Lackawanna College canceled its 2019-20 men’s basketball season and removed three coaches after learning some members of the team were involved in a planned fight that sent three people to the hospital.
Sharon Lynett, director of marketing and communication, said the college also expelled all students involved in the incident, which police say occurred Oct. 28 near Tobin Hall in the area of Mulberry Street and McKenna Court.
Scranton Police Chief Carl Graziano said officers responded to Moses Taylor Hospital around 12:45 a.m. on Oct. 29 after the staff reported three Lackawanna College students were “jumped” by “several individuals.”
The victims, whom Graziano only described as three men between the ages of 18 and 20, could not identify their assailants or provide a good description of them. The case was assigned to a detective but the victims would not cooperate with investigators, according to the chief.
The college also conducted an investigation and determined the incident was actually a planned fight between two people, each of whom had a group of students to support them — one of the groups included members of the basketball team, the Falcons, Lynett said in a prepared statement.
Lynett, a member of the Lynett/Haggerty family that owns Times Shamrock Communications and The Times-Tribune, said those involved also have not cooperated with the internal investigation. Because of that, the college has been unable to definitively determine the cause of the fight or assess individual levels of culpability.
“The college does not condone actions that could cause harm to others, nor do we condone students’ decisions to keep silent about what occurred,” she said. “As a result, the college made the decision to cancel the basketball season and dismiss with appeal all involved students.”
Lynett confirmed the team’s three coaches — head coach Brian Coyle
and assistants Dan Regan
and Chad Pettus
— are out of a job. She would not say if they resigned or were fired. Contacted Friday, Coyle declined to comment. Pettus confirmed he was fired. He said the school did not tell him why. Attempts to reach Regan were unsuccessful.
One of the players involved in the incident, Jalen Vaughns,
disputed the school’s findings regarding the team members’ involvement in the fight. He acknowledged he and about nine other team members were present, but insists they were just spectators.
“We were just kids going up to see a fight, acting stupid,” Vaughns said. “It was a one-on-one fight. They are trying to make it seem like we jumped him. We didn’t. There just happened to be a lot of people there.”
Vaughns, 20, is a sophomore who was attending the school on partial athletic scholarship. He said he is one of 10 members of the team who were expelled. He plans to challenge the action.
“This had nothing to do with anyone on the team. They are just spinning the whole thing,” he said.
The basketball team is coming off a successful season in which it advanced to the Region XIX Championship game. The team played three games this year and was scheduled to play 29 more, including a home game Nov. 12.
Lynett said the situation is unfortunate, but the school felt it had no choice but to cancel the season. It will now turn its focus to rebuilding for the next year.
“Lackawanna College holds its student-athletes to high standards both inside and outside the classroom,” she said in a statement. “When they fail to meet those standards, our administration must act in the best interest of the entire college community.”
JOSEPH KOHUT, staff writer, contributed to this story.
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