Lawrence coach Mike Lewis checks the scoreboard during the sub-state championship against against Olathe West. Lawrence lost 73-69 in overtime on Saturday, March 5, 2022.

After 14 seasons at the helm of Lawrence High’s boys basketball team, Mike Lewis resigned from his post as head coach of the program on Thursday afternoon.

Lewis, in an email to students and families, said the decision was made with the help of his family and cited “distractions away from the game” as primary reasons for the move. Lewis will continue working within the school district, serving as a physical education instructor at Southwest Middle School.

Making the final call, however, was not an easy decision for Lewis.

“It’s been something that’s been on my mind,” Lewis told the Journal-World. “You’re going to have spots within your time that you think about, ‘Do you want to continue or do you not?’ I always fell back to the positive relationships that I had with our players and with our coaches.

“That’s what really fueled me to keep coaching, was the people within our program.”

LHS won four Sunflower League titles and tallied seven consecutive substate championships between the 2015 and 2021 seasons during Lewis’ tenure. A three-time Sunflower League Coach of the Year, Lewis finishes with a 220-97 coaching career record with the Chesty Lions.

This past season, LHS finished 17-5 with a 56-40 loss to Manhattan in the substate championship at home. The Lions were ranked third in the west side of Class 6A by the end of the high school basketball season.

By the offseason, the byproducts of coaching basketball began to “outweigh the positive experiences of actually coaching basketball,” Lewis said.

“Coaching can be very consuming,” Lewis said. “That wears on you and you’re consumed by not only the good things that are going on, but also sometimes the negative things. I’m very much a Lawrence person. I’m not going anywhere, I’m simply choosing to step back.”

In addition to teaching, Lewis plans to continue coaching cross country and track at Southwest Middle.

Upon his offseason departure, Lewis hopes to be involved with the search for a new head coach alongside LHS athletic director Mike Gillman.

“(Lewis) is a phenomenal coach and a great human and always will be,” Gillman said. “I am sad that he will not be running our basketball program, but he will continue to build positive relationships with students at Southwest Middle School.”

Lewis’ resignation follows Free State boys head basketball coach Sherron Collins’ departure in late April. Free State hired former Emporia State assistant and Topeka-Hayden head coach Dwayne Paul last month.