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Joe Lewis was hired May 28 as head football coach at High Point High School, becoming the school's fourth head football coach in as many seasons. The Prince George's County Public Schools' Athletic Office confirmed the hiring. Lewis replaces Gary Dandridge, who stepped down after last season to accept another position in South Carolina.

Lewis is a familiar name to the county football scene. From 1999-2003, he was the head coach at DuVal High, where he compiled an 18-31 record. He most recently was the head coach at Reservoir High in Howard County from 2004-07, where his teams went 16-24.

But after a season away from the game, he is eager for the task of resurrecting a downtrodden High Point program.

"I'm very excited," Lewis said. "Me and my top assistants [offensive assistant Troy Cook and defensive coordinator Michael McCullough], we talked about this over and over. What an opportunity this is. There is a great challenge ahead of us. We are appreciative of the opportunity to take this challenge."

Lewis said the Eagles finished last season with about 25 players, and about a third of them graduated. Both Dandridge last season and Marvin Jackson, who coached High Point in 2007, were late hires. Dandridge wasn't named to the position until about a month before the season opener. Greg Hill coached the Eagles in 2006, but was not retained after the season.

The Lewis era at the Beltsville school also is getting a late start, since coaches coordinate offseason conditioning and training throughout the year.

"That subject comes up every day," said Lewis. "We have a good coaching staff coming in here. I went to DuVal when they had gone through four coaches in four years and I stayed there for five years. I was at Reservoir for five years, and for seven years, I was on the staff at Walter Johnson [in Montgomery County]. I told the kids to not worry about us leaving them. We will be here a lot longer than most of them will be. I know those are just words. They have heard that from other coaches in the past, only to have them walk away. We will not walk away from them."

High Point endured a difficult 2008 season, going 0-10. The Eagles allowed 48.1 points per game, while scoring just 14 points, all of which came in the final game of the season against Parkdale High. They have won just 20 games this decade.

"These kids do have a lot of character traits that can add up to success," Lewis said. "They have had a lot of resiliency and perseverance to have gone through what they have been through. But they have what it takes to succeed."

Lewis said the team is in "cram mode" to get in as much offseason work as it can. But he said he feels they will be ready this season.

"We'll want to take care of business at home first in our backyard," Lewis said. "We want to make sure the focus is on us. We will be all about school, team and family."