Shippensburg University Athletics

Pete Lee, the longest tenured Shippensburg University coach in any sport, returns for his 29th season as an assistant football coach in 2025. Lee is entering his 40th season overall as a collegiate football coach. His primary coaching disciplines are the tight ends and the specialists.  
 
During his SU tenure, Lee has held many additional coaching roles, including a stint as the offensive coordinator from 2006-10. Lee also served as the tight ends coach and offensive line coach in several seasons. 
 
In his capacity coaching the specialists, Lee instructed place kicker Jaxson Montross – the team’s lone All-PSAC Eastern Division First Team performer in 2021. Montross was 15-of-21 in field goals, missing only once on a kick attempt under 40 yards. His 15 field goals ranked second in the PSAC and are tied for the second-most in SU single-season history. Montross’s 85 points are the second-most in SU single-season history, and his 50-yard field goal in the 2021 season opener was at the time the longest field goal in school history.

In 2024, Lee tutored freshman place kicker Wilson Ingerski, who broke Montross's record with a successful 54-yard field goal and also recorded 11 touchbacks on 30 total kickoff attempts.
 
From his arrival at Shippensburg in 1997 through the completion of the 2022 season, Lee instructed 21 offensive linemen to a total of 26 All-Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) awards in his tenure as the team’s offensive line coach. His previous work with the team’s tight ends included seven All-PSAC honorees – including three consecutive First Team performers from 2001-03.
 

Lee adapted the offensive line from a unit previously designed for the Wing-T to a group predicated on supporting a spread and multiple-set offense. From 2012-13, SU had 1,151 drop backs but the offensive line yielded just 52 sacks – approximately one every 22 passes attempted.
 
Twice over the course of the last six seasons, Lee instructed multiple All-PSAC linemen. In 2017, Alec Petrillo (center) and Zach Warren (right guard) earned Second Team recognition from the league’s coaches. The 2017 SU squad ranked among the Top 5 PSAC teams in rushing offense (third), total offense (fourth) and scoring offense (fourth).
 
In 2015, Lee instructed All-PSAC Second Team linemen Schuyler Harting (left tackle) and Hayden Rigo (right guard). The selections marked the first time SU had multiple offensive linemen on the all-conference team since 2008. SU ranked third in the PSAC in rushing in 2015, averaging 233.3 yards per game, while the scoring offense (44.1 points per game) ranked third in NCAA Division II.
 
In 2012, a campaign in which Shippensburg led NCAA Division II in total offense (529.92) and ranked second in passing offense (387.69), Lee coached a line that yielded just 16 sacks in 13 games while SU’s quarterbacks totaled 581 pass attempts (44.6 per game). SU broke or tied 73 school records in the process.
 
In 2011, SU’s offense set five single-season school records and allowed quarterback Zach Zulli to set single-season school records for touchdown passes and completions. Lineman Chris Restino earned a spot on the All-PSAC Second Team Offense in 2011 and was the team’s only offensive player to earn all-conference laurels.
 
From 2006-10, Lee was Shippensburg’s offensive coordinator. In 2009, Shippensburg scored at least 21 points in all 12 games of the season, a feat never before achieved in 105 seasons of organized football at the university.
 
Numerous offensive marks in 2009 were among the best performances in school history. The team amassed 4,759 yards from scrimmage, the second-most in school history at the time, while totaling 2,573 yards through the air (the most since 1999). SU led the PSAC with an average time of possession at 32:40 and averaged 182.2 rushing yards per game.
 
Among the tight ends, Mark Rossi had a stupendous senior season by hauling in 24 receptions for 264 yards and nine touchdowns. He finished the regular season with seven more receiving touchdowns than all of the other starting tight ends from the PSAC Eastern Division combined.
 
In 2008, Shippensburg scored at least 10 or more points in 10 of its 11 games and averaged 24.8 points per contest. The team scored 35 or more points in four games, totaled 37 touchdowns and achieved its highest point total in a game since 1999 with a 62-6 victory over Cheyney.
 
On Oct. 27, 2007, Lee helped orchestrate a school-record 749 yards of total offense in a 56-10 Homecoming victory over Lock Haven. The 749 yards, which featured two 100-yard rushers, two 100-yard receivers and a 300-yard passer, were the second most in the history of the PSAC and just eight shy of the all-time record.
 
In Lee’s first season as offensive coordinator in 2006, Shippensburg ranked in the PSAC’s Top 10 in all major offensive categories. The team was also second in time of possession and fifth in third down conversions.
 
