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Former 'Cat Gravante honored as USILA's man of the year

• 07/09/02 EMMMITSBURG, Md. The United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association announced at its All-American banquet that Mount St. Mary’s College men’s lacrosse head coach and former Wildcat, Tom Gravante, is the 2002 recipient of the Howdy Myers Man-of-the-Year Award. Gravante joins former coaching legends Bob Scott of Johns Hopkins and Carl Runk of Towson as one of fifteen to be honored as the USILA’s Man of the Year since 1988.

"This is a tremendous honor to be recognized by the USILA and to be listed among some of the greatest names in the sport of lacrosse is still something I haven’t been able to put into perspective," said Gravante.

Gravante recently finished his eighth season as head coach of the Mount St. Mary’s men’s lacrosse program where he has guided the Mountaineers to a 62-68 overall record and 48-9 mark in the MAAC. He’s led the Mount to its first Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference regular season championship (8-0 in the MAAC in 1999) and its first MAAC Tournament Championship in 2001. In 2002, the Mount fell a goal short (9-8 to Manhattan in the MAAC Championship game) of qualifying for the NCAA Tournament for the first time in the program’s history.
• 08/01/02 The 2002 Central Empire State games boys lacrosse team has a distinct Wildcat look with Brian Calabrese, Team captain Matt Cassalia, Drew Dabrowski, Andrew Hanover and Casey Rotella in the lineup. Good luck guys and help bring home the gold to Central New York!

The Central New York Empire State Games lacrosse team:

Многоразовые голографические наклейки помогут тебе создать волшебные сценки из сказки.

Josh Ashcraft - Carthage 6' 3" M
Stephen Babbles - Skaneateles 5'11" M
Brian Calabrese - Syracuse 6' 1" D
Matt Cassalia - Camillus 5' 9 " M
Drew Dabrowski - Syracuse 6' 4" A
Chris Doctor - Skaneateles 5'11" A
Greg Downing - Auburn 6' 0 " M
John Fairhurst - Skaneateles 5'10" D
Blake Gale - Tully 5'10" M
Kyle Guadagnolo - Jordan 6' 0" D
Andrew Hanover - Camillus 6' 0 " A
Keith Hutchings - Auburn 6' 1" D
Greg Klossner - Jamesville 6' 3" G
Jamison Koesterer - Cazenovia 6' 4" A
Matt Northrup - Fayetteville 6' 1" D
Gil Pearsall - Carthage 5'11" M
Paul Richards - Baldwinsville 5' 8" M
Casey Rotella - Camillus 6' 1" G
Andy Spack - Lafayette 5' 8" M
Craig Stevenson - Ithaca 6' 4" D
Mark Ferrito - Cortland Coach
Kirk Ventiquattro - Carthage Coach

• Congratulations to Mike Conklin, Mark Conklin, Rob Lemos, Chad Clark, Brian Calbrese, Matt Cassalia, Casey Rotella, Andrew Hanover, Drew Dabrowski and Matt O'Connell on being selected to the 2002 Onondaga High School League Division One Allstar team. Great job guys, you certainly deserved and earned it!

• Kudos also go to Cornell-bound senior goalie Zack Forward who was named defensive MVP during the Section 3 Exceptional Seniors All Stars game. The West all stars defeated the East all stars 16-11 backed by Zack's 13 saves!

• Congratulations to the Syracuse University Orangemen lacrosse team and coaches John Desko, Kevin Donahue and BJ O'Hara(all former Wildcat players ) on winning their 7th National Championship by defeating Princeton 13-12 on Memorial Day! A Congrats also goes out to former Wildcat and graduating Princeton senior middie Mark Pelligrino who closed out his collegiate career by scoring two goals for the Tigers in the title game.

Section 3 All-Americans
• The Section 3 boy's lacrosse high school All-Americans for 2002 have been announced and includes West Genny junior middie Matt Cassalia! Congratulations Matt!!

Matt Cassalia - West Genesee • Ryan Blair - Auburn • Tony Veniquattro - Carthage • Ryan Lewis - East Syracuse-Minoa • Greg Rommel - Henninger • Mike Abbott - Nottingham • Eric Pittard - Skaneateles

• The Cassalia family hosted a post game barbeque celebrating the teams final home game of the season and honoring the teams graduating seniors (above). A special thanks goes out to the Junior parents for all their work and preparation.

• The 1981 West Genesee Wildcats celebrated the 20th anniversary of the first state championship in June of 2001 with a reunion of former players at Darwins on the Syracuse University hill. In attendance were players from the championship team as well as other former Wildcats that made it to town to celebrate and re-kindle old friendships.
One of Coach Messere's few predecessors; coach Larry Hart Some of the attendees included Dan Degirolamo, Tom Gravante and Kevin Wenzel.

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