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<p>WILKES-BARRE &#8212; Forty-eight years ago, the King&#8217;s College wrestling room was a broom closet in a building under construction on campus. The school took a gamble on an up-and-coming coach named Ned McGinley to start the program and lead it to success.</p><p>The college made a choice that lasted nearly five decades.</p><p>In less than two months, the iconic coach will work his final wrestling match. McGinley announced on Thursday afternoon in front of a room full of family members, former wrestlers and King&#8217;s faculty that he will be hanging up his famous red tie for good effective at the end of this season.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s been a long, long time and I think it&#8217;s time to come to an end,&#8221; said McGinley in an emotional announcement, saying this was his own decision and the college had no input. &#8220;It&#8217;s never been a situation where certain coaches get to a certain point and (administrators) wonder if a coach still has something left for the game. To be honest, I&#8217;m wondering that about myself. But the truth is, it&#8217;s time to move on to better things.</p><p>&#8220;I no longer have that passion to roll out the mat and scream at the official, so it&#8217;s probably time to go. The officials will probably be much happier with me gone, I&#8217;m sure.&#8221;</p><p>Even at the age of 73 and in his final season, McGinley is still earning accolades. Within the last 10 days, he was recognized as the longest-tenured wrestling coach in the entire NCAA and coached his 900th career dual meet.</p><p>Throughout his decorated career, he has won more than 450 duals, coached 45 Division II or Division III national qualifiers, 18 NCAA All-Americans and six national tournament finalists.</p><p>But the honor he takes the most pride in came off the mat, where he has helped his pupils graduate 90 percent of the time, while his team has won the NWCA Academic Team Title for highest GPA in Division III the last two seasons.</p><p>&#8220;For some of them, maybe graduation wasn&#8217;t on the radar, they just wanted to wrestle. For others, graduation was the main thing, yet they came out and wrestled,&#8221; McGinley said. &#8220;We&#8217;re officially the smartest team in Division III the last two years. If they didn&#8217;t graduate, it would have wasted a lot of their money, a lot of our money, and a lot of energy.&#8221;</p><p>McGinley is also one of the most-respected coaches among his peers, having been enshrined by multiple organizations, including the Pennsylvania chapter of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame and Museum last year.</p><p>Former King&#8217;s wrestler and current Wilkes assistant coach Mitch Marcks, who is the Monarchs&#8217; all-time wins leader with 144, sees that respect first hand.</p><p>&#8220;He&#8217;s been around for 48 years, so there&#8217;s a lot of respect for someone who&#8217;s been around that long. And that&#8217;s not even counting him as a competitor,&#8221; said Marcks, who was a national runner-up for the Monarchs in 2004. &#8220;So seeing things change from when he&#8217;s been a wrestler, he&#8217;s seen it all and seen where things have gone.</p><p>&#8220;There&#8217;s a great respect in regards to that because he&#8217;s seen how things have changed over the years.&#8221;</p><p>McGinley will coach five more duals for the Monarchs before getting his team ready for one last postseason run. The dual meet slate consists of a home meet against Elizabethtown on Feb. 3, where dozens of former King&#8217;s wrestlers are set to return to honor their coach.</p><p>And the dual season concludes on Feb. 16 at home against city rival Wilkes, where McGinley wrestled in college. After that, the Monarchs will participate in the East Regional on Feb. 24-25 with the hopes of qualifying for the NCAA Tournament on March 10-11 in La Crosse, Wisc.</p><p>The search for the second wrestling coach in King&#8217;s history is underway and McGinley said he has a few names in mind.</p><p>Ultimately, the decision will be up to King&#8217;s athletic director Cheryl Ish and the rest of the administration, but Ish said that she will certainly listen to any advice the iconic coach offers.</p><p>&#8220;The one thing that&#8217;s made Ned so special is that he&#8217;s always put the program before himself &#8212; it&#8217;s never been about him,&#8221; Ish said. &#8220;I expect that to continue and he will want this program to keep moving forward and do it the right way.&#8221;</p><p>When the season concludes, McGinley will finish out the school year in his position as athletic recruiting coordinator then spend more time with his family: his wife Mary Ellen; their children Seana, Edward Jr. and Bridget; and his five grandchildren.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">King&#8217;s wrestling coach Ned McGinley talks with his grandaughters Helen and Sadie and daughter Bridget McGinley Mirin after announcing his pending retirement on Thursday. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/web1_TTL012717ned-mcginley1.jpg</photo0><caption0>King&#8217;s wrestling coach Ned McGinley talks with his grandaughters Helen and Sadie and daughter Bridget McGinley Mirin after announcing his pending retirement on Thursday. </caption0><photoCredit0>Aimee Dilger | Times Leader </photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/web1_TTL012717ned-mcginley2.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Ned Mcginley announces his retirement from King's College Wrestling Coach. 1/26/2017 Aimee Dilger|Times Leader</div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/web1_TTL012717ned-mcginley2.jpg</photo1><caption1>Ned Mcginley announces his retirement from King's College Wrestling Coach. 1/26/2017 Aimee Dilger|Times Leader</caption1><photoCredit1>Aimee Dilger | Times Leader </photoCredit1></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta></subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Dave Rosengrant</p><p>For Times Leader</p></bylineMeta></div>

Long-time King’s wrestling coach Ned McGinley set to retire