The Scranton School District Board of Education accepted the interview panel recommendation to appoint Ray Dayton as the head coach of the Scranton High School football program.
Dayton succeeds Steve Shumbres, who resigned following the 2025 season. Shumbres had a career record of 33-50 in eight seasons.
Dayton, a former player at Alfred State and Mansfield University, has an extensive college coaching background.
At the high school level in New York, he was a head coach at Oxford High School and Unadilla Valley and an assistant at Harpursville and Seton Catholic in Binghamton.
Dayton started at Lackawanna College in the spring of 2018. He was a linebackers coach and helped develop talented players who earned scholarships to four-year universities in the Football Bowl Subdivision and Football Championship Subdivision.
In 2019, Dayton moved to the offense and coached the line and tight ends. Lackawanna had an offense that scored more than 40 points per game, and the line yielded 14 sacks. The Falcons reached the NJCAA National Championship game that season.
After a two-year hiatus, Dayton returned to Lackawanna as the co-offensive coordinator. He took over after former coordinator Josh Pardini took an administrative role during the season. The Falcons finished 7-3 that season and featured a balanced attack.
Dayton has spent four seasons as the offensive coordinator and has produced explosive offenses. The 2023 team averaged 452.8 total yards per game, and in 2024, the unit averaged nearly 40 points per game. Last season, Lackawanna averaged 32.1 points per game and 393.6 total yards per game.