🥎 Justin Lewis Named Assistant Coach for Kansas Softball
LAWRENCE, Kan. – Justin Lewis has been named assistant softball coach at Kansas, KU head coach Jenifer McFalls announced today. Lewis comes to KU after serving the past three seasons as head coach at Nicholls State in Thibodaux, Louisiana.
Lewis replaces KU associate head coach and hitting coach Rich Wieligman who announced his retirement following the 2024 season.
“I am very excited about announcing the hiring of Justin Lewis,” McFalls said. “He brings significant coaching experience and is nationally known as a great recruiter. I love his energy and passion for the game and I think he will develop great relationships with our players and coaching staff. Justin will bring an aggressive approach to our offense and really taps into the mental side of the game. We look forward to welcoming Justin and his family to Lawrence.”
In his second season at Nicholls State in 2023, Lewis guided the Colonels to a 29-24 record, which was a 17-game win improvement from his inaugural season. The 17-win turnaround was the second biggest improvement in NCAA Division I. Also, in 2023, Nicholls finished third in the Southland Conference with a 13-11 record and Lewis was named the 2023 Southland Conference Coach of the Year.
This past season, Nicholls State improved by two wins, going 31-26, and finished third in the league for the second-consecutive season with a 16-8 league record. Besides the win improvements, Nicholls had multiple student-athletes named all-conference each of the last three seasons.
Prior to Nicholls State, Lewis spent one season as an assistant and primary hitting instructor at Fresno State, where the Bulldogs won the Mountain West Conference Championship and made an appearance in the 2021 NCAA Tournament.
“I’m so excited for the opportunity to become a Jayhawk,” Lewis said. “I’m so grateful to join Coach McFalls and her staff. The amount of tremendous people that I’ve met at KU has made this opportunity a no brainer. I can’t wait to get to work.”
Lewis had a brief stint as an assistant coach at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in 2020. Prior to his time at TAMUCC, Lewis served as the assistant coach at Texas A&M Kingsville. In 2019, the Javelinas set school records for wins in a season (52), winning percentage (.839) and the longest win streak (19). TAMUK won the 2019 Lone Star Conference Championship the regular season, the league tournament and the NCAA Division II South Central Regional Title advancing to the program’s first-ever trip to the NCAA Division II Women’s College World Series. TAMUK won four games in the WCWS and finished as the national runner-up.
Before returning to coaching, Lewis served as a firefighter for nine years. He was also a softball camp coach at Arizona for three years before heading to TAMUK. His college coaching experience also includes three baseball seasons at Central Arizona College in Coolidge, Arizona.
As a student-athlete, Lewis played baseball two years at Central Arizona College and then transferred to ULM, where he was an all-conference performer.
Lewis will join a Kansas Softball program that is coming off a strong 2024 campaign led by McFalls that saw the Jayhawks win 28 games and post 11 victories in the Big 12 Conference. The 28 wins were the most by Kansas since posting 31 in 2016.
