Patrick Naughton, assistant wrestling coach at Lawrence High the past five years, has been promoted to Lions’ head wrestling coach, LHS athletic director Ron Commons announced Tuesday.

“Pat brings great enthusiasm to the wrestling program. He’s such a loyal person to the Lawrence school system,” Commons said of the 38-year-old Naughton, who worked as head coach at South Junior High 10 years and Central two.

“It’s been an honor assisting the coaches and working with the students at Lawrence High,” Naughton said. “We will have a fairly young team. We lose six state qualifiers, two state placers, but return four state qualifiers. We have a good nucleus to build around.”