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Lycoming football coach Mike Clark announced the addition of four new assistant coaches for the 2021-22 academic year, as Greg Merchlinsky (wide receivers), Adam Gehr (outside linebackers), Jermaine Reyes (linebackers) and Ryan Bastian (tight ends) join the staff.
In addition, Karl Roberts (defensive pass game coordinator) and Mike Pearson (running backs) will return for their first full playing season this year.
Fourteenth-year coach Mike Clark (offensive coordinator/offensive line) also welcomes back a corps of experienced coaches in associate coach Steve Wiser (48th year, defensive coordinator/defensive line), assistant coach Tim Landis (ninth year, quarterbacks/special teams coordinator), Chris Kish (10th year, linebackers) and Andrew Wagner '13 (third year, offensive line).
• After three years at Muhlenberg College, Merchlinsky is set for his first year with the Lycoming College football team, working as an assistant coach with the wide receivers.
Merchlinsky worked with the tight ends at Muhlenberg in 2018-19 and the wide receivers in 2019.
• After 16 seasons at Hughesville High School, Gehr is set for his first season with the Warriors as an assistant coach in 2021, working with the outside linebackers.
Gehr served most recently as the coach of the Spartans from 2018-20, but he worked as an assistant coach with the program from 2005-17, spending time with the linebackers and as defensive coordinator.
• A three-year letterwinner as a linebacker for the Warriors, Jermaine Reyes will start his second stint as an assistant coach with the blue and gold in 2021, as he returns for his fifth year as an assistant coach with the program after working with the team from 2015-18. He will again work primarily with the linebackers.
• Bastian begins his collegiate coaching career with the tight ends at Lycoming in 2021. Bastian has volunteered with the Loyalsock Little League and Pop Warner programs and with his alma mater, South Williamsport Area High School.
• After three years as an assistant coach at Western New England University, Roberts stepped into his role as the defensive pass game coordinator at Lycoming in fall 2020.
Roberts helped lead Western New England to a 25-8 record from 2017-19 while winning three straight Commonwealth Coast Conference titles.
• Pearson returned to Lycoming for a second stint as an assistant coach at his alma mater after working for six years as the spring football coach at Chestnut Hill College. Pearson will work with running backs this season.
The 2021 season will mark Pearson's 31st on the sidelines. From 2015-19, he started the sprint football team as the head coach at Chestnut Hill College, developing the team into a competitor in the Collegiate Sprint Football League (CSFL), as his 2019 team posted a 5-2 record.