Wayne High School Parts Ways With Coach Brewer After Three Winning Seasons
Wayne parts ways with Anthony Brewer despite a 53-23 record, two SAC titles, and a regional championship, opening a search to replace its most successful recent coach.
Anthony Brewer built Wayne High School basketball into one of Fort Wayne's most competitive programs, winning two Summit Athletic Conference titles, a sectional championship, a regional crown, and 53 games across three seasons. The school announced April 6 it is parting ways with him regardless.
The decision surprised portions of the coaching community. Brewer had been named the 2023-24 Outside the Huddle Boys Basketball Coach of the Year after leading the Generals through a sectional and regional title run, the program's most decorated postseason in years.
The 2025-26 campaign, though, complicated the case for continuity. Wayne finished 13-12, secured one postseason victory, then was routed by Homestead 80-48 in the IHSAA Class 4A tournament. The program that had twice stood atop the Summit Athletic Conference ended the winter well short of that standard.
Brewer's ties to Wayne ran deep before he ever ran a practice as head coach. A graduate of Fort Wayne's North Side High School who also drew on experience as an assistant at Concordia, he spent four seasons working under Byron Pickens at Wayne before stepping into the top job. Pickens had restored the program's postseason credibility, guiding the Generals to their first regional championship in four decades before leaving the area. Brewer sustained that momentum with a regional crown of his own in 2024, back-to-back coaching regimes producing what the program had not managed in a generation.
What the next coach inherits is a roster with legitimate returning production. Junior Tyree Eldridge averaged 15.0 points per game this past season and comes back as a senior. Sophomore Javontae Eldridge contributed 7.5 points per game and enters the coaching search with two seasons of eligibility remaining. The athletic department confirmed that offseason workouts and spring skill sessions will continue under interim or assistant staff, preserving development structure while the search unfolds.
Wayne is accepting applications through district hiring procedures. Regional championships have been rare enough in the program's history that consecutive coaching eras each producing one redefined what the Generals are capable of. Whoever takes over now steps into a program with an established ceiling and the returners to chase it.
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