Greg Hansen: Former CDO standout, Golder Ranch firefighter thankful for new job, direction

Happy Thanksgiving? Few have a more Thanksgiving-type story than former Canyon del Oro High School baseball player Justin Lewis.

CDO plans to celebrate its eight state championship baseball teams at a reunion Friday afternoon, and you might imagine the fascinating conversation Lewis, Class of ’94, could have with his former teammates.

“What have you been up to all these years, Justin?”

“How much time do you have?” Lewis might say.

“I lost track of you after we won the ’94 state title. Did you play any more baseball?”

“I got cut by Pima College and went to work for Jim Click Ford, washing cars. I was sort of a knucklehead. Took me a while to figure things out. The 45-year-old Justin has changed a lot from the 20-year-old Justin.”

“Glad to hear that, but I thought you might’ve made your career in sports.”

“Oh, I went back to baseball. A year or so later, I tried out at Central Arizona College, eventually made the team and became a starting center fielder. Then I transferred to Louisiana-Monroe and made the all-conference team.”

“Any pro ball?”

“No. I went back to Central Arizona and coached ex-Dorados Ian Kinsler and Scott Hairston, who both got to the big leagues. But I was only making $18,000 a year as an assistant coach, so had to get a real job.”

“Don’t tell me you’re selling cars. …”

“Well, I did sell cars. I sold mortgages, too. I sold manufactured homes. I worked on the maintenance crew at the Starr Pass golf course. I moved to Phoenix and to Texas and to Kansas. Then I moved back to Tucson and became a firefighter and EMT at Golder Ranch for 10 years. Played a bunch of fastpitch softball. Couldn’t get sports and coaching out of my blood.”

“Wife? Kids?”

“I married a sweetheart from CDO, my old classmate, Amy Reimer. Remember her? She was a terrific basketball and softball player. Amy has been a teacher and professor all these years. We have two kids. She’s a saint, putting up with all my career moves. Our son, Jack, has autism but he’s very functional. So I started a non-profit to support autism. I even wrote a book and started a podcast.”

“Do you ever regret getting out of coaching?”

“Oh, I got back into coaching. Amy convinced me it was the right thing to do, even though we both had secure jobs in Tucson. We moved to Texas and I coached Division III softball. I was almost 40 but it all clicked. Now I’m a head coach in Division I softball, at Nicholls State. That’s in Thibodaux, Louisiana.”

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“How did you pull that off?”

“I contacted Mike Candrea at Arizona and asked if I could help coach at his camps. I was just some random firefighter calling him up and asking him for a chance. Pretty crazy. But he didn’t blow me off. Mike interviewed me for two hours one day and gave me a shot. He expects the best and I liked the challenge. Mike is the godfather of softball, If you can work for him, you’ve got a chance.”

“And then you jumped to Division I head coaching? Just like that?”

“It wasn’t that simple. I coached three years at Texas A&M-Kingsville. We almost won the 2019 NCAA championship. We were No. 2 at the World Series. Then I moved up to A&M-Corpus Christi, a D-I school. I went back to school along the way, getting up at 5 a.m. to do my schoolwork. I got my master’s degree with a 3.98 GPA. As I said, nothing comes easy. While we were there, Hurricane Ida almost wiped us out. It has been quite a journey.’’

“Did you ever hear from Candrea again?”

“He phoned a year or so ago and told me Fresno State needed a hitting coach. He gave me his endorsement. I got the job and the next thing you know we’re playing No. 2 UCLA in extra innings at the NCAA Regionals. That was a good thing to put on the résumé when I applied for the Nicholls State job.”

“Jeez, that’s quite a story, Justin. Almost like an HBO movie.”

“Sometimes I just shake my head thinking of all the different paths I’ve taken. Four and a half years ago I was driving a firetruck. When you get to 40 and you don’t have head coaching experience, your chances of getting a D-1 job are pretty slim.”

“Have you been able to visit with our old coach, Phil Wright?”

“When I see Coach Wright, I’m going to apologize for running around Tucson with my head on fire as a young kid. I thanked him at my press conference when I became the head coach at Nicholls State. He coached all those big-leaguers like Colin Porter, Jason Stanford and the Duncan brothers. But he didn’t give up on me.”

“Turns out you didn’t give up on yourself, either.”

“I got a lot of drive from my dad, Terry. He was in the Marines. He’s an expert mechanic, retired now, enjoying life. We started out living in a mobile home in a not-so-nice neighborhood, but it didn’t stop him. I had a good role model. He pushed me hard.”

“Can you win at Nicholls State?”

“We finished 11th out of 12 in the Southland Conference last year, but we’ve got a good tradition. We were 40-15 in 2018 and 37-20 a year earlier. I love the challenge of returning us to power. We’re not ready to go to Tucson and play Arizona at Hillenbrand Stadium. But that would be a special homecoming someday.”

Happy Thanksgiving, indeed.