Pat Cleary

Edinboro University replaced its longtime men’s basketball coach today with one of his longtime assistants.

Pat Cleary, an Edinboro assistant for the past 14 years, will take over for his former boss, Greg Walcavich, who retired March 7 after 24 years.

The university announced Cleary’s promotion this afternoon.

As an assistant, Cleary has been in charge of recruiting and scouting. He also has run and promoted Edinboro’s summer basketball camps.

Cleary is a Sharon native who did not play basketball at Edinboro but was an elementary education major at the school. He began coaching as a student assistant in 1997.

For more details, see Wednesday’s Erie Times-News.Check out the video below.

Greg Walcavich

There’s been plenty of news out of Edinboro and Gannon the past few days.

On Thursday, the biggest headline was the retirement of Greg Walcavich, Edinboro’s 24-year men’s basketball coach. He was a consistent winner for the Fighting Scots.

Earlier in the week, Gannon announced it would build an indoor field house and renovate its rec center.

Finally, the Gannon and Edinboro women’s basketball teams are preparing to play in the PSAC Final Four tonight at Bloomsburg.

Check the links to read more about each.

Talk about a plethora of basketball knowledge, and success, in Erie’s small college men’s basketball, though one era came to an end.

At the end of this season, Edinboro’s Greg Walcavich, Gannon’s John Reilly, Mercyhurst’s Gary Manchel and Penn State Behrend’s Dave Niland have collected a total of 1,615 victories in  a combined 89 seasons of coaching. Walcavich, in his 24th season at Edinboro, announced his retirement Wednesday. He coached five years at Birmingham Southern and two at West Virginia Wesleyan. Reilly had 12 seasons as head coach at Brescia (Ky.) before coming to Gannon in 2005, while Manchel, in his 10th season at Mercyhurst,  headed UMass-Lowell for nine seasons.  Niland has been at Division III Behrend all 19 seasons as a head coach.

The total  mark of 1,615-948 is a .630 winning percentage. The foursome has collected numerous conference titles, and all have had teams in the NCAA tournaments, with Walcavich (Birmingham Southern) and Reilly (Brescia) guiding their clubs to NAIA tournaments. Niland’s Behrend squad collected the AMCC crownwith a 63-60 win over Medaille to claim a berth in the NCAA Division III tournament, where they l0st at No. 20 Wooster 62-44 on March 2. Walcavich, Reilly and Manchel have all three of their teams in the postseason.

Walcavich finished with a mark of 584-314 in 31 seasons (.650). The Rutgers ’73 graduate is 430-251 (.631) as the all-time leader at Edinboro, 18-10 this season.

Reilly, from Bowie State, is 373-231 (.617)  in 20 seasons, 141-86 (.621)  at Gannon including 22-6 this season. The highlight was a 30-4 season in 2008-09 when the Knights advanced to the Elite Eight.

Manchel is 295-240 (.551) after his 19th season. The Vermont graduate is the all-time leader at Mercyhurst with a 164-115 mark (.588), 16-13 this season, which ended with a PSAC playoff loss to Edinboro.

Niland, who played against Gannon at LeMoyne (N.Y.), is 363-162 (.691) at Behrend, finishing this season 20-9 after a sixth NCAA D-III tournament appearance.

- Bob Jarzomski

This season, Edinboro junior tight end Shawn Walker has caught four passes for 51 yards./Photo by Christopher Millette of the Erie Times-News

At 6-foot-4, 247 pounds, Shawn Walker looks like an NFL tight end.

Coming out of General McLane High, he was recruited like he could become one as several Division I schools wanted him. Walker was an all-state player in two sports when the Lancers won the 2006 PIAA Class AAA football title and 2007 PIAA Class AAA basketball title.

However, Walker hasn’t put up the kind of numbers you’d figure  someone of his talent would. Heading into his junior season this year, Walker had just 32 catches for 336 yards and four touchdowns, but Edinboro coach Scott Browning said Walker is having a “fine career.”

Last season, Walker was a second-team All-PSAC West pick, but didn’t catch a touchdown. He didn’t catch a pass in this season’s opener, but had four for 51 yards last week against Merrimack.

Browning said he has three tight ends in Walker, redshirt freshman Blaine Iskula (6-5, 255) and junior Seth Hembree (6-7, 250) and no one has become the” front runner.” Iskula has four catches for 16 yards while Hembree has two catches for 35 yards this season.

Browning then talked about the team having talent at the other skilled positions, but someone of Walker’s talent should be catching more passes even if there is a bunch of talent around him right?

So how does Walker feel about all this? Erie Times-News sports reporter Duane Rankin visited him at Edinboro earlier this week to find out as Scots (2-0) play PSAC East foe Cheyney (1-1) at home Saturday at 1 p.m.

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