H.S. Football: Wyoming Area to name weightroom after former coach Marranca

Former Wyoming Area football coach Paul Marranca will be honored on Thursday, July 18, as the weight room on Boston Avenue in West Pittston across from the football stadium will be named the Paul J. Marranca Performance Center.

The Wyoming Area Football Alumni Association will hold the dedication at 4 p.m. in the parking lot of the weight room. The public is invited. A cocktail reception will follow at 5 p.m. at The Banks Waterfront Venue, Kennedy Boulevard in Pittston, starting at 5 p.m. Cost to attend the reception is $25 per person.

Marranca played on the inaugural Wyoming Area football team in 1966 and was a longtime educator in the school district.

Marranca coached Wyoming Area for 27 seasons — from 1976 to 1986 and again from 1992 to 2008. He amassed a 230-32-2 record with the Warriors with 10 seasons of 10 wins or more and only three losing seasons.

Marranca was the 1980 Pennsylvania Coach of the Year, a 12-time Wyoming Valley Conference Coach of the Year and a Big 33 coach in 2000. He is a member of Pennsylvania State Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame. His teams won three District 2 titles, two Eastern Conference championships and seven WVC championships.

Marranca was also the head coach at Nanticoke Area in 1990 and 1991 and at Hazleton Area in 2010. He began his coaching career as an assistant at Dunmore under Jack Henzes, who was his head coach at Wyoming Area.