplant at the University of Michigan Hospital. He still doesn’t know how he survived so long, but is certain there was divine intervention.
“I’ve always had a close relationship with Jesus Christ,” Willett said. “And I’ve always been passionate about football. I always thought that if I survived, I would use football as a tool to reach younger people. I’m doing that today.”
Willett helped coach the Cougars to last season’s 8-Player Division 1 championship and is back on the sidelines this season, coaching the Cougars JV team and continuing to serve as an assistant with the varsity.
He even gets in on some drills now and then, such as doing push-ups with the quarterbacks.
“Jon has been with me for seven or eight years,” LCS varsity head coach Bill Wilharms said. “He’s a great man and a great football coach. The kids love having him around, and he loves them. I love coaching with him, and he’s a big part of our coaching family.”
Willett grew up in Sand Creek, about 10 minutes south of Adrian in Lenawee County. He played on some outstanding Aggies football teams for Hall of Fame coach Ernie Ayers. Willett led the 1990 Aggies in rushing, finishing just shy of 1,000 yards his senior season.
He got into coaching when his sons, Noah and Isaiah, began playing flag football.
“I coached them in flag football, then in Pop Warner,” Willett said. “I love coaching football. When Noah was in middle school I coached him one year, then became an assistant for the varsity.”
Wilharms tabbed Willett to be the JV head coach, a position he’s held for the last couple of years. He also coaches varsity wide receivers and defensive backs and will assist the LCS scout team quarterbacks at practice. He jumps in whenever needed.
Sometimes, it’s as a motivational speaker.
“I share my testimony whenever possible,” Willett said. “I tell my players that life is short. You never know how long you are going to have. You truly don’t. You have to live your life to the fullest.”
Willett first was diagnosed with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis – chronic, progressive lung disease – in April 2017 when he visited the doctor due to a constant cough and shortness of breath. The prognosis was not good.
“The doctor said at that point I had 65-percent capacity of my lungs,” he said. “They gave me three to five years unless I could get a double lung transplant. They said that would be the only option and that there was no cure.”
Willett believed the doctors, of course, but admits he wasn’t the best patient.
“I figured if I could make it 10 years, my kids would be out of school,” he said.
The disease had other ideas. While he was put on oxygen due to shortness of breath, his LCS football players had no idea.
“I never did it in front of them,” he said. “I should have. I wasn’t a very good patient. I was wanting to be with the team. I wanted to coach.”
In July 2019, he noticed a big change.
“My lung capacity had dropped,” he said.
He continued to coach. He had some doctors’ appointments here and there but remained coaching the entire season.
“It was a mental thing,” he said. “I wanted to get through the season.”
He rode the bus to the LCS-Reading game. When the game was over, he told Wilharms that he had to go home.
“I told Coach Wilharms that I was just getting in the car with my wife,” he said. “She pulled the car up to the gate because it was so hard to walk. I couldn’t get air because of not having oxygen.”
When he told his wife that he thought he would never coach again, she said no.
“She looked at me and she said, ‘(You’ve coached your last game) with those lungs.’”
By Christmas of 2019, Willett had been in and out of the hospital on numerous occasions. He was on oxygen tanks around the clock. He went home at Christmas, believing it was his last.
“I said I want to go home. I think it’s my last Christmas. I wanted to be with my family,” he recalled.
When he returned to the hospital after Christmas, his son Noah sat in the backseat during the car ride changing out oxygen tanks every few minutes just to keep his father alive. Willett’s oxygen levels were dangerously low.
“When I got to U-M, there was a whole team of people waiting for me. They worked on me and sent me up to ICU. It was bleak,” he said.
The LCS community sent out word via social media to pray for Coach Willett, his wife, two sons and two daughters, Emily and Abigail. Willett said those prayers were answered.
Willett was told by doctors he had to have a double lung transplant within 24 hours, or he would die. Seven hours and 13 minutes later, the doctor walked in, with tears in his eyes, and told the family they found a match.
