WEST CANAAN — Britt Lewis knows what high school sports can mean to a community. He is from Texas, after all.

But Lewis, Mascoma High’s fourth head baseball coach in the last three years, knows academics come first and that strong athletics programs can also help students and schools succeed academically.

“I love sports, absolutely love sports, especially at the high school level. Academics are priority one,” Lewis said. “The sports are fun; you get a lot out of the sports. But at the end of the day, if it comes down to academics or sports, we focus on the academics.

“Baseball can keep them focused, it can give them direction, it can give them drive to want to do better, but the academics is what’s going to get them to that next level.”

That disciplined approach Lewis emphasizes in class extends to the field as well. And the Royals will certainly need it if they want to even make the postseason this year. This is a program that has won a total of 18 games over the last eight seasons, making the playoffs just once — and that was only because of the localized schedule during the Royals’ winless pandemic-shortened 2021 campaign.

Hunter Campbell stepped in as head coach last year following four seasons under Dave Isom, but Campbell was fired early in the season due to inappropriate contact with students. Aaron Bryce, the junior varsity coach, stepped in as acting head coach of the varsity squad for the remainder of the season, but he relocated to California, leaving the job available once again.

That opened the door for Lewis, whose son, Ethan, is a sophomore catcher and infielder on this year’s team. Britt Lewis began helping out at practices and games last year after Campbell left the picture, and he decided he liked it enough to want to lead the program.

“He was one of only a few who applied,” Mascoma athletic director Stephen Stebbins said. “He seemed like he was the right fit. He’s got a lot of good energy, positive for the kids in many aspects. He supports what we do at the school; he’s always after the kids about keeping their grades up. He’s been a very positive influence on these kids.”

Lewis grew up in Dodd City, Texas — population 369, as of the 2010 U.S. Census — and played baseball and basketball in high school there before his college basketball career at Howard Payne University ended after one semester due to a knee injury. He went on to serve in the U.S. Marine Corps, then began raising his family in northeast Texas and was involved in coaching his kids’ youth baseball and softball teams.

When Lewis’ wife, a nurse practitioner, was recruited by Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, the family left its familiar surroundings and resettled in Enfield. Lewis now works in the West Lebanon office at Novo Nordisk, an international biopharmaceutical company.

The Upper Valley sports scene came as something of a surprise to the lifelong Texan, who was used to neatly manicured fields with lights and bleachers even in small towns. But he said Stebbins has been working to upgrade the facilities at Mascoma and has been impressed with the school district overall.

“We’ve had a track team for a long time, and we still don’t have a track,” Lewis said. “I’m hoping that we can get some electricity on this field and play some night games for football and baseball and softball. Where we came from, the sports programs are very important down there.”

The Royals fell, 13-7, to Raymond in Tuesday’s season opener, their first of three games in as many days. Mascoma is led by a deep sophomore class, including outfielder Andrew Prince, who drove in three runs with a pair of singles in the first two innings Tuesday.

With Ethan Lewis also part of that sophomore class, Britt Lewis said he is planning to stick around at least until his son graduates and possibly beyond that — many of the teams he coached in Texas did not include any of his children.

“They’re resilient. They’re a tough group,” Lewis said. “They have a lot of reasons to have a poor-me attitude, and we haven’t had the best track record with wins and losses.

“The unfortunate thing when you start having long-term records of loss, it’s very easy to get down on yourself and expect that to be the norm. I don’t think that’s the case with this group.”

Benjamin Rosenberg can be reached at brosenberg@vnews.com or 603-727-3302.

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