Fred Lymas was named head coach of the Shawnee State men's basketball team in the summer of 2025, becoming the sixth coach in program history. Lymas' collegiate coaching history includes tenures at Florida A&M, St. Thomas (Fla.), Barry, Washington Adventist and Avant Garde Academy. Through the 2025-26 season, Lymas' career record as a head coach is 24-7 (.774).
In his first season as the Bears’ head coach, Lymas led the program to its first regular-season conference championship, finishing 24-7 overall and 15-1 in conference play. The Bears earned the No. 1 overall seed for the River States Conference Tournament before falling to IU Southeast in the semifinals. Shawnee State also earned an automatic bid to the NAIA National Tournament, where it faced Dalton State in the opening round and fell 81-71 to the Roadrunners. Lymas' efforts were rewarded with 2025-26 River States Conference Coach of the Year honors.
Shawnee State led the River States Conference with six all-conference selections: Jason Steele (first team), Tyreon Payne (second team), Kiante Williams (second team), El Sieger (second team), Jareon Mayo (third team) and Ahmadou Aw (third team).
PRIOR TO SHAWNEE STATE
Lymas previously served as an assistant coach at the NAIA, USCAA, NCAA Division II and NCAA Division I levels.
Lymas spent the 2024–25 season at NCAA Division I Florida A&M where he helped the Rattlers more than double their win total from the year prior and significantly improve on the defensive end, posting the program’s best defensive field-goal percentage since 2021-22.
Prior to Florida A&M, Lymas helped establish St. Thomas University (Fla.) as a national NAIA contender, compiling a 61–27 record from 2021–24, reaching back-to-back Sun Conference Tournament championship games, advancing to the NAIA Sweet 16 in 2022–23 and earning consecutive national tournament appearances.
His coaching résumé also includes stops at Barry University (NCAA Division II), where the Buccaneers reached the NCAA Tournament, Washington Adventist, which won the 2013–14 USCAA National Championship, and Avant Garde Academy, where he guided the program to a 19–4 season in 2019–20.
A native of Silver Spring, Maryland, Lymas graduated from Paint Branch High School in 2005, where he earned All-Metro honors as a point guard. Lymas began his collegiate career at Morgan State University before transferring to Shepherd University, where he was a three-year starter, two-year team captain and 1,000-point scorer. He finished his career among Shepherd’s top-10 all-time leaders in assists and averaged 8.6 points, 3.2 rebounds and 2.6 assists per game as a senior.
Lymas earned his bachelor's degree in social work from Shepherd in 2009 and his master's degree in social work from Barry in 2013.
