Eagles Baseball grew into dominant program under John Lewis
After 32 years and more than 1,000 wins, Kirkwood Community College Head Baseball Coach John Lewis announced his retirement from coaching.
“I’ll miss coming out to the park, miss the guys,” said Lewis. “I’ll miss working alongside the Kirkwood facilities crew to keep this field looking in great shape.”
Lewis took over as head coach in 1981, a year after coming to the program as an assistant. “My first year we had to play our games at Jones Park. We didn’t have any money. We couldn’t go on a spring trip, could hardly pass out any scholarships. We had old uniforms and I could only afford one part-time assistant. We needed money to build the program.”
And build a program he did. Lewis’s teams only had one losing record, finishing with an overall mark of 1095-589, with four trips to the National Junior College Athletic Association World Series. Lewis has six times been named the Iowa Junior College Coach of the Year, in addition to the District B Coach of the Year four times. Last January Lewis was inducted into the Iowa High School Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame.
Lewis’s Eagles finished second place in the nation in 1995, which was a special year for the coach. “My son Darren played on that team that took second place,” said Lewis. “After he finished college he came back to Kirkwood as an assistant coach the year we finished in third place (1998).”
Darren wasn’t the only Lewis son at Kirkwood. John’s son Jeremy coached for three years after a four-year career at the University of Iowa and three years of professional baseball in the Chicago Cubs organization.
“To spend so much time away from my family while coaching was really tough. It was hard on us all, but having my sons come through and be a part of the program was really something I’ll never forget,” added Lewis.
Nineteen of Lewis’ former players were drafted into professional baseball. Pitchers Willie Collazo (New York Mets) and Wes Obermueller (Kansas City Royals, Milwaukee Brewers, Florida Marlins) both made it to the majors. That’s something Lewis is very proud of. “It’s good to know you were able to help some guys out along the way to achieving their dreams.”
While successful in turning out talent, Lewis said recruiting players into the program was probably the toughest part of the job, having to compete with four-year schools and the other 12 Iowa community colleges for the same group of talent.
“Our number one goal each year was to get the best high school players in Iowa to come to Kirkwood. That was always a challenge. Until 1995 we didn’t have a field on campus. Once we got this great field, kids started to really take the program seriously.”
On average Kirkwood brings in between 15-17 recruits each year, with 5-6 coming from Iowa. Lewis said being at a two-year school means each year is drastically different than the previous ones.
“Sometimes we’d get guys to come in and play for two years. Some of them would stay for a year and have four-year school knocking on their doors. Others would only be here a semester before transferring or being drafted. We always had to go out and keep finding top-talent for our team.”
Many of Coach Lewis’s former players went on to careers in coaching. The University of Illinois, Texas A&M University and Texas A&M Corpus Christi all currently have a Kirkwood feel in the dugout. Three former Eagles, Brian Miller, Casey Pauli and Will Scholer, are currently on staff at Kirkwood.
“We’re all proud of the work Coach Lewis has done with this program,” said Kirkwood Athletic Director Doug Wagemester. “Not only has he turned out all of these great teams and great players, but he’s done it in the right way. Coach Lewis will be a hard guy to replace, on the diamond, and in the office. He’s done a great job of putting Kirkwood on the map nationally.”
After retiring from 32 years as a full-time CAD/Mechanical Engineering professor at the college last year, Lewis said he’s looking forward to the next chapter in life. He said he’s not sure what that will be just yet; he wants to let retirement sink in for a while. “After more than 30 years of 12-hour days, between coaching and teaching, this full-time retirement is going to seem a little odd, “ he said. Lewis added that baseball is still a part of who he is, and at the very least, he’ll have his eye on the local baseball scene.
The college is now looking for a new head coach and taking applications.