Meet The New Guys: Former Coach Turned Athletic Director – Paul Blackburn (Lebanon)

Written by: Andy Herr on September 24, 2026

(Cover photo courtesy of Coach Blackburn’s Facebook)

As we begin to look forward to a new hoops season that will be here before we know it, we wanted to introduce our audience to the newest coaches we are welcoming into the league — as we did last fall as well with our video series.

For this first one, it’s a bit of an added twist in the lead off spot.

These days, Paul Blackburn is still a rookie in terms of his athletic director role now overseeing everything Cedars. Of course, our hyper local LLHoops fandom may remember Coach Blackburn from his days coaching the Cedars, most notably leading Lebanon to the 2004 L-L League title, the 2nd ever crowned at what was then the brand new Giant Center at the time. However, Coach may be best known of late for leading the Hershey Trojans onward to the state title game in 2025.

We recently had the chance to talk with Coach about his Carlisle roots — deeply intertwined with that legendary era of Thundering Herd hoops — his career path from there which touches nearly every corner of the District 3 landscape, some of his memories sitting in the head chair at various stops, along with this newest chapter he has decided to take on for a school and community he cares about deeply.

We thank Coach Blackburn for his time and look forward to seeing all Cedars sports thrive and excel during his tenure.

Enjoy