From underdog to icon: Duane Lewis builds North Meck basketball legacy

Way back in the summer of 1999, when Duane Lewis was hired as the head boys’ basketball coach at North Mecklenburg, he wasn’t exactly a popular choice.

He was young. He was following a legend in Leroy Holden, who had won more than 450 games in his 25 years with the program.

Whether he was nervous or not, Lewis appeared to be a little unsure of himself on the sidelines when he served as interim coach while Holden was out with a health issue. There were many North Meck fans who’d grown tired of having elite teams and not winning state championships and just didn’t think that Lewis was the right guy to replace Holden upon his retirement.

It didn’t matter that he was a North Meck graduate. It didn’t matter that he bled the school’s colors, royal blue and red.

It didn’t matter that he had a burning drive to win that few people understood.

At the time, a lot of Vikings fans, and Vikings parents, simply wanted a more experienced coach to take over the program.

Boy, were they wrong.

Lewis just started his 27th year as North Meck’s head coach, and if things go well, he’ll pass West Charlotte legend Charles McCullough as Mecklenburg County’s all-time winningest coach sometime this season. If things go really well, Lewis could be the first Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools boys’ coach to win three state championships in a row since the 1970s.

But back then, in the late 1990s, things were a whole lot different.

“We’re expected to win in basketball,” Lewis said, “and Coach Holden had set a foundation. Those were big shoes to fill and probably a lot of it was that they had so many people apply for the job. And here I was, fresh out of college, going into it. So you’re nervous, and you’re apprehensive because you’re like, ‘I gotta make sure this thing is run right.’ There was a high expectation, a high ceiling. ... I had some ups and downs, but I had to grow and figure some things out.”

Lewis said the key was the nod of approval he got from Holden, who became the Vikings’ athletic director, and from principal Jimmy Poole. They trusted in their choice and gave Lewis room to grow.

And there was one other bonus, too.

“The good thing was, the guys I started out with, I had coached in JV,” Lewis said. “I had them for four years. I had a comfort thing with them. They had a comfort thing with me. So I got to work out the kinks. They got to understand how I was doing it, but there was a lot of pressure from the outside. But Coach Holden and the principal would always say, ‘You’re going to be fine.’ And the second year, we won the conference tournament, and that was a relief. That kind of laid the foundation for everything that came after.”

What came after was — and is — one of the best coaching careers, in any sport, in Mecklenburg County history.

Jump shots and chasing the dream

Duane Lewis didn’t play for Holden in high school, but he did play a lot of travel basketball, barnstorming up and down the East Coast with some of Charlotte’s best high school players at the time.

Lewis eventually ended up getting a college scholarship at Division II Southern Wesleyan in South Carolina, and he built a very good career.

“I was a shooter,” Lewis said. “That was my thing. I could shoot the basketball. I was probably average defensively, which is why I want my team to play so hard on that end now. But I could score.”

In college, Lewis met Clark Camp, a high jumping wing, who would become his best friend and assistant coach. In 2013, Lewis and Camp were honored as being among the top 30 basketball players in Southern Wesleyan history.

“He’s the best shooter I ever played with,” Camp said. “I think anybody that knows Duane or has played against him would recognize that he’s the ultimate competitor as a player, just as much as he is as a person and as a coach. But, yeah, man, he’s the best shooter I’ve been around. I put a lot of assists in my pocket passing to that man.”

After graduating from college in 1997, Lewis got a job at North Meck and coached junior varsity.

“I knew I was coming back,” Lewis said, “and it worked out for me.”

Winning the big one, topping his teacher

Holden took North Meck to the 1987 state championship game, where the Vikings came up just short.

From the beginning, Lewis was determined to bring the championship that he wanted and the Vikings’ alumni wanted so badly.

At first, Lewis tried to get there doing exactly what Holden had done: running the same offense and defense, even calling much of it the same.

But as he began to have some success, and knowing he had the backing of his athletic director and principal, Lewis began to put his own stamp on the program.

“I really felt like I had to do it my way,” he said.

Lewis sped up the Vikings’ offense and played a very aggressive form of man-to-man defense. He also put most ninth-graders on the junior varsity team, even a future McDonald’s All-American named Isaiah Evans. He wanted players to learn to become stars and have big roles, and he figured it was easier to do that on JV than as a high school freshman playing in the big leagues.

Using this formula, North Meck began to win big. And in 2005, the Vikings — led by a celebrated Mecklenburg County talent in Jamie Skeen — won the state championship.

The next year, the Vikings went back.

