Bio

Mark Lucas was appointed as head coach of the Wells College women's and men's volleyball programs prior to the 2016-17 seasons. Lucas initially joined the volleyball coaching staff as an assistant coach in January 2014 for the men's volleyball season and continued his duties with the 2014 women's volleyball season the following September.

The 2017-18 academic year marked his second year as head coach of each program. He continues to serve as the women's head coach and moved to an assistant coaching role with the men's team in the spring of 2019.

Lucas earned North Eastern Athletic Conference Coach of the Year recognition for women's volleyball in the 2017 season. He led Wells to the semifinals conference playoffs as head coach for three straight seasons, and the team's overall playoff streak stood at a record five seasons covering his time as assistant coach prior to taking over the head coaching role for the 2016 season. 

Lucas was a part of significantly improving the women's volleyball team during his first season in 2014 when the Express posted the conference's most dramatic improvement in overall and conference record. After a 5-25 record in 2013, the team's second season as a modern-era varsity program, Wells improved to a 23-11 overall record alongside a 10-2 mark within the conference to qualify for the postseason for the first time in 2014. Success continued in the 2015 season with an 18-11 overall record and 11-1 record in the North Eastern Athletic Conference.

In his two seasons as men's head coach, Lucas compiled a 40-21 overall record (18-6 conference) and reached the conference tournament finals both times.

Lucas came to Aurora after serving as the Head Coach of the men’s volleyball program at Kyoto University of Foreign Studies in Kyoto, Japan. Across a nine-year career as bench boss in Japan, Lucas compiled an overall coaching record of 73-65 and posted the best fall (7-1) and spring (7-0) seasons in program history in 2006. He played for the Matsugasaki Club Team in Kyoto from 2008-13, and won two Sakyo-ku League Championships.

Lucas has held volunteer assistant coaching positions with boys and girls high school volleyball teams in the Rochester and Syracuse areas.

Outside of volleyball, Lucas currently serves as a Japanese and GRE instructor at Wells College and has also taught classes at Tompkins-Cortland Community College and Tompkins-Seneca-Tioga BOCES.  Lucas is also a long-time tutor for graduate-school candidates preparing for the GRE and GMAT. In Japan, he served as a full-time English lecturer at Kansai University, Kyoto University of Foreign Studies and the Doshisha Women's College of Liberal Arts.

Lucas possesses two bachelor's degrees, the first in Biomedical Computing from the Rochester Institute of Technology and the second from SUNY Brockport in Theatre. Lucas earned his master’s degree from SUNY Brockport in Secondary Science Education (physics).

Lucas resides in Ithaca with his wife Kathy and his dogs Cora and Harper.