photo by: Mike Shaw/Special to the Journal-World

Lawrence head coach Clint Bowen looks at his sheet during a game at Shawnee Mission West on Friday, Nov. 1, 2024, in Overland Park.

Lawrence High School football coach Clint Bowen will no longer be coaching the Lions and has instead decided to explore other coaching options outside of the high school level.

Bowen, a 1990 graduate of Lawrence High School, took the position in 2021 and went 26-15 in four seasons. Prior to that, he spent most of his career as a defensive assistant coach for the University of Kansas, where he also played from 1991 to 1994.

“Coaching high school football is very rewarding,” Bowen said. “The players make everything you have to deal with outside of football worth it. They’re at an age where they are truly friends with each other. They want to play. They enjoy it. High school football is a huge part of their lives.”

The Lions went 4-5 in 2024 and finished their season with a loss in the first round of the playoffs against Shawnee Mission East.

During his time coaching Lawrence, Bowen coached his two sons, Baylor and Banks. Banks, the younger of the two, signed with the University of Tulsa to play quarterback on Wednesday. Bowen said he’s looking forward to being able to watch Banks grow and compete as a college football player while being his dad again and not his football coach.

“(Coaching Baylor and Banks) doesn’t make up for a lot of the lost time when I was coaching college football, but it was probably one of the best experiences of my life to be able to see them and be a part of their day-to-day journey playing a sport,” Bowen said.

While it won’t be at Lawrence High School, Bowen expects to continue coaching in some capacity. Bowen started his coaching career as a graduate assistant at KU in 1996 and earned a full-time assistant coaching job there in 2001. Bowen spent almost his entire college coaching career with the Jayhawks, except one year at Western Kentucky in 2010 and two separate one-year stops at North Texas.

“I’m not really ruling anything out at this time, but I just know that it was time for me to step away from Lawrence High School,” Bowen said.