Under his quiet exterior lays a background of intensity and great success as a wrestler and coach. A classic late bloomer, Santoro earned one medal at the PA States for Bethlehem Catholic, third as a senior in 1984. He then won a National Prep title and Outstanding Wrestler award presented to him by Olympic Champion, Bobby Weaver, a good omen for his future.

Without red-shirting at Pitt, Pat became the Panthers’ sole 4-time All-American (twice team captain) by placing NCAA 6th, 2nd, 1st, 1st at 142. He was 20-4 at Nationals, with just four win margins closer than five points and he was a stunning 97-3 his last three years. His career win pct of 92.78% (167-13) ranks top 50 all-time among all careers of 100 bouts or more; his 167 wins ranks 3rd on that list.

His father, Dick, was a 2-time team captain and NCAA third for Lehigh in 1959 and brother, Rich, was a captain and 3-time All-American for Lehigh. Their eight NCAA medals rank seventh among all family histories.

Pat competed through age 34 and placed 3rd, 2nd and 4th at the Olympic Trials in ’92, ’96 and ‘00. In 1996, he nearly made the Olympic Team, dropping an overtime 3-2 finals rubber match with Townsend Saunders. The latter earned his sixth straight World Team berth and earned Olympic Silver that year. In Pat’s final college bout, he had beaten Saunders 6-6, 1-1 in the ‘89 NCAA finals.

Santoro was a 4-time member of the U.S. National Team in the 1990’s, serving as an alternate for the 1996 Olympic Team and the 1999 World Team. He’s been inducted into the EWL and District XI Wrestling halls of fame.

When Pat retired from competition in 2000, he was already well into coaching kudos. His 18-month stint in ’92-93 at Penn State overlapped the Lions’ best era since the 1950’s. He worked with nine eventual All-Americans (134 -167), three champs and eight Top Fours. The 1993 Lions won National Duals (22-0-1 on the season) and placed 2nd at NCAAs.

After a year as assistant at Duquesne, Pat joined the Lehigh staff in 1994, where he helped interim head coach Bob Latessa win Lehigh’s first EIWA team title since 1988. He then became Greg Strobel’s top assistant for eight seasons–in the last one, he was named the 2003 NWCA National Assistant Coach-of-the-Year. With Strobel, Santoro helped co-found the LVAC in ‘99.

Pat continued to help create NCAA medalists. Among six who didn’t win state titles in HS were Dave Esposito (149), Chris Ayres (157), Derek Zinck (157), Chris Vitale (165), Mark Dufresne (165/174) and Brad Dillon, 174. Others medaling in the middle were Cory Cooperman (141), Ryan Bernholz (149), Travis Doto (165) and Troy Letters (165).

Before Santoro left for College Park, Lehigh was an NCAA Top 10 team in three of his last four seasons and placed 1st or 2nd in the EIWA seven times in his final eight yearsas assistant, including four team titles. The 2000 team was Lehigh’s first Top 10 since ’87.

Santoro’s impact at head coach at Maryland grew even quicker. In his first year (’03-04), Maryland was 4-9 with two ACC finalists. In his last (2008), his 15-4 team ranked Top 25 after beating Michigan and they won their first ACC team title since 1973 by winning five of six finals. Hudson Taylor was their first A/A since 1997. The Terps rose from no points in 2004 to 67th, 61st, 34th and 21st under Pat, then finished 10th in the nation last year under former LVAC head coach, Kerry McCoy (with three All-Americans for just the 2nd time in history; the first since ’64).

It wasn’t easy to leave such an exciting young team behind, but he adds about his return home: “Lehigh is an ultimate job and opportunity. I’ve always felt it might be exciting to return to the program some day, but I didn’t think it would happen this soon.”