Darnell Ford was hired as the head women's basketball coach in July 2025, and will enter his first official season as the head coach for the 2025-2026 year.
Ford was an assistant for the Falcons women's basketball team during the 2022-2023 season. He helped Lackawanna get to a .500 record and helped coach seven different players who scored 100 or more points on the season.
Ford left after his one season to focus on his youth basketball business, My Sky Elite, which he has been running since 2013. With My Sky Elite, Ford is the owner and a coach, helping both boys and girls basketball teams and running events, leagues, camps, clinics, travel teams, and more, while teaching the fundamentals and leadership. He also works with Breakthrough Basketball, an online basketball coaching resource based in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where he serves as a lead clinician.
Coach D's experience in coaching dates back to 2008, where he started in the Crestwood School District as a girls basketball coach. He spend four years working with girls ranging from middle school to high school. In that time, he also spent time at Firm A.C. Basketball in Wilkes-Barre, PA, overseeing operations and coaching teams ranging from elementary age to high school. While at Firm A.C., Ford helped coordinate and run events, while also fundraising, recruiting, and identifying sponsors and marketing opportunities for the club.
Ford is originally from Lumberton, Mississippi, where he played high school basketball. After Hurricane Katrina displaced him in 2005, he moved to Wilkes-Barre to live with is cousin, and he immediately began planting roots in the coaching world.
In his coaching and training career, Ford has coached over 1,000 student athletes, three McDonald All - American nominees, and ten 1,000-point scorers. Coach Ford has had over 30 players go on to play at various levels of collegiate basketball.
