Lone Peak's Lewis likely moving on to college coaching

Quincy Lewis has possibly, and some say likely, coached his last basketball game at Lone Peak High School. During last week’s AAU games in Salt Lake City it was common knowledge among coaches there that Lewis is going to go after the soon-to-be-open assistant coaching job at BYU-Hawaii. Lewis once played for BYU-Hawaii head coach Ken Wagner at Dixie State, and he later began his coaching career at BYU-Hawaii. I made a call to BYU-Hawaii last week to see if Lewis had been offered the job and was told that “officially” there is no coaching position open – with “officially” being the key word. However, current Seasiders assistant Brandyn Akana was in town last week recruiting at Utah’s AAU tournament and he let many know that he’s likely going to be hired as an assistant at Hawaii under new Rainbow Warriors coach Gib Arnold. Reports in Hawaii newspapers confirm this and, reportedly, it will become official any day. Therefore, there will be an opening on Wagner’s staff. Clearly, Wagner (also BYU-Hawaii’s athletic director) and Lewis go way back and have a very good relationship, so Lewis would likely be a leading candidate to fill Akana’s position.
From what I’m being told, the only way all of this won’t happen is if Hawaii, for some reason, decides not to hire Akana or if Lewis decides the BYU-Hawaii job is not the right fit. But, there have been enough discussions already that it seems to be a job Lewis wants.
So why would Lewis want to leave Lone Peak, especially considering the load of young talent (TJ Haws, Nick Emery, Connor Toolson, Talon Shumway and Jordan Hamilton) in Lone Peak’s program? For one, it would be a big pay raise. Two, it gets his foot in the door at the college level at a place where he could move up the ladder fairly quick. Lewis – who has won three state titles in his eight seasons at Lone Peak – has long been considered a guy who would eventually move on from high school to the college level. He was offered the Dixie State job a few years ago, but said the time and situation just weren’t right. In this case, however, the time and situation seem to be perfect.