Kirkwood’s Lewis retires after 32 seasons and 1,000 wins

CEDAR RAPIDS – You'll never guess where John Lewis was when he answered his cell phone early Tuesday afternoon.

OK, that's wrong. You'll definitely guess where he was.

The Kirkwood Community College baseball diamond. Old habits die hard.

When the man was zeroing in on his 1,000th-career victory in 2008, the school estimated he had spent nearly 53,000 hours of his life (six years) involved in games, practice, recruiting and traveling. And working on the field, of course.

“Part of the job,” Lewis said with a chuckle. “You go out and recruit, talk to kids. You work on the ball field. It's part of being the head coach.”

A title he doesn't have anymore.

Lewis confirmed he has retired after 32 wonderful seasons at Kirkwood. He takes a 1095-589 record with him.

“There were lots of factors involved,” he said. “I've got four grandkids in town now, and they are all involved in sports. I want to be able to watch them. My wife (Sandy) recently retired. I just think this is the right time.”

Lewis, 64, came to Kirkwood as an assistant coach in 1979, then took over the program the following year. He led the Eagles to four Junior College World Series appearances (1993, 1995, 1998, 1999), including a runner-up finish in 1995.

He was a six-time Iowa JUCO Coach of the Year winner and four-time District B Coach of the Year. His sons, Darren and Jeremy, coached with him at one point.

The school estimates Lewis coached nearly 800 players during his tenure, including two major leaguers in pitchers Wes Obermueller (Royals, Brewers, Marlins) and Willie Collazo (Mets). He obviously leaves an incredible legacy.

“He has been Kirkwood, and he will continue to be,” said Kirkwood Athletics Director Doug Wagemester. “It's hard to get your mind wrapped around what he's done with our baseball program here for 32 years.

“When you look at some of the pure numbers, it makes you really sit up and take notice. The number of hours he has put in on the field, the number of athletes he has been involved with are just astronomical.”

Wagemester said he will spend most of July finding a replacement for Lewis, who has been around so long the school's human resources department didn't have a job description for Wagemester to use when he went to post the position publicly.

“I think the things I'm most proud of are going to the World Series four times and that we've been able to build a really nice ballpark here on campus,” said Lewis, who retired from Kirkwood's Industrial Tech program in 2010.

“He's been such a fixture here for such a long time,” Wagemester said. “I'm afraid we're going to learn about a lot of things that we simply took for granted with John.”

• 29  Seasons as the Head Coach of the Eagles Baseball team
• 994 Victories (as of noon, April 16)
• Six-Time Iowa Junior College Coach of the Year
• Four JUCO World Series appearances
• Four-Time District Coach of the Year
• 29 Years as a member of the Kirkwood faculty (Industrial Technologies)
• Numerous former players now coaching baseball
• Four former players currently playing professional baseball
• An estimated 700 players coached