Willett is feeling better now. In February of this year, about a month after Willett watched from the sidelines as LCS won the championship in Brighton, the medications he had been on took hold and he began to improve.
When the season started this summer, Willett was no doubt going to be part of the Cougars staff.
“Everything is very stable right now,” he said. “My lungs keep getting better. I can tell at football practice, walking from end zone to end zone, I’m feeling better. I’m building up. That exercise helps.”
Some day he plans on reaching out to the family of the person who donated lungs to him. For now, he’s grateful to be alive and thankful for every moment he gets to spend coaching football.
“I’m feeling great and loving the opportunity I have to keep coaching and be with the kids,” Willett said. “The story I get to share with my players is truly a miracle. God took me to the point where it was 100 percent out of my control.
“If I can use football as a tool to keep talking to the youth and help them become better men, I’m going to do that. Football is what drives me.”
Doug Donnelly has served as a sports and news reporter and city editor over 25 years, writing for the Daily Chief-Union in Upper Sandusky, Ohio from 1992-1995, the Monroe Evening News from 1995-2012 and the Adrian Daily Telegram since 2013. He's also written a book on high school basketball in Monroe County and compiles record books for various schools in southeast Michigan. E-mail him at [email protected] with story ideas for Jackson, Washtenaw, Hillsdale, Lenawee and Monroe counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) Lenawee Christian head varsity coach Bill Wilharms (holding football) gives assistant Jon Willett a hug after last season’s 8-Player Division 1 Final win. (Middle) Willett returned to the sideline a year after a double lung transplant. (Below) Willett serves as junior varsity head coach and varsity assistant. (Photos by Jeff Jameson/Lenawee Christian Schools.)
Beaudrie's Rebuild of Jefferson Football Gaining Speed with Fast Start
By
Doug Donnelly
Special for MHSAA.com
September 17, 2025
NEWPORT – Rob Beaudrie has found the secret formula to building a winning football team.
Take over as head coach. Tap his freshman son (even if unexpectedly) as the starting quarterback. Mix in a couple of years hitting the weights, consistent offseason workouts and getting the underclassmen to buy into the playbook and new culture.
Oh, and winning a few games doesn’t hurt.
“Kids like to win,” Beaudrie said. “They don’t want to go out and practice two or three hours every day and go 0-9. It’s not fun for them. These kids have bought in. They’ve been playing football together since they were in youth football. It’s a good experience for them.”
Beaudrie is the head football coach at Monroe Jefferson, a Division 6 school in Newport, along the shores of Lake Erie and home to the Fermi 2 nuclear power plant. The Bears were once a football power, winning the Class BB championship in 1994, but have struggled for the last 20 years or so.
Being from the area, Beaudrie knew all about Jefferson. He took the job three seasons ago. He stayed on the course and things slowly improved.
This year, everything has come together as the Bears are off to a 3-0 start for the first time since 2006. One more win and they’ll have more victories than in any one season since 2016, which was the last time Jefferson qualified for the playoffs.
“We’ve come a long way,” Beaudrie said. “We are doing a lot of things right. We are attacking the ball, pursuing. We’re blocking together. There are still some growing pains. We are young in some areas, but they’ve come along well. They are very talented.”
Beaudrie inserted his son Luke, then a freshman, into the starting quarterback role his first year as head coach. It was an unexpected move because Luke had been a slot receiver or running back while playing youth football and middle school football. When the player Beaudrie expected to be the starting quarterback quit the team, Beaudrie turned to his son.
“He’s not a true quarterback, but he’s learning,” Beaudrie said. “He’s learned to understand the offense and read the defense. He’s a leader.”
In Jefferson’s 52-21 win over Milan on Friday, Luke Beaudrie returned a kickoff 99 yards, had touchdown runs of 65, 2, 50 and 32 and returned an interception 89 yards for a touchdown – all in the first half.
“He’s a special athlete,” Rob Beaudrie said. “He was never tackled in middle school. He’s very fast and has great vision.”
Luke said he has adapted to being the quarterback.
