WILKES-BARRE – Nearly 20 years after returning the King's College football program to varsity status after a 30-year hiatus, head coach Rich Mannello announced his resignation on Monday.
Mannello was hired by King's in January, 1990 after the college announced it would reinstate varsity football after the sport had been discontinued following the 1963 season. Mannello faced the challenge of building a program without so much as a practice field, into a squad that would prep for two years before entering one of the nations' strongest leagues – the Middle Atlantic Conference.
Upon his hiring in 1990, Mannello's first decision was to hire current associate head coach Jim Anderson as his top assistant and the pair began recruiting and assembling a coaching staff before the Monarchs embarked on two junior varsity seasons in 1991 and 1992 in preparation for entrance into the MAC.
In 1993, King's played its first varsity game in 30 years, falling to Albright 30-12. The Monarchs would finish the season 1-9 with a week-seven 20-18 home victory over Juniata standing as Mannello's first career head coaching victory.
Over the next four seasons, King's would go a combined 11-37-1 but improvement could be seen as the Monarchs won three games in each of the 1997 and 1998 seasons while being exceedingly more competitive in games. In 1999, the Monarchs took another step forward, concluding the year with a 5-5 record.
Mannello's program broke through in 2000 when the Monarchs posted a 7-4 mark, won its first-ever Mayor's Cup with a 20-0 victory over cross-town rival Wilkes, and defeated Ursinus 45-20 to capture the Eastern College Athletic Conference Southern Region Bowl, registering the first post-season title of any kind in King's varsity football history. Mannello was rewarded that year with MAC “Coach of the Year” honors.
In 2001, Mannello guided the Monarchs to an 8-3 record and an ECAC Southeast Region Bowl with a 32-29 victory over Muhlenberg.
A year later, the 2002 season proved to be the best in King's history as Mannello's charges went 9-3, won the Middle Atlantic Conference championship and advanced to the NCAA Division III national playoffs for the first-time ever. There, King's won it's NCAA tournament debut with a 28-0 victory over Salisbury. The Monarchs would advance to the “Sweet 16” where it lost to a heavily favored Bridgewater (Va.) College squad 19-17 when a last-second King's field goal fell inches short. Mannello again received MAC Coach of the Year laurels at the conclusion of the season.
In 2003, the Monarchs would concluded a 7-4 campaign and fell to Johns Hopkins 41-13 in the ECAC South Atlantic Bowl. After going 4-6 in 2004 and 5-5 in 2005, Mannello led a King's return to the post-season in 2006 when the Monarchs finished 6-5 but fell to Kean 37-0 in the ECAC Southeast Bowl.
Following a restructuring of the MAC after the 2006 season that saw Susquehanna and Moravian leave the conference, MAC teams were forced to schedule three non-league games to round out the 10-game slate rather than the traditional single non-conference game. Mannello bypassed scheduling weaker opponents where victories were more attainable, choosing instead to schedule nationally-regarded programs such as Ithaca, Hampden-Sydney, Springfield, and St. John Fisher in an effort to best prepare his team for the MAC schedule where an automatic berth into the NCAA Division III national playoffs was awarded to the conference winner. The Monarchs went 2-7 in nine non-league games over the past three seasons.
In 2007, King's lost four games by five points or less to finish 1-9. In 2008, the Monarchs went 3-8 after suffering an injury-riddled season that saw the team lose its top two quarterbacks prior to training camp, then its best three tailbacks during the season. After going 1-7 through the first eight games, the Monarchs managed to rally at the end of the year, stunning eventual MAC champion Lycoming 24-7 before closing out the campaign with a 16-8 victory over FDU-Florham.
In 2009, King's opened the season with a 16-10 victory over defending Old Dominion Conference champion Randolph-Macon. After a pair of non-conference losses to Mannello's alma-mater Springfield and William Paterson, the Monarchs would suffer a devastating loss to Lycoming when the Warriors rallied from a 13-point deficit over the final 5:39 of the game to stun the Monarchs 24-21 on King's Homecoming Day.
