photo by: Nathan Friedman/Special to the Journal-World

Free State head coach Mike Hill speaks to the team following the game against Shawnee Mission East on Tuesday, April 2, 2026, in Lawrence.

As long as there’s been a Free State baseball team, Mike Hill has been the one leading it.

Since the school opened in 1997, Hill has been the baseball coach, and through 29 years with Free State, Hill led the Firebirds to three state titles, four second-place finishes, 10 Sunflower League titles and over 450 wins.

But next year, the Firebirds will have their first season without Hill after he announced his retirement on Monday on social media. Hill’s announcement came two days after the 2026 Free State season ended in the state tournament in Wichita, where the Firebirds finished as the state runners-up in 2026 after winning the state tournament the year prior.

“I was eligible to retire four years ago and continued to stick around because I enjoy the kids and the game,” Hill said. “Eventually it just kind of felt like — there’s never a best time, but it felt like the right time for me and my family.”

Leaving the Free State coaching position isn’t about Hill being tired of coaching — he says he could coach for another 20 years. But with his retirement from his position as a teacher comes his retirement as the head coach at Free State.

In total, Hill has spent over 30 years coaching baseball in Lawrence and has led Free State since the school’s first year in 1998. Under his tutelage, the Firebirds have been consistently at the top of the state, reaching the state tournament 16 times, including eight in a row. Before winning the state tournament in 2025, the Firebirds had finished third in back-to-back seasons.

It took time to develop that standard of success. Hill was an assistant coach at Lawrence before taking over the head job at Free State. Starting something new was exciting, even as Hill and the Free State program had to fight to separate from Lawrence.

“We were kind of living in the shadow of LHS in those early years because we had no identity, and certainly they did,” Hill said. “I took a while to get going. Those early years were a lot of mistakes on my part, because I was trying to figure out who I was as a coach, and we had some rough days on the field. I’m just thankful that the kids stuck with us.”

There were some tough losses during those early years, but also many moments that stay with him. Free State’s first baseball game was a road doubleheader against Shawnee Mission South. Hill remembers talking with Brad Stoll — who was an assistant coach with Free State before becoming the head coach at Lawrence — about whether or not the Firebirds could keep up with the Raiders.

“I think at the end of the first inning, we were down 10 to nothing, and, of course, they ruled us,” Hill said.

But the Firebirds managed to bounce back and win the second game of the doubleheader. The result showed a resiliency and a toughness in the team that would become cornerstones of the state championship teams.

“To be successful at anything, you have to be tough-minded,” Hill said. “Whether it’s sports or what you’re doing academically or a job, it’s all the same, and the mindset and how you approach that goes a long way into determining your success.”

It was around the 2003 season that Hill saw the Firebirds start to turn it around on the field, and the success on the field came with development of the players on the team, especially those that weren’t the athletes destined for Division I athletics.

“High school athletics at the end of the day is about what you get out of the average kid, and most of our kids are average players,” Hill said. “That’s OK, that’s not a criticism. And so, for those kids, we have to be able to develop them, and they have to have the structure in place for that development to occur.”

This is a broader area in high school sports that does leave the longtime coach with concern. Putting the resources together to allow high school kids to grow and develop is something that worries Hill for the future.

In late May, Zach Thornton became the first Firebird to be called up to the big leagues with the New York Mets. With a number of Firebirds who are currently playing college baseball and more current Firebirds committed to colleges, that number could continue to grow in time. And while developing good baseball players is a major part of the job, developing kids as people was always more important.

“It’s meaningful that you can develop relationships with young men in a way that helps them not only be good baseball players, but hopefully good people,” Hill said.

In his announcement, Hill stated that he “owe(s) much to the coaches I have been honored to share the dugout with over the years” and that he is “indebted to each player I have had the honor to coach.”

In comments under the retirement announcement, former players, assistant coaches under Hill and opposing coaches across Kansas praised Hill and his impact. Hill says he has a lot of phone calls and text messages to sift through from the outpouring of support and appreciation he’s received.

Along with a new coach, Free State will bring eight Firebirds from the 2026 team into 2027 as they look to make the state tournament for the ninth straight year. For whoever comes next, Hill says he’s “always a phone call away,” and that goes for Hill’s son, Matt, who just finished his first season as the head coach of Shawnee Mission South after coaching under his dad at Free State.

But Hill made his intentions clear: his plan is to continue coaching in some capacity, not just to be a supporter of Free State and his son.

“My desire to coach and be part of the team is as strong as it’s ever been,” Hill said.