When officials from the Western Athletic Conference, a high school league of the five largest enrollment schools in western Kansas – Dodge City, Garden City, Great Bend, Hays and Liberal – met with ownership and leadership of Lewis Automotive Group in 2021, the meeting was to discuss a multi-year sponsorship of the league’s Champions Cup competition.
The Champions Cup is a school-year-long competition that includes 22 varsity sports from the fall, winter and spring seasons and culminates with the awarding of the Cup to the school that compiles the most points throughout the year (1st place gets 12, 2nd place receives 8, 3rd place gets 6 points and 4th place is awarded 4.
“For me, it was a no-brainer,” said Mike Shook, General Manager of Lewis Chevy of Garden City. “For the Lewis Automotive Group to sponsor the Champions Cup for the WAC, it’s our way of showing support to the student-athletes and to the communities. It’s our way of giving back.”
The Lewis Automotive Group brand is well known in western Kansas, with locations in four of the five communities that comprise the WAC, a league that has been in existence since 1984. In Dodge City, the Group brands include Chevrolet, Toyota and Ford; in Garden City, there is Chevrolet, Toyota and Nissan; Liberal’s dealerships include Chevrolet and Buick while in Hays, the brands include Ford, Toyota, Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and Ram.
“We have our automotive businesses in Garden City, Dodge City, Liberal and Hays and this opportunity allows us to demonstrate support of the youth in our communities and the surrounding area,” said Audrey Ackerman, Advertising/Public Relations Manager of Lewis Automotive Group. “It’s a win for us because each of our stores can show its support for each community.”
At all WAC athletic competitions, Lewis Automotive Group receives special signage recognition as well as mentions in printed programs, public address announcements and on the WAC website (wacathletics.com).
“We hope to find additional ways to reach out to the schools and for them to reach out to us to do more for next year, too,” Ackerman said. “This (sponsorship) has been a big help to us in the last year, particularly with used car sales. We have sold many used cars with it now being more difficult to get new cars on our lots. It just makes a lot of (business) sense for us.”
Shook said that even communities that surround the four cities with dealerships are included in some ways of support during the school year.
It’s a win for us because each of our stores can show its support for each community.
Audrey Ackerman – Lewis Automotive Group
“We find as many ways behind the scenes to do things for our schools and communities,” Shook said. “You can look at band, choir, cheer, teacher events, and we try to involve ourselves as much as possible.”
Jay Gifford, the long-time athletic director at Dodge City High School, said when the concept of the Champions Cup was developed in the late 2000s, the league schools were searching for new ways to recognize equally the success of all sports.
“We knew we needed to do something different,” Gifford said. “Sports were expanding and we were also looking at ways to develop leadership with our high school student-athletes.”
Thus, the WAC Student-Athlete Leadership team was formed. Each school year, the five schools select a female and male underclass student-athlete to represent it on the team. The group meets monthly and discusses a myriad of subjects, focusing on leadership skills to take back and implement within each school.
“Without the support of companies like Lewis Automotive Group, we would not be able to have the leadership group, we would not be able to have our WAC All-Academic awards and we would not be able to give out the number of medals that we do at our league championships,” Gifford said.
Drew Thon, Athletic/Activities Director at Garden City High School, also said the support from Lewis Automotive was critical to the schools and the WAC to promote its student-athletes and give them skills that will be used well beyond their high school days.
“We’re grateful for the support we get from Jim Lewis and his people,” Thon said of the owner of Lewis Automotive Group. “They’ve been great supporters in other ways at the school, but this sponsorship is very important to the five schools and we appreciate everything they do for the young men and women who participate.”
The Leadership Group receives ongoing training from Joe Coles of Cimarron, an expert in the leadership field.
“We discuss things we do well and things we struggle with at the schools,” Gifford said. “We try to come up with solutions for the student-athletes to take back and work with other groups at their own schools.”
Garden City’s Thon said his leadership team has now been working with the two middle school athletic programs to implement leadership ideas into that level.
“We’re trying to build this from the ground floor up to teach good leadership, good citizenship and what it means to be a good student-athlete,” Thon said.
David Meter, who will be retiring at the end of June 2022, after 22 years as the school’s athletic director, said the financial support is critical to the five schools and the programs it provides.
“It gives each of us the opportunity to do a lot of extra little things that otherwise would have to come out of our school budget,” Meter said. “Lewis is very generous in their support and we appreciate all they do for the kids. The student leadership has been a big success, and without the support of Lewis we would not be able to do so much.”
Lewis Motors’ Shook said he was amazed at the scope of what the WAC schools do with the variety and number of sports involved in the Champions Cup.
“To be honest, I was kind of shocked when I heard how many sports were being contested,” Shook said. “I think I must have had blinders on. The cool thing about it is that every sport is important. It is not just the big core sports of football, basketball, volleyball – it is all the others like bowling, swimming, and others. All these activities give the student-athletes an opportunity to compete and see what is ahead of them in the next chapter of their lives.”
Shook said one example of the business’ behind-the-scenes support was sponsoring a recent luncheon for all the teachers in a district.
“We wanted to let them know what they do for our kids is not going unnoticed and how appreciative we are for them,” Shook said. “I think when you have positive things going on with athletics and other activities – band, choir, cheer, dance – all of those are important to the mental and physical health of our students.”
The 2021-22 school year proved a successful one as Lewis Automotive Group started its sponsorship of a program that began back in the 2008-2009 school year. The Cup was won by Great Bend in the first year, Dodge City the following two years (2009-2010 and 2010-2011), and has been won by Garden City every year since the 2011-2012 campaign. No award was given in the 2019-2020 school year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which cancelled the spring sports season for all schools.
