| 2019 Moravian athletics file photo |
The Moravian University athletics department has announced that Mary Beth Spirk will be retiring as head women’s basketball coach at the end of the current season and as athletic director on May 1, 2026 after 45 years working for the Greyhounds.
Spirk has been battling health issues and recently was unable to make the Greyhounds’ road trip to Catholic on Feb. 7.
“Mary Beth has shaped Moravian University for the past 45 years in ways that are impossible to overstate,” Moravian University president Bryon L. Grigsby ’90 said. “She is not only an outstanding women’s basketball coach, but for the last nine years she has also excelled as our director of athletics. Mary Beth became head women’s basketball coach while I was a student at Moravian, so I had the privilege of witnessing the beginning of an extraordinary coaching career—one that has led the Greyhounds to nine NCAA tournament appearances. It is truly bittersweet to stand here at the close of that remarkable journey. She has been a tireless advocate for the Kay Yow Cancer Fund’s Play4Kay initiative, and it is extraordinary that Moravian has raised more than $250,000 under her leadership for that cause. Off the court, Mary Beth’s impact as AD has been transformational: she has overseen the addition of three sports, significant upgrades to many of our athletic facilities, and the raising of over one million dollars through our annual Athletics Giving Challenge. Mary Beth will be deeply missed. We are profoundly grateful for her vision, leadership, and devotion to Moravian over the last four and a half decades.”
Spirk arrived at Moravian University, then Moravian College, as an assistant women’s basketball coach in October 1981 shortly after her graduation from Dickinson, and she is now in her fifth decade as at the school that has seen her win over 650 games as head women’s basketball coach in 38 seasons as well as serve as athletic director since June of 2017. Spirk’s tenure at Moravian has also seen her serve as an assistant softball coach, head softball coach, associate professor of physical education, assistant athletics director beginning in 2001 and moving to associate athletics director and Senior Woman Administrator in 2011.
“For more than four decades, Mary Beth Spirk has embodied what it means to lead with passion, purpose, and heart,” stated Nicole L. Loyd, Moravian University Executive Vice-President, Chief Operating Officer and Dean of Students as well as Spirk’s direct supervisor. “From her remarkable success on the basketball court to her visionary leadership as Director of Athletics, she has consistently placed student-athletes at the center of every decision, shaping not only championship programs but confident, prepared graduates. Her advocacy for athletics, commitment to equity, and dedication to building a culture of excellence have strengthened Moravian in lasting and meaningful ways. Mary Beth’s influence reaches far beyond wins and championships—she has transformed lives, elevated our department, and inspired generations of Greyhounds. We congratulate her on an exceptional career and look forward to honoring the profound legacy she leaves behind. Coach Spirk reflects the very best of Moravian University.”
Spirk is finishing her 38th season on the Moravian sideline, and she has guided the 2025-26 Hounds into the postseason for the 34th time in her career as the squad will make its 16th Landmark Conference Tournament appearance on Tuesday, Feb. 24. Spirk has guided the Greyhounds to a 657-359 record in her career, and she is tenth among active coaches and 20th in total victories in NCAA Division III history. Spirk has coached the Blue & Grey to seven Middle Atlantic Southeast titles, three Middle Atlantic South championships, two Middle Atlantic Conference crowns, nine NCAA bids, three “Sweet 16” appearances, an ECAC championship in 2007, and most recently the 2010 Landmark Conference championship. In 2019, Spirk surpassed the 600-win milestone with a 13-point rally over rival Muhlenberg. She has coached 24 1,000-point scorers, 15 All-Americans, countless all-conference performers, and a National Player of the Year in Kathy Beck.
The 1991-92 season saw the Greyhounds enjoy the most successful season the college has ever experienced. Their 31-2 campaign culminated in hosting the Final Four, an article in Sports Illustrated and a National Runner-Up finish. Spirk’s efforts that year netted her the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association National Coach of the Year award, as well as MAC and Mid-Atlantic Region Honors. She is a ten-time Conference Coach of the Year including Landmark Conference Coaching Staff of the Year in 2010.
Spirk has been instrumental in helping Moravian lead NCAA Division III in fundraising for the Kay Yow Cancer Fund over the last 17 years with the Greyhounds raising more than $253,420, including a high mark of $21,662 in 2017. The Hounds have led D-III in Play4Kay each year since 2009, and the Kay Yow Cancer Fund donated $50,000 in Spirk’s name to the St. Luke’s Hospital Cancer Center to the fight against cancer in February 2025. This year’s Play4Kay game was on Saturday, February 14, 2026 in Johnston Hall as the Greyhounds defeated Lycoming, 75-61, to clinch a berth to the postseason.
Last March, Spirk was selected as one of the 28 winners of the 2024-25 National Association of Collegiate Athletics AD of the Year Award. Since she took over as athletic director, Spirk has guided major growth in the department. Since 2017, Moravian has added three varsity sports (men’s & women’s swimming in 2021-22 and women’s golf in 2023-24), finished making all head coaching positions full-time staff members, worked on a proposal that will ensure all sport program have at least one full-time assistant coach by 2026, began Moravian’s successful annual Athletics Giving Challenge in 2019 that has raised $1,020,188 in seven years including a record $181,988 in November 2024, revamped the athletic department’s mission statement, core values and brand standards in 2024, move the department to strictly online ticket sales through HomeTown Ticketing in 2023 and signed a contract to transition the entire department to Teamworks in 2025.
Spirk has also overseen many facility upgrades in her tenure as AD including new turf at Rocco Calvo Field in 2018 along with a digital scoreboard and a new track surface in 2024, a state of the art golf simulator room for the golf program in 2023, new bleachers and a digital scorer’s table in Johnston Hall in 2021, a new Mondo surface in Timothy Breidegam Fieldhouse in 2020, a new scoreboard on John Makuvek Field in 2023, a new indoor hitting area for baseball in 2025, upgrades to the athletic training room, equipment room, student-athlete performance center, a new turf surface on John Makuvek Field in 2025, the lobby of Johnston Hall and the conference room in Johnston Hall in the last two years.
Spirk is an ambassador for women’s athletics speaking at local schools as well as attending national conferences on gender equity and Title IX. She has volunteered at the NCAA sponsored “YES Clinic” during the women’s Final Four five times. The YES Clinic provides basketball instruction to underprivileged youth in the city which hosts the Final Four. Spirk served her eighth and final year on the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association Board of Directors, one of only three Division III coaches on the board, in 2018-19. She is also a member of the WBCA Coach Mentor program, and Spirk has served as the Chair for the WBCA All-American Committee for more than 10 years.
On the softball diamond, Spirk took over the program in 1988 and guided Moravian to a 104-57 mark in six seasons including a then-school record 23 victories in 1991. She coached 14 Middle Atlantic Conference Southeast League First Team All-Star selections.
In addition to her bachelor’s degree from Dickinson, Spirk completed her master’s in sports administration at the United States Sports Academy in Alabama in 2002.