Lyons makes coaching hires for football, boys basketball

Lyons is making all kinds of new hires.

Athletic director Jason Maguire — himself in his first year, taking over for Kathleen Leiding in that role — announced the hire of two new coaches on Tuesday night. The Lions hired Jason Yantzer as their new football coach, and Brian Ballinger as their boys basketball coach.

Yantzer was most recently an assistant at Hotchkiss, where he also spent time as the baseball coach until 2014.

Yantzer takes over for Brandon Wilkes, who became the football coach and athletic director at Middle Park.

Lyons football is coming off a 1-8 season, but has had a tremendous amount of recent success. The Lions were 18-19 under Wilkes, and the program is 86-38 since 2004.

The Lions are set to play in the 1A Northern League this season, moving from the Metro League.

Follow all of this season’s football coaching changes in our tracker.

Ballinger, meanwhile, takes over for Andrew Smith as the boys basketball coach. The team finished 6-15 in 2015-16. Smith was 22-43 in three seasons.

The boys basketball program, too, has a good foundation — much of which came when Maguire led the program for 17 years through 2011-12.