photo by: Conner Becker/Journal-World

Lawrence High head coach Nick Wood (right) and Anthony Harvey Jr. (left) have a discussion during a summer practice on Tuesday, June 27, 2023 at Lawrence High School.

There’s a lot to like about where the Lawrence High boys basketball team is headed.

Newly hired head coach Nick Wood, picked to run the boys’ program earlier this month after the departure of longtime coach Mike Lewis, is a Lawrence guy from top to bottom. After helping LHS chase down a Class 6A state title in 1995, Wood went on to assemble an extensive coaching resume both close to home and in faraway places.

Now, nearly three full weeks into the job, Wood is hosting controlled scrimmages during practice and working directly with the players he’ll welcome back onto the court after football season.

“Establishing trust throughout the whole process, that’s been the biggest thing,” Wood said.

After his playing career at Baker, Wood built up coaching experience stretching from Lawrence all the way to Muscat, Oman, where he coached boys high school basketball for four years. He then came back to Kansas to become an assistant coach to Brett Ballard (a 2003 KU graduate) at Washburn for the 2018-19 season.

Wood, who briefly served as LHS’ athletic director during the 2020-21 academic year, is back at the helm of the very team that molded his coaching career.

“It’s a huge responsibility and it means the world to be able to have it,” Wood said. “Now, to be in charge of (LHS boys basketball), it’s such a huge honor to be able to do that and it’s not anything I take lightly, at all. I’m super hungry and motivated to go attack this.”

He’ll have his work cut out for him, because the team’s expectations are as high as ever. Last season ended in a Class 6A substate battle with Manhattan that kept LHS (17-5) out of the state tournament for a second consecutive year.

To regain momentum, Wood called up Anthony Harvey Jr. (a 2016 LHS graduate) to become his assistant head coach. Harvey, who played college ball at Newman in Wichita up until 2020, is moving over to LHS from Billy Mills Middle School, where he served as head boys basketball coach.

“It’s nice to be somewhere where I kind of grew as a man,” Harvey said. “Playing here on a Friday night was probably the most magical thing to see in the state of Kansas. When I was playing here, (Wood) was the girls’ head coach, and when he came to me with this crazy idea of an eighth-grade coach going up to the varsity assistant, I was all for it.”

Wood and Harvey both understand the high expectations associated with LHS basketball. It’s those standards, Wood says, that stick with each athlete long after high school.

“My goal for them, and why we’re running this program, is to grow as basketball players, grow as individuals and compete for championships,” Wood said. “When they’re done playing basketball at Lawrence, or in general, what skill set and tools will they have as individuals?”

LHS, like several other area basketball teams, will enter a dead period from July 3 through 9 for the holiday weekend.