Aug 9, 2025
T-R PHOTO BY RUBY F. MCALLISTER Gladbrook-Reinbeck Class of 2025 graduate Drew Eilers, center, pictured on Wednesday, July 30, in the high school main gym with his 2024-25 Corn Belt Award and Scholarship check. Also pictured, Ben Kuhl of Conrad, left, district sales manager with Wyffels Hybrids, and Brett Cooper, Director of Partnerships for Bound. Both Bound and Wyffels sponsored the new award.
REINBECK – For all the accolades Drew Eilers has reaped during his high school career at Gladbrook-Reinbeck, his most recent – the 2024-25 Spring-Summer Corn Belt Award and Scholarship from Bound and Wyffels Hybrids – might just be his ‘sweetest’ yet.
On Wednesday, July 30, right at quitting time, Drew, a Class of 2025 graduate, made his way into the high school main gymnasium to accept the inaugural award after spending much of the day in the old Pronto Market parking lot on the east side of town selling his homegrown sweet corn.
“It’s quite an honor,” G-R head track coach Kurt Luring said as reps from both Bound and Wyffels Hybrids, G-R activities director Brian Grooms, and Drew’s parents Jeremy and Jessica Eilers gathered under the basketball hoop for photos. As part of the award, which began during Iowa’s 2024-25 high school season and was bestowed on two (male and female) senior student-athletes per season, Drew received a signature championship belt and $1,000 scholarship.
“We asked for nominations throughout the state. Drew’s was one of over 1,000 nominations [we received],” Brett Cooper, Director of Partnerships for Bound, said while addressing the small gathering in the gym. The nomination pools for both the male and female winners were narrowed down to 10 each, he further explained, before names were removed and a pool of judges including from the Des Moines Register conducted a blind vote to determine the winners.
Eligible student-athletes for the Corn Belt Award must be in their senior year of high school, maintain a GPA of 3.0 or higher, and showcase “high character” while being a “leader on his/her team and in their school.”
Nominees must also positively impact both their community and their teammates.
“He’s more than earned it,” Coach Luring said in reference to the “positive impact” requirement before bringing up the time Drew, who played quarterback for the Rebels, cooked his entire offensive line breakfast.
The sheer number of awards and honors Drew has racked up during his four years playing varsity football, basketball, track and field (a sport he admits he “did to get better at other sports”), and baseball is enough to inflate many a student’s ego. Additionally, he was involved in the school musical, band, speech, FFA, student council, and National Honor Society. But Drew just shakes his head, drops his gaze to the floor, and smiles humbly when asked to comment on all he has achieved.
This past school year alone he was one of the T-R Player of the Year picks for both fall and winter after guiding his teams to the 8-player state football final – the school’s first appearance ever at 8-player – and the Class 1A boys basketball state tournament.
“Eilers, a 6-foot-3 senior, averaged a team-leading 15.8 points and 10.3 rebounds per game to help the Rebels to a 23-4 record that concluded with a loss to defending state champion Bellevue Marquette in [the] 1A state semifinals,” the T-R wrote this past spring. “[He] shot an impressive 60.2 percent from the field this season [and] averaged 15.5 points and 6.5 rebounds per game at state, including clutch free-throw shooting in the Rebels’ quarterfinal win over North Linn.”
But Drew’s humility seems to be what sets him apart from the crowd, at least in the local community where his reputation for being kind while growing some of the best sweet corn around – selling it with a smile! – remains unmatched.
“Drew rents 10 acres from his (paternal) grandpa (Roy Helmers) and 0.6 of this is sweet corn and the rest is commercial corn. This is his second year doing this,” Drew’s mom Jessica explained to the newspaper. When asked if he had any tips for future sweet corn entrepreneurs, Jessica relayed her son’s advice: “Plant early, plant it at different times, plant heavy at the start which is 30,000 seeds an acre and then anywhere down to 25,000 at the end.”
In terms of preparing sweet corn, Drew didn’t have any specific tips for cooks – simply boiling it and tucking in works best for him.
By the time this story goes to print, Drew will be done shucking corn and on to cultivating his next adventure – attending the University of Wisconsin-Platteville where he plans to major in ag business, minor in agronomy, and play defensive end for the Pioneer football team. He chose UW-Platteville, he said, due to the fact there are – stunningly – no NCAA Division III schools in Iowa with ag programs.
“It’s an easy drive,” Drew said of the distance to Platteville. And a pretty one, too, especially in the fall, Coach Luring added.
And while he’s hanging up his corn knife for now – sweet corn sales ceased this past week – Drew certainly isn’t done for good as he hopes to one day take up farming north of Reinbeck on family land alongside his grandpa.
“We are very proud of him,” Jessica said.
Copyright © 2025 Marshalltown Newspaper, LLC | https://www.timesrepublican.com | 135 West Main Street, Marshalltown, IA 50158 | 641-753-6611