UMass Lowell Athletics

John Molvar, a 1983 graduate of the University of Lowell, enters his sixth year on the coaching staff and will assist UMass Lowell's cross country and distance runners.

The UMass Lowell men’s cross country team, consistently a regional power and national challenger in Division II earned a regional ranking in its second Division I season.  Junior Robert Allen won the 2014 Iona Meet of Champions and freshman Paul Hogan finished sixth as the River Hawks finished fourth in the team event. 

UMass Lowell also finished second at the America East 2014 Championships. 

Molvar came to his alma mater following four successful years as the head coach of the cross country and track and field programs at Gordon College which followed one year as an assistant at Ipswich H.S.

During his four years at Gordon, Molvar led the Fighting Scots' programs to new heights. The men's cross country program was a regular among the top 20 schools at the NCAA New England Region Championship and finished as the Commonwealth Athletic Conference runner-up four straight years.

Molvar's women's cross country teams were the CAC runners-up in 2007 and 2008 and also solidified their places among the top 25 at the NCAA New England Championship.

Molvar was named the CAC men's cross country coach of the year all four years (2006-09) and earned women's coach of the year honors in 2008.

During the track and field season, the Fighting Scots won three straight CAC women's titles from 2007-09. Molvar steadily increased Gordon's New England Division III qualifiers each year, including 12 individual women and men and eight relay teams during the 2008-09 indoor and outdoor seasons.

Molvar was a member of ULowell's cross country/track and field program from 1981-83 and graduated with a degree in chemical engineering in 1983. During his undergraduate years, he was a member of two NCAA regional qualifying teams and ran alongside standouts Tony Gilbert, Tom Chamberas, Art Demers, Dave Dunham and Phil Maia. He was also a regular on the road race circuit for more than 20 years.
Previously, Molvar was a standout runner at Melrose H.S., from where he graduated in 1979.

Molvar spent 22 years as a nuclear engineer at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard before retiring in 2006. He is also the author of The Youth and Teen Running Encyclopedia, published in 2012.

Molvar lives in Newburyport, Mass., with his wife Karen and sons Joe (18) and Josh (17).