After almost a decade away from high school sports, Scott Lewis is returning for his second stint as coach of the Harlan High School softball program. Lewis was officially named the new coach by district officials on Tuesday, replacing David Overbay after his four-year run as coach,
Lewis assisted his daughter, Courtney, with the highly successful middle school program at Harlan the past three years. The Lady Dragons finished 15-4 and won the league title in 2024. They posted a 19-6 mark in 2025 and finished as league runner up. Several of those players will move up to varsity positions next spring.
“I’m very excited about it. This is a good little group we’ve got. We’ve coached them through sixth, seventh and eight grade,” Lewis said. “They are still super young, so we’ll have a hard time competing at first. We have some in high school that will help us, but we’ll still be really young.”
Lewis inherits a program that had steadily improved over four seasons under Overbay, assistant coach Scott Lisenbee and last year’s strong senior class. The Lady Dragons finished 5-22 in 2022 in Overbay’s first season after a 1-16 mark in 2021. The Lady Dragons improved to 6-21 in 2023 and made it to the regional tournament as the district runner up. Harlan won back to back district titles in 2024 and 2025, with a record of 14-19 in 2024 followed by an 18-9 mark last season. The Lady Dragons hadn’t won a district championship before last year since 2004. Their win over Knox Central in the first round of the regional tournament was reportedly the first in program history.
The Lady Dragons lose six starters to graduation in catcher Addison Jackson, third baseman Ella Lisenbee, shortstop Ella Farley, first baseman Abbi Fields and outfielders Ava Nunez and Ally Kirby. Lisenbee, Jackson, Farley and Fields have signed to continue their softball careers in college.
“It’s going to be so tough to fill David’s shoes and what they got accomplished the last two or three years,” Lewis said. “We lost a lot of good ball players. It is definitely a rebuilding year.”
Lewis, who has 25 years of coaching experience at several levels and with both softball and baseball, was the head coach of the Lady Dragons for five seasons from 2012 to 2016 with a record of 58-72. His staff will include Courtney Lewis and his son, Noah, a former Harlan catcher, as well as Kacie Russell, a former Harlan County standout who coached the middle school program at Cumberland last season.
“We’re going to focus on fundamentals, and we need nine good ball players,” Lewis said. “Only three or four won’t do us any good. We need nine players who have good fundamental skills and want to learn the game. They will have to step up to the level of competition we’ll face.”