Continuing upon its growing tradition of finding, cultivating and developing successful coaches, the Shawnee State men’s basketball program has tabbed a proven developer as its next head coach.
Fred Lymas, who spent the 2024-25 season at Florida A&M and has assistant coaching experience at the NAIA, NCAA Division I, NCAA Division II and USCAA levels in the sport, has been named as Shawnee State’s sixth head coach in program history, as announced by Shawnee State Athletic Director Gerald Cadogan.
“Shawnee State is taking a chance on me, and it is a chance that I couldn’t be more honored to receive,” Lymas said. “I’m a coach that’s very hungry, that’s been around good teams and has had good college coaching experience. I’m very grateful for Shawnee State and for the search committee sitting down with me and giving me this opportunity.”
Lymas, who has spent much of his time coaching in the collegiate ranks upon his graduation from Shepherd (W. Va.) University in 2009, has made noticeable gains at each of his stops along his decade-and-a-half coaching career.
That was evident at Florida A&M, where Lymas, alongside longtime running mate Patrick Crarey II, immediately helped the Rattlers more than double their win total from the 2023-24 to the 2024-25 season, with Florida A&M — a Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) member — going from 6-23 and 4-14 overall in the SWAC during the 2023-24 campaign to a 13-16 overall mark and a 10-8 overall conference record in 2024-25.
Consistently referred to by Crarey as a defensive wizard, Lymas helped lower Florida A&M’s scoring differental, which saw opponents outscore the Rattlers by 10 points per game in 2023-24, to just 3.2 points per game in 2024-25. Lymas’ defensive work also showed in field goal percentage, as Florida A&M held opponents to nearly a full percentage point lower in 2024-25 than in 2023-24 from the field. That mark also proved to be the Rattlers’ best defensive performance as a group since the 2021-22 season.
Prior to his stop at Florida A&M, Lymas helped Crarey establish St. Thomas as one of the premier powerhouses not only in The Sun Conference, but across the NAIA realm as well.
The Bobcats, who went 14-11 the year prior to Lymas stepping onto the scene with Crarey at the Miami Gardens campus, proceeded to lead St. Thomas to a 61-27 record from the 2021-22 to 2023-24 seasons, with St. Thomas advancing to The Sun Conference Tournament Championship Game in both the 2022-23 and 2023-24 seasons. St. Thomas ultimately went 26-8 and went to the Sweet 16 in 2022-23, followed by a 22-9 overall mark and a NAIA Second Round appearance during the 2023-24 campaign.
“The last four years for me have just been amazing,” Lymas said. “I feel like I’ve grown tremendously as a coach.”
Prior to his stops at both Florida A&M and St. Thomas (Fla.), Lymas coached at Avant Garde Academy in Hollywood, Fla., where he led the Florida High School Athletic Association (FHSAA) Class 2A boys basketball program to a 19-4 overall record during the 2019-20 season. Avant Garde won 12 of their first 13 games en route to a 19-4 overall record and averaged 64.1 points per contest while giving up just 54 points a bout.
Lymas also served as an assistant coach at NCAA Division II Barry (Fla.) in Miami Shores, Fla. — helping Barry go 25-6 during the 2014-15 season in a year that saw Barry play then-No. 7 Florida to a scant 79-70 setback and saw the Parrots defeat top-ranked NCAA Division II and fellow Sunshine State Conference member Florida Southern, 107-102, en route to rising as high as second in the NCAA Division II rankings while advancing to the Sunshine State Conference Championship Game and obtaining a NCAA Division II National Tournament appearance.
At Washington Adventist, Lymas initially began his career helping Crarey get Washington Adventist off of the ground, recruiting a roster that ultimately culminated in WAU winning a USCAA National Championship during the 2013-14 season.
“Patrick has been one of my best friends,” Lymas said. “He’s basically been my mentor, and he’s been a great mentor for me. We started together at the same time at Washington Adventist, and we basically started building something there from the ground level into a program that had a special culture within it. Then, being at St. Thomas and Florida A&M with him, and seeing what we’ve done over the last four years, we’ve been very successful. Patrick is a great coach, and I have learned a great deal from the time that I’ve spent with him.”
At Shawnee State, Lymas plans to instill “a lot of the same things” that Crarey will do, including playing at a breakneck pace.
“We will play very fast, but it will be with purpose,” Lymas said. “We’ll play a different style of basketball that’s predicated on high communication and being physical on the defensive end of the floor. Everything’s about situational matchups with me. That’s the type of team that we’ll have.”
A native of Silver Spring, Md., Lymas is a 2005 graduate of Paint Branch (Md.) High School who was an All-Metro selection as Paint Branch’s starting point guard. The 6-2 Lymas signed with NCAA Division I Morgan State out of high school and appeared in 22 games while starting eight in his freshman season before transferring to Shepherd (W. Va.) for his final three seasons of college basketball at the NCAA Division II level, where Lymas was a three-year starter. Lymas was named a team captain in his final two seasons of play at Shepherd, scored over 1,000 career points while finishing inside the school’s top-10 all-time leaders in assists, and averaged 8.6 points, 3.2 rebounds and 2.6 assists in his final season at Shepherd.
“Growing up, that’s all I did,” Lymas said of the game of basketball. “I’d spend entire days playing inside or outside. The DMV has a great sense and knowledge of basketball, and my biggest thing now is to help players grow personally and professionally, help them grow as young men and get them to where they want to go,” Lymas said. “The game of basketball has been terrific — because of it, I’ve been able to impact lives not only in the DMV, but West Virginia, Florida, the Miami metro area, and now, I get to impact lives in Ohio in addition to the states I’ve previously mentioned and more. It’s been such a blessing seeing the game of basketball take me all of these places.”
Lymas, who earned his bachelor’s degree in social work from Shepherd in 2009 and his master’s degree in social work from Barry in 2013, believes relationships are paramount to any program’s and any individual’s success.
“The biggest thing with me is relationships,” Lymas said. “I believe in having and keeping relationships, and that’s with everybody — whether it’s players, fellow coaches and staff in athletics, to the cafeteria lady, the president, and the community. I believe that relationships win championships.”
https://www.ssubears.com/sports/mbkb/2024-25/releases/20250626k1h9n4
