He can keep his orange and black, but he’s trading claws for ram horns.

Ironton Fighting Tigers 12-year veteran head baseball coach and 33-year assistant football coach Mark Lewis is going across the Ohio River to join the Raceland Rams.

Lewis is retiring as a math teacher at Ironton to accept a similar job at Raceland High School. Lewis began his new job just last week.

“It was an opportunity that presented itself and everything just fell into place,” Lewis said.

Lewis has been asked to work as a volunteer with the Rams football team. He was not coaching this season at Ironton after 34-year veteran head coach Bob Lutz did not return.

Lewis posted a 157-87 record as the Ironton baseball coach for a .643 winning percentage. His teams won seven sectional titles, four district crowns and one regional title. Ironton was the Division III state runners-up in 1998.

He had two teams win more than 20 games. Ironton was 21-6 in 1998 and 23-4 in 2002.

“I’m not going to coach baseball. It’s tough working at a school on one side of the river and trying to coach on the other side,” Lewis said.

Besides coaching football and baseball at Ironton, Lewis was the girls head softball coach and boys wrestling coach, taking several wrestlers to the state tournament.