12/30/25

SCRANTON, Pa. -- For the third-straight year, Lackawanna College Athletics will review the past 12 months and highlight the top 14 athletics stories and moments from the year that was. 

Today's top event from 2025 was a sad, and yet, still important day in the history of Lackawanna College Athletics and the football program.

#2: Mark Duda Announces His Retirement
The end was always on the horizon, but the captain for the last 32 years believed he had more time to drive forward the large vessel that is Lackawanna College football. 

But as the journey dragged on through the early morning practices in 2025, head football coach Mark Duda realized that it was time to come home to port.

So, on a rainy Monday afternoon in November, coach Duda gathered the 2025 Lackawanna College Falcons to tell them the news: He would be retiring as head coach, effective at the end of the 2025 season. This year would be his last, closing the book on 32 years as the head coach and 33 years as a member of the Lackawanna College football program.

It was an emotional speech, full of coach Duda's usual vigor and fire, but also tinged with the sadness and weight of the situation at hand. Coach Duda explained to the young men gathered in front of him that he was stepping down for health reasons, to live his life and battle with his Parkinson's Disease diagnosis.

Soon after the hugs, tears, and emotional embraces, a press release went out to the local media outlets to announce the end of an incredible era.

Duda's journey with football began in his hometown of Plymouth, just down the road in Luzerne County. As part of the "Mad Dog" defense at Wyoming Valley West, Duda and his Spartans made an impact on the Wyoming Valley Conference in 1979, earning Duda a chance to play at the University of Maryland.

While at Maryland, Duda excelled, eventually setting a single-season record for sacks (13) that stood for 33 years. He was taken in the fourth round of the 1983 NFL Draft by the then-St. Louis Cardinals, and he played for five seasons, starting 34 games on the defensive line and recording 9.5 sacks. 

He left the NFL, finished his bachelor's degree at East Stroudsburg, earning a degree in Education in 1991, then he jumped into coaching. His first stop: Defensive coordinator for the new junior college football program at Lackawanna College in Scranton, PA.

Coach Duda served as the DC under head coach Wally Chambers for one season in 1993 for the "Fightin' Falcons," helping Lackawanna post a 4-4-1 overall record in its first year of competition. Chambers left after the inaugural season, and Duda stepped into the role as the head coach ahead of the 1994 season. Little did he know or realize just what that would mean to both his career and to Lackawanna College.

Duda led the Falcons for the next 32 years, achieving a record of .500 or better in 27 seasons, including five official undefeated regular seasons. He was the conference coach of the year four times, and was named Junior College Football Coach of the Year in 2016 by the American Football Network. His teams made 13 postseason bowls, and Duda's success was a national story, as he was the active wins leader in the NJCAA (216) and retires in third-place all-time. He is an NJCAA Hall of Fame head football coach, inducted in 2018. To do what he did in his career, which included an undefeated season (2018) and a national championship appearance (2019), coming from the northeast, is unprecedented. 

Duda served in different administrative roles in his time at Lackawanna College, as well, handling roles in enrollment and as the Dean of Students at one point, before becoming the full-time football coach.

Duda's biggest legacy, however, is not in wins and accolades, but rather in the players and student-athletes he coached. Nearly 500 Division I scholarship athletes have come through Mark Duda's football program. 20 different players have signed professional football contracts. 14 different Falcons have played meaningful snaps in the NFL. The most notable Lackawanna football alum is offensive tackle Bryant McKinnie, a Super bowl champion with the Baltimore Ravens and a College Football Hall of Famer at the University of Miami, where he was a consensus All-American, an Outland Trophy winner, and the only offensive lineman to finish in the Top 10 in Heisman Trophy voting.

But, more than just the successful football players he produced, coach Duda helped mold his student-athletes into successful businessmen, teachers, coaches, and model citizens across the country. 

With his announcement of his retirement in November, many former players and associates flooded to Scranton for that upcoming weekend's contest against Georgia Military College. Duda got to spend time with this group of outstanding men the night before, and then once again on the sidelines for the Saturday afternoon contest.

Though his career ended in a shutout loss at home to Snow College in a driving, miserable rainstorm, coach Duda stood in the west end zone with his friends, family, coaches, and players, and watched a 14-minute tribute video after the final whistle. Pictures of himself, his family, his accomplishments, his teams from the past...they all flashed before his eyes, washing back over him like waves. Then, the video transitioned to a parade of former players, coaches, faculty members, administrators, and past College presidents, all paying tribute and respect to coach Duda and his incredible accomplishments. It was an beautiful and bittersweet ending to the storybook career of Mark Duda.

Mark Duda's announcement sent Lackawanna College into uncharted waters, or, at least, waters the College hasn't seen in over 30 years. The Athletics Administration named Ray Dayton, the offensive coordinator and offensive line coach, as the interim head coach, and began interviewing for the person who would follow in coach Duda's footsteps.

Just last week, Lackawanna College Athletics announced that former Misericordia University leader Mark Ross would be the next Lackawanna College head football coach. Ross is the fourth head football coach in Lackawanna history, and will be the leader for the program at an important time of transition for both football and the rest of the athletics department. 

Top 14 Moments Of 2025 For Lackawanna College Athletics  
14) Women's Wrestling Makes History With Dual Victories
13) Coaching Changes Bring New Faces, Perspectives
12) First-Team All-Region Performances For MBB And WBB
11) Lackawanna Wrestling Sends Five To Nationals
10) Lackawanna College Esports Raises $7K For Charity
9) 57 Student-Athletes Named All-Academic NJCAA
8) Hofmann Named POTY, Falcons Earn All-Season Nods
7) Emmalee Mowery Named As NJCAA All-American In Softball
6) Three Football Falcons Earn All-American Honors
5) Hughes Wins Region POTY, One Of Two All-Americans For Falcons
4) Rocket League Wins NJCAAE Fall 2025 National Championship
3) Baseball's Magical Postseason Run To The World Series
2) Mark Duda Announces His Retirement
1) ???