King's, however, rebounded the following week to post their first-ever road win at Widener, defeating the Pride 35-24 in what was the team's best effort of the season to that point. However, a brutal schedule over the next three weeks against the top three teams in the MAC, along with mounting injuries on defense, took its toll. King's fell to eventual MAC runner-up Albright 34-16, third-place Lebanon Valley 40-14, and eventual MAC champion Delaware Valley 47-21 to stand at 2-6 on the year. The Monarchs then lost their fourth straight game with a 28-21 road defeat at FDU-Florham.
Mannello, however, would win what amounted to his final game at King's when the Monarchs stopped a six-game losing streak to Wilkes, recapturing the Mayor's Cup with a resounding 33-16 triumph on Saturday to conclude his final season at 3-7.
In his 17 varsity seasons at King's, Mannello posted an overall 70-104-1 mark. During his first seven seasons building the program King's went 17-51-1. Since 2000, he logged a 53-53 coaching ledger, including five post-season appearances and one MAC title. Mannello was 1-1 in NCAA national playoff games and 2-2 in ECAC bowl contests.
Mannello has produced 96 All-Middle Atlantic Conference selections with the 2009 team yet to be announced. He has also coached eight NCAA Division III all-Americans. In 2000, all-American tailback Damon Saxon led the nation in rushing with 1,744 yards and was named one of three finalists for the Melberger Award, honoring the top player nationally in Division III. In 2002, two-time all-American defensive end Steven Wilson was named the Division III “National Defensive Player of the Year”.
The education of his players was also of great significance to Mannello, whose teams also made their mark in the classroom. A total of 151 of his players were named to MAC All-Academic teams for posting overall grade-point averages of 3.20 or better.
“I would like to thank all of the players, coaches, friends and family members that have been a part of our football family over the past 19 years,” said Mannello, who informed his players of the decision during a Monday team meeting. “Our number-one goal has always been to build relationships that will last a lifetime. This goal was achieved with a tremendous amount of pride and appreciation for all of those that shared in our dream. I would also like to thank my wife Bonny, my stepson Jake, and my son Stone for their unconditional love and support in allowing me to pursue my own dreams in this great game of football.”
Mannello not only impacted the program on the field, but off the field as well. He instituted a highly successful community service program over the years that saw his players give back to the local community. Mannello and his players were involved with a variety of causes, including the American Heart Association Jump-Rope-A-Thon, the Big Brothers/Big Sisters Bowl-A-Thon, and the American Red Cross Blood Drive. Additionally, Mannello and his players visited schools to read to children and participated in Literacy Night. King's players also volunteered to play games with disadvantaged, at-risk children at the Wilkes-Barre C.Y.C. and were also part of the “Take Back the Night” march to raise awareness of the Victims Resource Center and violence against women.
Mannello also created the popular Community Coaches Program at King's where employees of the College and members of the Wyoming Valley community were invited to serve as guest coaches and learn about the Monarch program. Guest coaches would attend two practices each week, attend film sessions, and accompany Mannello on the sidelines during home games in order to gain an up-close look at the workings of the King's football program.
“Through working together at King's, Rich and I have known each other for 16 years and he has always demonstrated a great deal of passion for his job and a work ethic that is unparallel to anyone,” King's director of athletics Cheryl Ish stated. “I have always admired the time and energy that Rich and his staff have dedicated to their players, past and present. I have a great deal of respect for Rich and appreciate what he has given to King's over the years. Anytime you have a coaching change it comes with a fair amount of stress for all involved especially current players and staff. With Rich being the only head coach of the football program since it's reinstatement this scenario may cause some uncertainty. There is no easy way to approach a coaching change when it comes to someone like Rich who has mentored hundreds of players over the years, but the college will continue to place a priority on the educational and athletic experience for our student-athletes as we transition into this next chapter of King's Football.”
Ish also stated that Anderson, King's associate head coach who has worked side-by-side with Mannello since the rebirth of the program, will take over as interim coach during the search process and will be invited to apply for the position, should he wish to pursue the head coaching job at King's. 