The National Interscholastic Lacrosse Coaches Association has announced its 2024 Hall of Fame class. This year's class is headlined by Brookhaven's own Tom Rotanz.
Rotanz won the Long Island Coach of the Year award three times over his career (2001, 2003, 2007). He has 256 career wins in his 18 seasons at Shoreham-Wading River, to just 99 losses, and led the Wildcats to state championships in 2001, 2007 and 2012. Rotanz said “I brought a lot of playing experience with me to Shoreham-Wading River, a new program, in 1995, and within 7 years we went from a scrappy upstart to New York State champions with a top-10 national ranking.”
Under his leadership he was able to win ten county championships and five Long Island titles. He began as a Ward Melville High School star, where he won All-American honors as a senior in 1977, a year after winning the Long Island Championship in 1976.
After graduating, Rotanz continued at Suffolk County Community College where he was a two-time NJCAA All-American and a part of the program’s 1979 NJCAA National Championship team. Rotanz went for two-more All-American campaigns at Adelphi University in 1980 and 1981 and helped the Panthers claim the NCAA Division II National Championship as a senior.
He then went on to be a part of the coaching staff for the gold medal-winning 2012 U.S. U19 team. Rotanz now coaches for St. Joseph's.
Rotanz adds this Hall of Fame to his long list. He is a member of the Suffolk County CC (1986), Long Island Metropolitan Lacrosse Foundation (2000), Ward Melville HS (2003) and NJCAA (2013) Hall of Fames.
Along with Rotanz, Bob Macaluso and George Searing from Northport, Paul McDermott from Huntington, and Bill Turri from West Islip will be inducted on Oct. 12th at the Milleridge Inn in Jericho, New York.