Baker head coach Jason Thoren walks toward a player during a summer camp Wednesday morning at Free State on June 26, 2019.

Lawrence High School officially hired Jason Thoren as its next head football coach during Monday’s Lawrence school board meeting.

Thoren notably was Baker University’s head coach from 2019-22. The Wildcats went 30-12 in his four seasons at the helm, including a 7-1 record in 2020 in which the team reached the NAIA quarterfinal round. Thoren started coaching at Baker in 2009 and held the defensive coordinator position until his promotion to head coach after the 2018 season.

Thoren, a Lawrence High School and Kansas alumnus, joins the Lions after working as a senior defensive analyst for UConn in 2024. Prior to that, he held the same position at Mississippi State for the 2023 season.

While attending Lawrence, Thoren helped the Lions win three-straight state championships in the early 1990s under Dick Purdy and then-assistant coach Dirk Wedd. He stayed close to home for college, where he had several productive years as a linebacker for the Jayhawks.

This won’t be the first time that Thoren has coached at Lawrence High School. After graduating from Kansas, he spent some time coaching linebackers and running backs with the school before spending a year in a coaching internship with the Kansas City Chiefs and a season with Free State.

Lawrence is coming off a 4-5 season in which the Lions lost 28-14 in the first round of the playoffs. The Lions are tied with Bishop Miege for the most state championships in state history, despite not having won one since 1995, when the Lions beat Derby 20-0. The job vacancy came after Clint Bowen, who led the team from 2021-24, resigned and became an offensive quality control coach at Oklahoma State.