NEW ULM — Mitch Lewis, who led the New Ulm Eagles girls basketball team to a 19-9 season this past season, resigned last Thursday.

Leiwis said his decision to step down after one season came down to spending more time with his family.

“I want to watch my daughter, Brooklyn, and my son, Rex, play basketball,” he said. “And my decision was harder to make than I thought it would be. I enjoy coaching so much — I enjoy being around the kids, the players and the coaching staff. But after this year I only got to two of my son’s basketball games and that was kind of hard and it hit me that it is not fair to him.”

And next year year, Lewis daughter Brooklyn will play basketball at Minnesota State.

“And I do not want to miss her ganes either,” he said. “Time goes by to fast for me to watch both of them.”

Lewis said that the Eagles bring back three good players in McKenna Hulke, Leah Brustad and Maggie Joyce.

“There are some solid players coming back,” he said. “Numbers will be down a little, but hopefully there can be some recruiting done in the offseason — there are a good core of players there.”

Lewis said that being a head coach is a lot more than just the decisions in the game.

“But there is a lot of things behind the scenes with administration, athletic directors, busing, paperwork and film study,” he said. “The administration here has been great to me all-around and I had help from Julie (Rogers former Eagles head coach) who let me learn some of the details when I was an assistant to her. And I had from my assistants and from NUBBA (New Ulm Basketball Association) — the community and school itself was very helpful.”