Shawnee Mission Northwest, Lawrence seeking new basketball coaches

After four years at Shawnee Mission Northwest High School, girls basketball coach Jeff Dickson resigned earlier this month.

Dickson, who was selected as Sunflower League Co-Coach of the Year, led the Cougars to the Kansas state quarterfinals this season and finished with a 16-7 record.

“I was completely blindsided when I was told by our new administration that they wanted to move in a different direction with the girls basketball program,” Dickson said in an email statement.

Based on that, I chose to resign my coaching position and I was told that this would not affect my teaching and I will remain a teacher at SM Northwest.”

Dickson led the Cougars to a 55-34 overall record, which included two Kansas Class 6A state tournament appearances. SM Northwest went 9-54 in the three seasons prior to his arrival.

Lawrence also made a change by firing boys basketball coach Mike Lewis, who led the program the past five seasons. The Lions went 17-5 this season and finished as substate runners-up.

“All my coaches are evaluated and I wanted to make a change,” Lawrence athletic director Bill DeWitt said.

This story was originally published April 25, 2014 at 4:06 PM with the headline "Shawnee Mission Northwest, Lawrence seeking new basketball coaches."