Michael Mahon, Ph.D., is returning to his alma mater as athletic director at Scranton Prep.<\/p>\n
Mahon, a former teacher, principal, superintendent, higher education administrator, and coach, replaces Grey Simpson, who resigned after the season for a position at Woodberry Forest School in Virginia, the school announced in a press release Monday.<\/p>\n
A 1986 graduate of Scranton Prep, Mahon excelled as a football player and catcher for the baseball team. He helped the Cavaliers to a District 2 Class 3A championship and a first-round playoff game against Montoursville and its pitching ace, Mike Mussina.<\/p>\n
Mahon played and coached baseball at the University of Scranton. He started his professional career as a science teacher at Scranton Prep, also served as a coach at the high school level, and then embarked on a long career in administration.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is 30 years after I left as a teacher and 40 years after I left as a student, so to return to Scranton Prep, my alma mater, is exciting,\u201d Mahon, 58, said. \u201cWhen this opportunity came up, I reflected and realized that one of the most enjoyable aspects of my career was when I was teaching and coaching. It occurred to me that it would be so much fun.<\/p>\n
\u201cScranton Prep has a very long and storied history of athletic success and a tradition of a strong Jesuit education, which both are priorities for me in my life and brought me back. The thought of being able to go back\u00a0 and work as part of a team with the leadership of President Rev. A.J. Rizzo, S.J., and Principal Kris Cupillari, and have the opportunity to reengage in things that I have enjoyed is truly something that I am looking forward to.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mahon began his career as an administrator as assistant principal at Wyalusing High School, then was an assistant principal at Pleasant Valley High School. He became high school principal at Bangor before accepting the superintendent job at Wyalusing.<\/p>\n
He returned to Northeast Pennsylvania to become superintendent at Abington Heights School District in 2005, where he spent 17 years. He left to become superintendent at Southern Lehigh School District in 2021.<\/p>\n
His time at Southern Lehigh ended in controversy in 2025 after a divided school board voted 5-4 to approve a separation agreement with Mahon, who had been on paid administrative leave following accusations of discrimination and retaliation made against him by an employee, which Mahon claimed were \u201cprofoundly unfair.\u201d A probe by the school board later determined the claims of discrimination had not been substantiated, according to reporting by The Morning Call.<\/p>\n
As athletic director, Mahon will provide leadership for Scranton Prep\u2019s athletic programs, supporting coaches and student-athletes while building upon the school\u2019s longstanding tradition of excellence in athletics and education, the school cited in the press release.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been closely connected to high school sports as an administrator and superintendent, and I have watched the developments and changes,\u201d Mahon said. \u201cYes, things have changed, but the core values of discipline, leadership and dedication remain the same. I am looking forward to getting back into it.\u201d<\/p>\n
While a student at the University of Scranton, Mahon started his coaching career as part of Phil Angeli\u2019s staff. He was an assistant freshman coach for the Cavaliers. That experience, he noted, is what inspired him to go into teaching and coaching.<\/p>\n
Mahon played baseball for the University of Scranton, where he graduated with a degree in secondary education and a master\u2019s degree in school administration. He continued coaching as an assistant for the late Bill Howerton at the University of Scranton. He was also a head varsity baseball coach at Abington Heights in 1997.<\/p>\n
Mahon earned a Bachelor of Science in secondary education and a Master of Science in school administration from the University of Scranton, a Ph.D. in Human Development with a concentration in administration from Marywood University, and an M.B.A. from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.<\/p>\n
The Morning Call contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Michael Mahon, Ph.D., is returning to his alma mater as athletic director at Scranton Prep. Mahon, a former…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":258512,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[305,178,180,179,726],"class_list":["post-258511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-high-school-sports","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=258511"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258511\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/258512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=258511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=258511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=258511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}