Muhlenberg College Athletics

Former local high school standout and Division I wrestler Shaun Lally was named Muhlenberg’s head wrestling coach in 2014 and led a resurgence in the program in his first two years.

With a young team consisting almost entirely of wrestlers with no previous collegiate experience, the Mules won four dual matches, their most in six years, in 2014-15. They improved by three places to sixth at the Centennial Conference Championships, competed at Madison Square Garden and recorded their first shutout in 11 years.

In 2015-16, Muhlenberg fielded its largest squad in many years and took an in-season trip to Florida to compete in the Citrus Duals for the first time.

For the previous two years, Lally was the head coach at Stony Brook University, where he created the school’s first-ever collegiate competitive wrestling program through the National Collegiate Wrestling Association (NCWA), an organization that provides wrestling opportunities to schools that don’t have an NCAA program. In his two years, Lally coached 12 national qualifiers and five wrestlers who earned national academic honors.

With Lally as head coach, Stony Brook won a Best of Brand Award, given by the National Wrestling Coaches Association (NWCA) for one of the most highly marketed wrestling programs in the country, regardless of division.

A USA Wrestling bronze certified coach, Lally was a scholarship recipient for the NCWA Leadership Academy in the summer of 2014.

Prior to Stony Brook, Lally was the head coach at Nazareth High School in Brooklyn and the junior high head coach at Port Jefferson Middle School. He also spent a year as a high school wrestling referee and volunteered with Beat the Streets youth wrestling program in Manhattan from 2009 to 2010.

A native New Yorker, Lally grew up in the Lehigh Valley. At nearby Parkland High School, he was a District XI and Northeast Regional runner-up, losing in the state tournament to a future NCAA champion and Olympic bronze medalist. In high school he was also a two-time national qualifier in Freestyle and Greco for team Pennsylvania.

Lally went on to attend and wrestle at the University of Pittsburgh. He received his bachelor’s degree in business and economics from SUNY Empire State College in 2014.

Lally and his wife, Beth, a native of Williamsport, Pa., have two young children.