The NEPA Miners would like to congratulate Lackawanna College Head Coach Mark Duda on recently being inducted into the PA State Hall of Fame. Miners Head Coach Dan LaMagna is shown in the picture with Coach Duda at Genetti’s in Wilkes-Barre for the Hall of Fame Dinner. The NEPA Miners have many former Falcon football players which include Future Minor League Hall of Famer RB Donnie Jackson-Bey, RB’s Andre Chollette and Rasheed Nelson, LB Lati Woodruff and Rookie DT Eyad Elbattah. Coach Mark Duda has been a member of the football staff at Lackawanna College since the introduction of the sport in 1993.
After one season as defensive coordinator, Duda moved up to head coach and in those twelve years has compiled a 92-37 record while elevating the program to a position of national prominence. In this tenure at the college he has produced over 150 Division 1 Scholarship Athletes.
Under his guidance, Lackawanna has appeared in five bowl games and has been ranked nationally in recent years, highlighted by a No. 5 ranking at the end of the 2001 regular-season when Coach LaMagna was a member of the staff. The college won four championships in five years as a Northeast Football Conference member.
One of the many beneficiaries of Duda's vast knowledge of football is Bryant McKinnie, who was selected in the first round (No. 7) of the 2002 National Football League Draft by the Minnesota Vikings. McKinnie played at Lackawanna in 1997 and 1998 and went on to The University of Miami (Florida) where he was the recipient of the prestigious Outland Trophy and a consensus All-American offensive lineman.
A 1979 graduate of Wyoming Valley West High School in Plymouth, PA, Duda earned a football scholarship to the University of Maryland after an outstanding career with the Spartans. As a Maryland defensive lineman, he set a single-season school record with more than 13 sacks and ranks second in career sacks with more than 30. Mark was also teammates with Miners Coach Charlie Wysocki for one season at Maryland.
Duda later starred in the National Football League, spending six seasons with the St. Louis/Phoenix Cardinals. He was defensive line coach for two years at East Stroudsburg University in Pennsylvania and defensive coordinator for one year at Meyers High School in Wilkes-Barre, PA, before coming to Lackawanna. Congrats again to Coach Duda on the PA Hall of Fame!
This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 3, 2008 and is filed under Miners News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.
The North East Pennsylvania (NEPA) Miners are a minor league football team bringing a first of its kind football league to North Eastern Pennsylvania that will set the Miners apart from their competitors. While the Miners represent all of North East Pennsylvania, their basis of operations is the Poconos, encompassing the areas of Wilkes-Barre and Scranton. The Miners play in the Regional Atlantic Football League (RAFL) with home games at the area’s finest facilities.
The Miners’ goal is to serve the people of North East Pennsylvania with year-round community service while providing superior customer service and quality family entertainment on Saturday nights during the football season. Led by their President and Head Coach Daniel LaMagna and supported by Charlie Wysocki — a Wilkes-Barre native and legendary football player — the Miners aim to exemplify the utmost in sportsmanship while entertaining their fans. We are Scranton Football at its finest!