Under Lee in 1999, the offensive line cleared the way for an offense that averaged 450.1 yards per game, the highest in team history at that time. SU also set records for passing yards per game (279.2), points (398) and total yards per play (6.1).
 
In 2002, Shippensburg set a new record for total yards rushing with 2,632 before shattering the mark in 2004 by rushing for 3,112 yards. The offensive line provided blocking for a team that totaled 406.8 yards per game and averaged 259.3 yards rushing in 2004.
 
Among his work with the tight ends includes mentorship of Joel Gamble and Brian Sekel. Sekel was an All-PSAC First Team player in 2002 and an All-PSAC Second Team player in 2004; Gamble was an All-PSAC First Team player in 2003. Gamble spent time in NFL camps with the Tennessee Titans and the Cleveland Browns. SU had the Western Division’s First Team tight end for three straight years from 2001-03, as Brian Booker was honored in 2001.
 
Lee is also a long-time contributor to Shippensburg’s special teams units – particularly its kickers. In 2015, sophomore Billy Deane became the first All-PSAC First Team kicker at SU since 2007. Deane led SU in scoring with 92 points, converting 13-of-20 field goals and 53 extra points. His 59.1-yard kickoff average helped SU post a four-yard differential in field position at the start of drives.
 
Under Lee’s guidance in 2011, Drew Newcomer became the only kicker in school history to finish a season perfect in field goal kicking (through at least 10 attempts) and was the only qualified individual in the PSAC to make all of his field goals. Newcomer went 11-for-11 and made the first 17 attempts in his career – a school record for consecutive makes spanning more than one season.
 
Newcomer (79) also broke Kyler Ford’s record for the most points by a kicker in one season (77 in 2009) and kicked the longest field goal (49 yards) in school history in 2013.
 
In 2009, Ford was invited to the Valero Cactus Bowl after setting four school records, including points by a kicker in one season (77) and career punts (245). A two-time All-PSAC selection, Ford ranked sixth in the PSAC in punting with an average of 39.5 yards per punt, a mark that was also 27th in Division II.
 
Jamie Reder concluded his career in 2007 after totaling 244 points, the most ever by an SU kicker. His 44 field goals are just one behind Howie Guarini's school record total of 45. Among the other all-conference specialists mentored by Lee include punter Denver Brydon and kicker Craig Lough.
 
A 1985 graduate of Cornell with a bachelor of science degree in agriculture, Lee was a three-year letterman for the Big Red as an offensive lineman from 1981-83. He would later earn his master's degree in educational administration from Shippensburg in 2001.
 
Following his playing career, Lee began his coaching career as the freshman defensive line coach at Cornell in 1986, a position he held for two seasons.
 
Lee became the graduate assistant at West Chester in 1988 where he served as the special teams coordinator and coached the defensive line before being promoted to assistant coach in 1989. Lee then spent the next five seasons as the offensive line coach and recruiting coordinator under head coach Rick Daniels.
 
During his career at West Chester, Lee was instrumental in the development of lineman Chris Luneberg – who was selected by the Buffalo Bills in the eighth round and 223rd overall pick in the 1993 NFL Draft.
 
In 1994, Lee moved to Division I-AA Morehead State in Kentucky where he served as the offensive line coach and managed the Phil Simms weight training facility and academic support program before coming to Shippensburg prior to the 1997 season.
 
A native of Salamanca, New York, Lee and his wife Susan live in Shippensburg. Susan works at Shippensburg University in Accounting and Information Systems and Analytics. The couple has two daughters, Erin and Megan. Erin graduated from Slippery Rock University in May 2021; she was named the 2021 College of Business Student Leader of the Year and the 2021 Sports Management Department Student of the Year. She is now the Assistant Athletics Director for Compliance at Shepherd.. Megan graduated from Shippensburg in 2024 and was a two-time Academic All-American for the Women’s Rugby team who now works for the PA Department of Agriculture.
 
PERSONAL
Alma Mater: Cornell ’85/Shippensburg ’01M
Family: Wife, Susan; Daughters, Erin and Megan
Years in Coaching: 39
 
COACHING EXPERIENCE
Shippensburg University
2022-present               Assistant Coach/Tight Ends/Kickers
1997-2021*                 Assistant Coach/Offensive Line/Kickers
Morehead State University
1994-97                       Assistant Coach/Offensive Line
West Chester University
1989-93                       Assistant Coach/Offensive Line/Recruiting Coordinator
1988-89                       Assistant Coach/Defensive Line/Special Teams Coordinator
Cornell University
1986-87                       Assistant Coach/Freshmen Defensive Line
 
* Lee was Shippensburg’s offensive coordinator from 2006-10.