When Chris Lewis welcomes me into the cozy luxury of his Cushman & Wakefield office near the Long Beach airport, it is hard to imagine him the way he was when his journey began.  Today, he's a commercial real estate broker who has played professional football on three teams spanning two continents, he holds a California state passing record and a degree in Urban Studies from Stanford, and is just a few days away from being inducted into the Long Beach Poly Football Hall of Fame, this Sunday at the Grand.  But back then, Lewis says, "I wasn't just an outsider, I was the outsider."  Lewis, unlike many of his Poly brethren, didn't grow up on Poly's Eastside, but in the suburbs of East Long Beach.  He came to Poly because he was a magnet student in the CIC (Center for International Commerce) academy, and to play volleyball.

Once on campus, a freshman coach who'd seen him play Pop Warner (he wasn't part of any of the programs associated with Poly) had to convince him to come out for the football team.  "I went out there in my volleyball gear—I was going to play at the beach, so I was wearing flip-flops and shorts, and a little shirt, and the kids were looking at me like, 'Who the hell is this?'  But I threw the ball around a little in my flip-flops and they convinced me to come out again the day after.  They got me."  Did they ever—what Poly got out of Lewis was not only the best quarterback in the school's illustrious history, but arguably one of the best quarterbacks in the history of the state at the prep level.

Lewis' senior year, he threw for over 3,000 yards, and tossed 43 touchdowns and only six interceptions—even while sitting the second half of most Moore League contests.  His career stats are staggering: a 56% completion rate, 8,617 yards, and a still state-record 107 touchdown passes (the previous record, set more than thirty years ago, was 91).  But his young teammates could be forgiven for not seeing that in the skinny kid from the other side of town who showed up in sandals.  Especially given who his competition was.  "The other quarterback I was competing against, Robert Hollie, he was a local guy, he'd been playing with them since they were eight.  Those were all his best friends, and I'm walking in like, I should be at Millikan.  So I come in and kept quiet and, over time, hoped that I could prove to these guys that I belong.  It took a while." 

Lewis has made a habit out of proving he belonged.  In high school, while making friends on the football team, he also excelled at volleyball, where he was a member of the USA Volleyball Junior National Championship team his senior year, and also earning all-Moore League honors.  In between practices and games, Lewis hit the books hard, pulling down a 4.0 GPA.  "Coming from an environment where my mom's a middle school teacher, she knew when report cards were coming out, she knew my teachers on a first-name basis," says Lewis.  "Education was stressed in my family, and it was a tool they used.  You want to play sport, you have to make sure you don't just have average grades—we want all As.  If you mix in a couple of Bs, we're not going to be mad.  But it was just, shoot for the stars."

Even as accolades like Gatorade Player of the Year made Lewis realize a pro career was probably within his grasp, he shot higher—"Don't get me wrong," says Lewis, "I absolutely love football.  The love for it grew over time for me—but football wasn't me.  I knew even if I had the longest NFL career, I would still be retired by my mid-thirties—unless I was Brett Favre, maybe it would be my nineties.  But I knew that life after football would be longer, so I chose to go to Stanford because it gave me the best chance to reach my potential."

At Stanford, he enrolled in the Urban Studies program, since it was the closest thing to an architecture degree he could find there.  While taking classes, he fell in love with learning about how cities work—but his work on the football field earned him a spot on the Arizona Cardinals after graduating.  He describes his time under Denny Green as being spent, "Riding the pine, practicing my butt off, and waiting for the opportunity.  In the NFL, sometimes it comes, and sometimes it doesn't."  For Lewis, who fit in just fine on the team as he roomed with Poly teammate Larry Croom, the opportunity didn't come—he spent the next season in Germany in the NFL Europ, playing for the Centurions. 

It was there that Lewis felt his journey in football was coming to an end—not in frustration, but in reflection.  "I saw a lot of the country, had a blast—I came to terms with being ready to move on.  I had such a fun career, so many great games at Poly, at Stanford, I enjoyed my time in Arizona, and now I was in Europe, and I was just happy.  Football had taken me to so many places."  After finishing the season, Lewis went to the Bay Area and interned with Cushman & Wakefield, a position he got through a Stanford connection.  While interning, he played for the San Jose AFL team ("Just to be drawing a salary"), practicing with them in the morning, then throwing on his suit to go to work. 

Then, in August of 2006, he came home, to begin the next chapter of his life.  But even that homecoming was a new set of hurdles.  "You know, you come here and you don't make any money until you start doing deals—so this was getting into a whole new game, learning business and how to deal with people."  While getting his start, Lewis moved back in with his mom until he began earning enough money to establish himself.

Now, already on his second career just ten years after graduating from Poly, Lewis wants to help raise more money for the school, and to help implement positive change in his hometown—it's a lot of new work to adjust to, but adjusting is something he's gotten good at over the years.  And besides, he knows that at this point, there's no need to rush.  "I'm going to be here," he says.  "I'm a Long Beach guy, and I'm not going anywhere."

If you're interested in seeing the induction of Lewis and his fellow soon-to-be Hall of Famers, including Willie McGinest and Jerry Jaso, the ceremony will be at the Grand on Sunday, at 3pm.  You can purchase tickets by clicking on the Poly Football Boosters ad on our right column.