“That was an unbelievable feeling to win it,” Lewis said. “I remember being at the (state championship) game when (North Meck) lost in 1987. And then you get there almost 20 years later and get it done. It seemed like everybody was at that game. I couldn’t hear myself think. The community had been yearning for that, and it was just great for the whole community.”

After the game, Lewis got a call from Titus Ivory, one of the greatest basketball players in school history. Ivory was playing professionally overseas. Holden, the Vikings’ legendary coach, and Poole, the principal, came into the locker room at N.C. State (site of the title game), gave him a big hug and told him the same thing:

We knew you could do it.

Getting the Vikings on a roll

Since that back-to-back championship game run, Lewis has settled into being one of the deans of Mecklenburg County coaches. Faces come and go, but the guy who always seem to be wearing a blue North Meck shirt, khaki pants and the “who me?” look on his face? He’s always around.

And he’s always winning.

— In March of 2020, North Meck rolled to the state semifinals and was a heavy favorite to beat Lumberton in the state final, which the NCHSAA called off due to COVID. Both teams were named state champs. “I’m sure (Lumberton) doesn’t feel bad looking at that state championship trophy,” Lewis said. “We don’t either.”

— In February 2023, North Meck beat Hough, 76-51, in the Queen City 3A/4A conference tournament semifinals and Lewis won his 500th career game. Only three other men who had spent the bulk of their careers coaching boys’ basketball in Mecklenburg County had won that many.

Longtime Charlotte Latin coach Jerry Faulkner, who started coaching in 1967 and retired in 2022, won more than 900 games. The late Dave Price, who won four state titles in the 1970s with South Meck, was 535-285 in a 32-year career. And the late Charles McCullough of West Charlotte — who The Observer named the greatest Charlotte coach of the past 40 years — won 583 games and five NCHSAA state championships at his alma mater from 1960-93.

— In March 2024, Lewis won his third state title, beating Wilmington New Hanover in the finals, with Evans — the best Mecklenburg County player of his generation — as the team’s star.

— In March 2025, with Evans gone to Duke, North Meck won again, becoming the first Mecklenburg County team to repeat as state champs since McCullough’s Lions did it in the 1990s.

“Coach Holden always preached loyalty,” said Camp, who has been Lewis’ chief assistant for more than 20 years, “and Duane is an ultra loyal person. That’s what kind of helped get him in the door. Coach Holden saw what he could be, and Duane took that opportunity and that ultra competitiveness he has inside him, and he wasn’t going to fail. He will not allow himself to fail. He’s going to work all hours of the day all hours of the night to make sure.”

When does it end?

Camp said what makes Lewis so effective are the relationships he builds with players. Almost all of his players come back to visit. Evans, now at Duke, drew a big crowd when he popped in for a game earlier this month.

“There’s no doubt that every player that’s played for him,” Camp said, “knows that he truly believed in them and wanted what was best. When you have that, you’re going to play as hard as you can for that coach and for your teammates. And it’s always been about North Meck. It’s not about Duane. It’s not about the best player on the team that year. It’s about North Meck. What are you going to do to make North Meck better? And when kids buy into that, the individual success is just kind of a byproduct.”

Lewis admits he’s mellowed a little. He doesn’t live and die with each play like he used to, but he still doesn’t stop much to celebrate his successes. Other than Camp, his entire coaching staff today once played for him. Everybody knows what Lewis wants, and everybody knows how Lewis is. They weren’t surprised when North Meck won the state championship last spring, and coach walked in the locker room and told the underclassmen to get ready to lead.

“See those guys over there,” Lewis said, pointing to his seniors. “They’re celebrating. They’re done. It’s up to you guys now.”

Currently, Lewis has 566 wins and a decade-long run of consecutive conference championships. At some point this season, he could pass McCullough as the county’s public school all-time wins leader. He also could tie Price, who won three state titles in a row at South Meck years ago.

And Lewis said that’s all he can focus on, what’s ahead.

He said it’s hard to look back.

“As soon as the season is over,” he said, “I’m like, ‘Hey we’re starting next week. And they’re like ‘Lewis, what’s wrong with you?’ I’m a routine-oriented guy and I enjoy it, man. To me, it’s about the journey. Even when we lose, it’s like, you’re still grinding. At some point, it’s a bad way to live.

“But I love North Meck. It’s my spot. You have to be bought into where you’re at. People always say ‘The grass is greener somewhere else.’ I never have listened to that. I shut it out. I want to be at North Meck, and I don’t want to go anywhere else.”

This story was originally published November 25, 2025 at 5:30 AM.