9/1/25
 
FB: Local Student-Athletes Finding Success With Lackawanna
 
SCRANTON, Pa. – In its final season of junior college competition, Lackawanna College football is infused with a bevy of local talent ready to burst forth and represent the Falcons this coming season.
 
Out of the nearly 140 student-athletes competing in fall camp, almost 20 are born and bred in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre area, competing in the Lackawanna Football Conference or the Wyoming Valley Conference through their high school careers. Now, this core of local football players are hoping to have an impact on the Falcons for the 2025 season.
 
"I chose Lackawanna because I thought I was going to have the best opportunity to get out of this area, to get more exposure and film," says Gianni Marino (Peckville), "to be able to get more opportunities to play somewhere else."
 
Marino was an outstanding two-way player at Valley View HS, winning Defensive Player of the Year honors across the region thanks to his play at linebacker. However, with the Falcons, he will focus more as the tight end. At a physical, bruising 6-foot-3, 240 lbs. frame, Marino knows that physicality is the name of the game.
 
"Being physical," says Marino about what he needs to bring to the offensive side for the Falcons, "and bringing my IQ that I gained over the years of playing football."


 
There are a few of those local athletes that dot the offensive side of the ball for the Falcons, including a pair of outstanding receivers from Abington Heights HS in Shane Brower (Clarks Summit) and Shawn Theodore (Factoryville).
 
Theodore, a towering receiver for the Comets last year, knows the history of the program at Lackawanna, especially with its success in sending players to the next level. He credits the Abington Heights coaching staff for getting him to Lackawanna to pursue his dreams.
 
"Shane (Brower) started talking to them first, and I didn't know if they were too interested in me," said Theodore. "My coach from high school, coach Justave, had a connection with coach Kev (Roginski), and he texted him, and I got to talking with them, and I wanted to be here."


 
"I love the guys that came out of here, so I thought I could definitely be here," said Brower, who also mentioned coach Kevin Roginski as the main point of contact to come to the program.
 


In fact, most, if not all, of the local student-athletes mention Roginski, a northeast PA native, as their primary connection to getting to Lackawanna College.
 
Roginski joined the Lackawanna football program four years ago, and he moved from defensive to offensive assistant two years ago. He is in his second season as tight ends coach entering the 2025 campaign. Roginski was born in Scranton and is a proud West Scranton alum. He has taken on the task of the local recruiting pitch and selling Lackawanna College to the local student-athletes.
 
"They're football players," said coach Roginski, rather matter-of-factly, about what made these local players stand out.
 
"I feel that the quality of football we have around here…we really have good, hard-nosed players that can play in the Mark Duda system…a lot of our kids get under-recruited, and don't get the looks, so I'm just going out there and advocating for our backyard."


 
Roginski's due diligence at the local level was a big help to the Lackawanna College defense last year, as local product Victor Holt (Throop) became a hybrid safety/linebacker in the starting lineup last year.
 
"I saw him (Roginski) at a track meet one time, and he said he needed me to come down here," said Holt, "and ever since that conversation, it's been Lackawanna the whole time."
 
Holt was fifth on the team last season, first amongst players in the secondary, with 32 total tackles. He also had six pass breakups and 4.5 TFLs on the year. Holt, a Mid Valley HS graduate, will be taking over the main safety position this year in the starting lineup for the Falcons.


 
"The ball around here, I feel like people underappreciate it," says defensive back hopeful Nick Kucharski (Peckville), a Valley View HS graduate, "I think it is really hard football. Everyone really works hard every day."
 


Back on the offensive side of the ball, two local quarterbacks are meshing well with the quarterback group.
 
"We're always in the meeting room together, always asking each other questions about the plays, and we just grow as a team," says Billy Maloney (Scranton), a star athlete from Scranton who joined the Falcons in the spring semester. Maloney is amongst the four healthy quarterbacks all vying for time right now. He thinks his time locally has prepared him for the college game.
 
"Lot of competition. Some of these people that I played (against) are here, and it's just funny talking to them. We played each other, and never really talked to each other, and now we're friends. It's pretty cool," said Maloney.
 


Another local quarterback is Logan Olsommer (Moscow), who is making contributions to the team despite carrying an injury. Olsommer, who played at Delaware Valley for his father Keith, who played college football at Penn State, echoes Maloney's assessment that the quarterbacks are all supportive of each other.
 
"I think we're all really good friends with each other, and if I have a question, or even if the guys who are competing for the starting spot, they have a question, they're not hiding something from each other," says Olsommer, "We're all looking to get each other better, and to get this team better."
 
Olsommer came to Lackawanna College without many options, but says the coaching staff, particularly how they are as people, was what really pushed him to come to the Electric City.
 
"Obviously, the program is one of the best Jucos in the country, so, knowledge-wise, they have it," says Olsommer, "But then you gotta look at them as people. And how do you interact with them, and how they are to you. To me, that was the one thing where I was like 'These guys are special.'"


 
The reputation for Lackawanna College as a place to better yourself, both as a student-athlete and as a human being, has continued to grow, but it wasn't always like that.
 
For a long while, particularly during the early years of the Lackawanna College program, getting student-athletes to the next level was a tough task. Infamously, the biggest college football program in the commonwealth, Penn State, swore off bringing in junior college recruits. The Falcons had to build relationships elsewhere with schools like Maryland, West Virginia, Miami (FL), Virginia Tech, and many other solid FBS outfits.
 
Eventually, inroads were made at PSU, and, over the last 15 years, that relationship with the Nittany Lions has improved greatly. Outstanding Lackawanna College players have gone to State College and had excellent careers playing at Beaver Stadium, most notably Paris Palmer, Jaquan Brisker, and Ji'Ayir Brown. Brisker and Brown now play on Sundays in the NFL, two of seven active Lackawanna alums playing in the league.
 
It has gotten to the point where the coaches from all over, including in Happy Valley, are recommending student-athletes go to Scranton, PA to improve their skills.
 
That's what former Lake-Lehman star Jacob Monko (Shavertown) was told when he went to a Penn State camp not long ago. Monko, who stepped away from football to pursue a welding career after high school, is attempting to work his way back to high-level football, and his first real test is at Lackawanna College.
 
"I emailed coach Duda about coming here, and he gave me a message that said 'Come here and try it out,'" says Monko. "That was just a thing to like, really show him what I got, and hopefully make the team."
 
Monko is a tight end prospect, and said the conditioning was the toughest aspect to getting back to game shape.
 
"I gave myself a good six months back into training to really kind of…get to what I thought of what I'd pick myself back up to be to play at this level, and I was wrong, it's more than that," laughed Monko, "I'm good. I'm conditioned now, but it's a different kind of ball."


 
With the looming transition to the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference and NCAA Division II on the horizon, coach Roginski believes the program is well-positioned to thrive and continue to draw high-quality talent from the area.
 
"It's going to work to our advantage because you're going to get a lot of our local kids who want to play college football, but they don't have to go to the (other PSAC schools) where they have to travel and live on campus," says Roginski, "When they can come here and stay at home and still get a quality education at a lesser price, and still have the opportunity to grow as a football player."
 
The Falcons had their final preseason scrimmage on Wednesday, August 27^th against Lycoming College from NCAA Division III, and they will start their final season as an NJCAA institution on Saturday, September 6^th, when Lackawanna is set to host Region XIX foe Sussex County CC in the season opener.

All the interviews conducted with local student-athletes, including those with players not included in this write-up, can be found HERE.