Mike Lee announces resignation as Bryant athletic director
Bryant athletic director Mike Lee hugs Hornets football coach and friend Buck James.
By Nate Olson | Photos by Jimmy Jones
BRYANT – Bryant athletic director Mike Lee is leaving his post in June.
It isn’t really because he wants to, it’s because he needs to. He announced this week he accepted a job at Morrilton at the South Conway School District managing the maintenance and custodial staff.
“I see it as a total different lifestyle change,” he said. “I drive 55 minutes to work, and now I will drive 20 and will have minimal nighttime work. My kids are active, and I will be able to be around them more and enjoy what they are doing. It is certainly nothing against Bryant.”
Three years ago, Lee and his wife, Catrena, moved from Bryant to her family farm in Wooster in Faulkner County to be with Catrena’s elderly mother. The nearly two-hour daily round trip and late nights supervising activities has taken its toll.
Lee also realized as he approached Year 28 in education this year he would need to enter the Teacher Deferred Retirement Program (T-DROP). The program "incentivizes members with 28-30 years of service credit to continue to work in the public schools by allowing the member to build a savings account for when they are ready to leave the workforce" according to the Arkansas Teacher Retirement System website.
Lee, who was the head football coach at Van Buren before taking the Bryant AD job in 2012, needs 10 more years to complete T-DROP.
"I started thinking I really needed to set myself up to go for the next 10 years,” he said. “I started to wonder if I could do that at Bryant. I will be eligible for that plan next school year, and the hope is I can go the full 10-year term in the T-DROP.”
Not only does his new job offer the comfort of a more convenient schedule, but it also offers familiarity. Lee spent four seasons as a Devil Dogs football assistant under then-head coach Chris Hill. It was during that time he became friends with current Morrilton AD Trent Tipton, the former Morrilton boys basketball coach.
“There are still a lot of people there that I knew when I was there,” he said. “That made it a lot easier. Trent and I are big friends.”
Lee said he will occasionally spell Tipton by supervising evening athletic events to “give him a blow when he needs it.”
In 2011, Lee succeeded longtime Bryant AD/transportation director Tom Farmer, who is now the Benton mayor. In those 12 seasons, Bryant athletic teams have won 15 state championships. Five of those titles were won by head football coach Buck James, whom Lee hired. Lee also made an innovative hire in plucking Nicole Inman from the Bryant club soccer scene and making her the head varsity girls coach. She led the Lady Hornets to two state championship games in two seasons (her third was canceled due to COVID-19), winning one, before succumbing to brain cancer.
“I’ve been able to establish relationships with some great coaches at Bryant,” Lee said. “It is the people at Bryant that separates us. We have tremendous administrators, teachers and coaches. It is the people that make Bryant.”
Bryant AD Mike Lee (left), visiting with Arkansas media personality David Bazzel, has seen 15 Hornets teams win state championships during his tenure.
Lee had known James for decades before he hired him as the Hornets head coach in 2016. James and current Hornets assistant coach Kirk Bock, who was a successful head baseball coach at Bryant, had worked as bird dog scouts for Lee, who was a region scout for the Kansas City Royals before beginning his high school coaching career. The two friends worked out an agreement to bring James to Bryant from Little Rock Christian, where he was serving as assistant athletic director. Two years later, the Hornets won the 7A state championship game and are now five-time defending state champions.
“Buck and I are great friends and always will be,” Lee said. “He was always pushing to make the program better. We not only have a great football program but athletic department.”
Lee has been involved in athletics since he began playing when he was 5. Next fall will be the first time in his life he won’t be actively involved.
“It is hard to answer how I will feel until it happens,” Lee said. “I have always been involved and athletics has been a big part of who I am, and I still will be in touch with athletics. It isn’t like I won’t be around it.”
What will Lee do with his extra time?
“The farm is 40 acres, so there is plenty of work to do,” he said.
The couple will also spend plenty of time following son Evan, who starred on the Bryant and University of Arkansas baseball teams and is a pitcher with the Washington Nationals. Lee’s daughter, Megan, is married to Chicago Cubs farmhand Jordan Wicks, so the Lees will follow them, too.
And while he is thankful for his run at Bryant, the new position will help him with the final chapter of his career.
“Bryant is one of the destination places for an athletic person to be,” Lee said. “At my age, where I live, the needle pointed to Morrilton. Morrilton is the optimal place for me to finish up.”
