Mal Paul was an outstanding wrestler and footbalI player for the Shamokin Greyhounds, where he graduated in 1936. Mal continued his education at Muhlenburg College, where they did not have wrestling until his senior year. After the war, Mal returned to Shamokin where he reinstated the wrestling program. Over the next 19 years Shamokin excelled in wrestling like no other time in its long history. Mal coached 8 individual State Champions, 8 Runners-Up, 24 Regional and 86 District Champions. In 1950 he started an elementary wrestling program, one of the earliest in the region if not the state. He, along with his lifetime assistant, Lyman "Beans" Weaver, started a junior high-junior varsity tournament. He used influence to encourage neighboring schools to start wrestling. Line Mountain, North Schuykill, Southern Columbia, and Selingsgrove are among those schools and they have combined to win 10 State Championships. The amazing thing about Coach Paul's accomplishments is that his success came when Pennsylvania had only one classification in wrestling and he coached at an average size high school. He and his wife Dorothy have been married for 48 years. They have two daughters, Karen Sodrick of Paxinos and Luanne Comacchione of Wilkes-Barre. Mal is an innovator who is credited with the early development of quality amateur wrestling in Pennsylvania and is an inspiration to many coaches. But, above all, his most gratification is that almost 75% of his wrestlers went on to college and the successes that his former wrestlers have earned in different walks of life.