COMMUNITY JOURNALISM: John Lewis gets WS title

Editor's note: Darren Lewis, 37, of Cedar Rapids, son of former Kirkwood baseball coach John Lewis, played for his father at Kirkwood in 1994-95 and played at St. Ambrose in 1996-97. He continues to play baseball for Red Top in the Iowa Valley League.

By Darren Lewis, community contributor

After coaching 1,684 games - and winning 1,095 of them - and being inducted into the Iowa Baseball Coaches Hall of Fame, legendary coach John Lewis finally has captured his first World Series title.

But this wasn't for the Kirkwood Eagles or as a head coach.

Lewis now serves as the assistant coach to his son, Darren, on the Cedar Rapids Reds 8U squad that won the Global Sports World Series in Des Moines late last month.

The World Series is nothing new for Lewis and his son. In 1995, with Darren playing center field and batting leadoff for Kirkwood, the Eagles finished second at the NJCAA Division II World Series in Millington, Tenn. In 1998, with Darren as an assistant coach, the Eagles finished third.

The third time was indeed a charm.

John Lewis had been retired for all of about three months when Darren called and asked him to be an assistant last August.

“The Reds asked me to be the head coach and I told them I'd do it if I could talk my father into coaching with me,” Darren said.

The chance to once again coach with his son and also coach his grandson (Bronx) made the decision to “un-retire” pretty easy. Flash forward 10 months and the Reds 8U team capped off a 42-9 season by winning the Global Sports World Series.

Along the way, the team won six tournaments with had two second-place finishes, one of those the 8AAA state tournament in Des Moines. The Reds also went undefeated and captured the Positive Sports Training (PST) 8U league title.

For more information on the Reds, visit www.crreds.com