All in all, it was a pretty good birthday for Austin head coach Jens Levisen at Art Hass Stadium Tuesday night.

The top-seeded Packers advanced to the Section 1A title game with a 4-1 win over Byron and Levisen also achieved a personal milestone as the win was his 150th of his career as head coach of the Packers.

Levisen began coaching most of this year’s seniors as youth players and it’s been a little surreal for him to see the team grow into a state contender at the varsity level over the past few years.

“It’s crazy how quickly things go by,” Levisen said. “It’s crazy to think that I had a bunch of these guys as players when they were eight years old and you look at them now and they’re seniors in high school and they’re very confident players. They’ve put in a lot of time and it’s cool to see how they’ve grown and the confidence they have as they play as a team.”

The Packers have made big strides under Levisen, playing in two state tournaments — they took third last year — and winning the only two Big Nine titles in school history.

Austin senior Juan Vera grew up watching Levisen coach the Packers and he’s been glad to have a chance to play with the varsity team this season.

“That’s crazy that he has 150 wins,” Vera said. “Growing up, he’s always been a big role model for us. He never really talked us when we were younger and we always wanted to grow up and play for his team. That’s what we’re doing now. It’s going good. He’s a great coach.”