He left politics and Wall Street for education. He refs and coaches. Now he's got 100 wins
Kevin Lawrence excitedly yelled for everyone around him to listen up.
The Red Lion baseball coach had just accepted a plaque honoring his latest achievement. But that wasn't what he wanted to talk about. His assistant and former player, Chase Morris, had just found out he was accepted to Syracuse's sports management program.
Lawrence bellowed the news with pride while wrapping Morris in a bearhug.
"He's so worried about other people before himself," his son, Red Lion junior shortstop Connor Lawrence, said afterward. "That's something I try to model myself after.
"That quality is something I don't take for granted."
Lawrence reached his 100th win as Red Lion's baseball coach when the Lions beat Northeastern, 7-2, at home Wednesday afternoon. He currently has a 100-56-1 career record midway through his eighth season with the program. The Lions are off to a 6-0 start this spring.
He's led the program to five District 3 playoff appearances — including a trip to the 6A title game and a state playoff win in 2018. And he's the first one to put those accomplishments in perspective, pointing out the Lions have won "no championships" but still set the program record for wins twice during that stretch.
But Lawrence's win tally is just a small part of the legacy he's created in York County.
There might not be an individual more involved in the local sports scene than the 49-year-old Lawrence. A social studies teacher at Susquehannock High School, he serves as the public address announcer for Warriors football games. He's a longtime PIAA basketball official. And he's run multiple youth baseball programs while coaching a varsity team.
And he's carried out those duties with a disarming mix of energy, intensity and nuanced wisdom. Lawrence will bench a star player for a poor attitude, then explain why it was a learning experience for both of them. He'll sum up a monumental victory with a speech on the importance of making memories with childhood friends.
He's been known to send heartfelt, handwritten notes to former players, coaches and even the sports writers who cover him. In the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, he instructed his players to write letters to doctors and nurses at WellSpan York Hospital.
He's publicly advocated for better dialogue about mental health and the treatment of youth sports officials.
"I've never met anyone like him," Red Lion athletic director Kyle Masser said. "Nothing is ever about him. (Getting honored) is going to kill him because everything he does is for everybody else. I don't know how he's able to get to everywhere he needs to be."
But Lawrence's career was on a very different path a couple decades ago. The 1993 Delone Catholic grad worked in Washington D.C. politics and on Wall Street until he realized he was missing his true calling.
He wanted to "have a purpose."
"Whenever its time to be done with life, I want to look back and say: 'Hey, somebody was better off because of me,'" he said. "I care about helping young men and women turn into great adults."
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Leaving Wall Street for the YAIAA
Lawrence caught the coaching itch when he was 18.
He coached the Hanover Legion baseball team when he was home in the summers from the University of Maryland. A political science major, he earned a job as a legislative assistant in President Bill Clinton's administration in the mid 1990s.
Then came a stint with Lehman Brothers in New York City. But none of that made Lawrence happy.
"The whole time I just wanted to be around my team," Lawrence said. "That was my focus. That was what it came back to. I realized that being competitive is addictive and so is having a positive impact. I didn't care that much about turning millionaires into multi-millionaires."
Lawrence has spent the past 25 years trying to find the balance between competition and positivity.
Despite playing just JV basketball at Delone Catholic, he carved out a career as a girls' hoops coach — first as an assistant at his alma mater and Gettysburg College and then as head coach at Westminster and Susquehannock. When he stepped down and began raising a family, he "wasn't looking for the opportunity" to coach again.
But when the Red Lion resident took 7-year-old, baseball-obsessed Connor to watch a few varsity games, he was concerned by what he saw.
"I saw some things that are different now. I saw a few things I didn't want for the guys in the youth program," Lawrence said while declining to go into detail.
He took the job in 2016 with the goal of establishing a better culture. The Lions reached the postseason his second year and then had a banner campaign in 2018 — going 16-8 and knocking off defending state finalist Dallastown three times behind the arm of Kentucky commit Tyler Burchett.
The Lions haven't had a losing season during his tenure. And Lawrence has carried himself the same way through it all — living and dying by every pitch, but then calmly explaining why a win or a loss isn't the end of the world afterward.
"I tell my players that it's disrespectful to the other team, to say nothing of a waste of time, if you're not trying to win," Lawrence said. "If they're keeping score? Then we're trying to win. I actually think the competitiveness facilitates the teaching of the life lessons. It sets an edge on everything that it creates an opportunity to learn."
'This is me:' Why Lawrence wants to keep giving back
Lawrence doesn't enjoy "idle time."
A typical day for him in the winter involves a 5 a.m. wakeup, offseason baseball workouts after school and then a basketball game to officiate at night. On Wednesday, he was preparing to coach a youth baseball practice soon after guiding Red Lion past Northeastern.
"There's only one Kevin, but somehow he's everywhere," Masser said. "I don't know how he's able to help everyone he needs to."
Lawrence admitted he sometimes gets "overwhelmed" by all his duties. But he doesn't have any plans to stop coaching. Connor, who has verbally committed to NCAA Division I Marist, still has another season after this spring. Then his 13-year-old son Cooper will arrive in high school.
Cooper nodded excitedly when asked if he wanted to be coached by his father.
"It's just a matter of if I can keep my energy up," Lawrence said. " Certainly the interest and passion hasn't waned at all."
Lawrence might have a special team on his hands this season. Red Lion is ranked third in District 3 Class 6A and has outscored teams 31-8 during its unbeaten start. Ace pitcher A.J. Lipscomb improved to 2-0 with a 0.54 ERA after Wednesday's win over Northeastern.
The Lions face defending YAIAA Division I champion Dallastown (2-4) 7 p.m. Friday at the York Revolution's WellSpan Park in game that will benefit the WellSpan Cancer Patient Help Fund.
Red Lion's players aren't getting ahead of themselves. Connor Lawrence pointed out South Western is still undefeated and said Northeastern (3-4) will continue to improve despite Wednesday's defeat.
Once again, Connor was modeling himself after his father — keeping a victory in perspective and knowing bigger challenges were ahead. When he presented his father with a plaque after the game, there was a brief loud cheer and speech before everyone returned to their duties taking care of the field.
That's the culture Lawrence has established. The man who wanted to help kids turn into great adults has found his place.
"This is what I've got now," he said. "I wake up thinking about my students in class and the guys on my teams. And I go to bed thinking the same thing. This is me. The dollars and the politics isn't. The mentoring and development is."
Matt Allibone is a sports reporter for GameTimePA. He can be reached at 717-881-8221, mallibone@ydr.com or on X at @bad2theallibone.