Leon Tucker earns Class 4A Co-Coach of the Year after historic Lewisburg season

Leon Tucker’s Class 4A Co-Coach of the Year award arrived after Lewisburg Area High School put together the best boys basketball season in program history, a 25-5 run that ended with the Green Dragons playing in their first state semifinal. The honor reflects more than one coach’s success. It marks a winter in which Lewisburg set program firsts at every level, from the Pennsylvania Heartland Athletic Conference tournament to the PIAA final four.

Lewisburg beat Southern Columbia, 57-52, on Feb. 13, 2026, at Phil Lockcuff Gymnasium at Shikellamy High School to win its first PHAC Tournament title. The victory was the Dragons’ 14th straight and set the tone for the rest of the postseason. Two weeks later, Lewisburg edged Montoursville, 56-53, on Feb. 28 to capture the District IV Class 4A championship, the program’s first district title since 2022.

The run kept climbing in Hershey on March 14, when Lewisburg held off Bishop McDevitt, 60-58, in the PIAA 4A quarterfinals. LJ Tucker led the way with 23 points, and the win sent Lewisburg to the state semifinals for the first time in school history. The Dragons’ season ended March 17 with a 75-53 loss to defending state champion Devon Prep, but even that result could not erase what the team had already done. No previous Lewisburg boys basketball team had reached beyond the second round of the state tournament.

Tucker took over the program three years ago and inherited a team that won only six regular-season games in his debut season. Two seasons before this breakthrough, Lewisburg went 6-16. The turnaround came from a balanced roster that included seniors Cooper Mowry, Nazir Meredith, Rebira Jemama and Aiden Eby, plus freshman point guard Cortland Michaels and sophomore LJ Tucker. After the semifinal loss, Tucker said, "What they’ve accomplished this year, no other kid who’s stepped into Lewisburg and put on a Lewisburg jersey has done. That’s something to be proud of," a line that fit a season that changed the standard for basketball in Lewisburg and across Union County.