A new era is beginning for the boys’ varsity basketball team, and Cary Lewis is proud to be a part of it.
Lewis is the new head coach for the team. Although he has been on the job only a few weeks, he is already pleased with what he’s seen.

“Right now we’re very athletic,” he said. “We have kids that play hard. That excites me. We just have to learn that you have to compete every single play.”

Lewis brings a great deal of experience to the team. In the last 14 years, he has been an assistant coach at Riverview Gardens, Hazelwood East, Hazelwood Central, and Lutheran North. He was also head coach at Hazelwood West for two years.

“Coaching basketball is a passion of mine,” said Lewis, currently a counselor at Hazelwood Central. “Teaching is a passion. I love working with kids, and I’m blessed to have this job.”

Lewis has a number of goals for his players this season.

“The main thing this year I want to accomplish is getting my kids disciplined both on and off the floor,” he said. He wants to increase the focus on academics, he said, “And also just changing attitudes, getting kids to understand that winning is an attitude. I want them to have that.”

Getting the team to work together is one of Lewis’s priorities.

“We’re going to have a collective unit,” he said. “We’re going to be very unselfish. We’re going to pass the ball.”

Lewis also doesn’t plan to have any specific players dominate every game.

“There could be different stars of the game every game, because that’s how we’re going to play,” he said.
Lewis has applied to coaching positions at U. City before, and he’s thrilled to finally have the job.