It is more than a little unusual that our area can boast of having the head coaches of two major sports at Penn State University with local ties.

With the appointment last month of Mike Rhoades, 50, a native of Mahanoy City, as the Nittany Lions’ head basketball coach this is precisely the scenario right now. Head football coach James Franklin, also a Pennsylvanian, is a graduate of East Stroudsburg University.

Rhoades brings with him impressive credentials as the head coach of Virginia Commonwealth University where he led the Rams to three NCAA appearances in six seasons.

Before leading the Atlantic 10 Conference VCU team, Rhoades’ first Division I head coaching post was at Rice University in Houston.

Before becoming a coach, Rhoades, son of the late state Sen. James Rhoades, R-Schuylkill, was a standout at Lebanon Valley College in Annville where he was a member of the 1994 team that won the Division III national championship with an exciting 66-59 overtime win over New York University.

Rhoades ended his college career with 2,050 points, which at the time was a school record - (his output is now third all-time at the college) - but several of his records still remain, including best free throw percentage (84.5), assists (668) and steals (212).

In 1995, USA Today named Rhoades as its Player of the Year. He was a two-time All-American and three-time All-Middle Atlantic Conference Player of the Year.

Rhoades cut his teeth at Mahanoy Area High School. There is a strong and proud basketball tradition in this part of the coal region, going back to the days when Mahanoy City dominated the old Black Diamond League.

Rhoades’ coach at Lebanon Valley, Pat Flannery, reflected on that fierce pride among players who were part of this heritage. Because he was such a sought after prize, Rhoades had his pick of the litter when it came to playing basketball for a major university.

A long family relationship between the Rhoades and Flannery families was instrumental as to why Rhoades wound up going to college a mere hour away from his hometown and playing for a Division III team.

Among his first appointments upon his arrival at Penn State, Rhoades has brought several VCU support staff with him, including Jake Szczecina as video coordinator. Szczecina is the son of Summit Hill Mayor Jeff Szczecina and his wife, Maria. Szczecina earned his bachelor’s degree in business administration and pre-physical therapy from Misericordia in 2018. He earned a master’s degree in exercise science from ESU in 2021 and is working toward a master’s degree in sport leadership from VCU.

While Rhoades and his team were winning the national championship in Division III in 1994, James Franklin racked up impressive credentials that same year and he was selected as a nominee for Player of the Year in Division II.

Born in Langhorne, Bucks County, Franklin, 51, is a graduate of Neshaminy High School, also in Bucks. Franklin was the ESU quarterback all four years that he went there and set seven school records. Sports Illustrated named him as one of its Players of the Week during his senior year.

As a football coach, Franklin is well-traveled. He has had assistant positions at Kutztown University, his alma mater ESU, James Madison, Washington State, Idaho State, Maryland and Kansas State.

In 2010, Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, announced that Franklin would become head football coach, the first African-American to hold a head coaching position at the university.

Franklin led the Commodores to back-to-back nine-win seasons and took them to three bowl games in his first three seasons at the helm.

Thanks to his success at Vandy, Franklin won the head coaching job at Penn State in 2014, and had to pick up the pieces of a fractured program because of the fallout of the 2011 Jerry Sandusky scandal, which brought down legendary football coach Joe Paterno and several top administrators.

In his nine seasons with the Nittany Lions, Franklin’s record is 78-36, which includes three 11-win seasons. His only losing campaign was during the pandemic-shortened 2020 season when the team went 4-5. In bowl games, Franklin’s teams are 4-4 since arriving at the State College campus, including this year’s 35-21 Rose Bowl win over Utah.

By Bruce Frassinelli | tneditor@tnonline.com

The foregoing opinions do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editorial Board or Times News LLC.