“When I first started, I didn’t think it was for me,” he said. “But you have to have the mindset ‘whatever is best for the team.’ I started learning it, and now I’m more comfortable.”
Through three games, Beaudrie has 487 yards rushing, 243 yards passing and has scored 13 touchdowns.
The Beaudries have used this same game plan before, but at a different school. Rob was head coach at Erie Mason, a program that had struggled. His son Noah became the starting quarterback as a freshman, went through some growing pains, but developed into an all-stater his senior season as Mason won a league championship.
Noah went on to play college football at Mount Union University (Ohio) where he quarterbacked the Purple Raiders into the Division III national championship game last season. This year, Noah transferred to Adrian College where he is the starting quarterback and has the Bulldogs off to a 2-0 start.
Being close to home has allowed him to serve as an assistant coach for Jefferson.
“The schedules line up really well,” Rob Beaudrie said. “He can be at (our) practice just about every Sunday and Monday and can be at most of our games. He helps Luke out a lot. He’s brought a lot of college experiences with him to the playbook.”
Another former player Rob had at Mason, Tanner Herrera, is helping coach the Jefferson offense.
“I didn’t want to do it all,” Beaudrie said. “I offered him the OC (offensive coordinator) job, and he’s run with it.”
Beaudrie said he thought this could be the year Jefferson turned things around. The Bears still have a difficult Huron League schedule ahead of them. This week they take on Riverview, then have Flat Rock and Division 7 No. 1-ranked Monroe St. Mary Catholic Central.
“The good thing is, these kids don’t know what they don’t know,” Beaudrie said.
Roster numbers have gone up steadily since Beaudrie took over. His first season the Bears had 23 players in the entire program. Last year they had 36 players in all and no seniors. This year Jefferson counts 61 players – plenty enough for a JV and varsity program.
“That has been a huge help,” he said.
The first two years weren’t easy as he brought his system to Jefferson. He faced skepticism over the team’s passing attack. For years, even decades, Jefferson was known for its rushing offense; at one time, the Bears would go weeks without attempting a pass.
“This is all new at Jefferson. People would tell me, ‘They don’t know anything about passing the ball; you can’t do that,’” Beaudrie said. “I told them, ‘You’d be surprised what kids can learn.’ We came in and did our thing. We were out-manned a bit the first few years.
“Sometimes the first couple of years you get a new coach in, and some people don’t like what you are doing. It wasn’t going to ruffle my feathers. I have thick skin. There’s a plan, and you have to trust the process, trust the system.
“Now, the kids are excited, the parents are excited, everyone is excited. Everybody likes a winner. I’m excited to see what happens next year as well, but we are going to enjoy these wins right now.”
Jefferson athletic director Alyssa Eppler said the football success has brought excitement to the games and district.
"There’s an incredible buzz in our school and community right now, and it’s been building for a few years now,” she said. “It’s exciting to finally see it all come together. You can feel the energy in the hallways and see it in the stands on Friday nights. Or first home game truly had the atmosphere of a homecoming. We’re proud of the momentum and what it means for our kids."
Luke Beaudrie is happy with how things have worked out, even if he had to learn a new position.
“The first few years were a little rough,” he said. “Now, everyone is starting to buy in, and everyone expects some good things the next couple of years. It feels amazing. This hasn’t happened here in a while.”
Doug Donnelly has served as a news and sports reporter at the Adrian Daily Telegram and the Monroe News for 30 years, including 10 years as city editor in Monroe. He's written a book on high school basketball in Monroe County and compiles record books for various schools in southeast Michigan. He is now publisher and editor of The Blissfield Advance, a weekly newspaper. E-mail him at [email protected] with story ideas for Jackson, Washtenaw, Hillsdale, Lenawee and Monroe counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Monroe Jefferson’s Luke Beaudrie sprints toward the end zone during a game last season. (Middle) Jefferson coach Rob Beaudrie holds a pad while Luke works on making a cut during practice. (Photos courtesy of the Monroe News.)