It wasn’t expected, but Lawrence High will have a new cross country coach this fall.

Longtime LHS cross country coach Brian “Chip” Anderson resigned at the end of the school year and was replaced by Laura Koster, who was an assistant cross country coach last year. Previously, Koster coached cross country for three years at Kansas City (Kan.) Bishop Ward.

But it wasn’t Anderson’s intention to step down from coaching this season. He retired as a math teacher at the end of the school year but wanted to continue coaching.

A new rule in the state’s working-after-retirement system ended any chance of that.

Anderson said the Kansas Public Employees Retirement System (KPERS) requires school districts to post coaching jobs for 60 days when coaches retire from teaching.

There is a provision for KPERS retirees that says retirees “can’t communicate in any way with (their) employer about an intent to return to work before (they) retire and during the 60-day waiting period” after retiring. Additional penalties for violating this rule went into effect on July 1.

When Anderson decided he wanted to remain cross country coach after retiring as a teacher, he talked to school officials, including principal Matt Brungardt, about keeping his coaching position. He learned a week later that his discussions were a violation and he would lose his chance to coach for the upcoming year — to the surprise of everyone involved.

“I already talked to the principal about it before I knew all of this stuff,” Anderson said. “That automatically constituted a prearrangement. I got a letter saying they cannot hire me because of the prearrangement clause.”

“None of us really thought that was an option,” LHS athletic director Bill Dewitt said. “Kind of a terrible rule, in my opinion. Fortunately, Laura teaches there in the building and coached at her previous school. She runs with the kids. It’s just nice to have somebody on staff who can transition over that the kids know. I think she’ll do a really good job.”

Disappointed, Anderson said there was nothing he could do after the violation to continue coaching. He said he plans to volunteer at cross country and track meets, and he has helped Koster with the transition from assistant to head coach.

“In the past, we used to able to continue coaching,” Anderson said. “Now there’s a new thing. The reason to me that they said was something with the treasury and IRS. The rules have something in there that say we can’t have anything prearranged for those 60 days, then if something were open, then we could try to get back in. They are trying to cut out the hanging on to part of your job.”

Anderson was the head coach for 13 seasons, leading the Lions to boys cross country state championships in 2008 and 2009.

In the spring, Anderson coached distance runners during track season.

“I owe my entire career here to him,” said Jennifer Taylor, an ’08 graduate and one of the two new assistant coaches for the cross country team. “He really developed me as an athlete and really developed my love for track and field.”

Koster has led the Lions in daily morning runs this summer and is excited to continue working with runners she started training last year.

“My goals are to get more than one runner to state,” said Koster, looking to improve on last season’s total. “Obviously, we want to get the whole team, but really just working on a team concept and trying to have the kids run together in a group.”