Hall of Fame Dinner on November 6th

September 25, 2009 - The Rochester Chapter of USLacrosse will hold it's annual Hall of Fame Dinner on Friday, November 6th in honor of its five newest members in the class of 2009.

The inductees include Brighton Women's Head Coach Rich Curtis, Hobart standout goalie Arthur Johnson, former RIT Head Coach Gene Peluso, Section Five Chairman Mike Simon and pro standout and recent Knighthawks GM Regy Thorpe.

Coach Curtis has been coaching at Brighton for fifteen years and with his teams won 11 straight Section Championships in a row from 1993 to 2008. His teams reached the New York State finals four times and won the State Championship in 2005.

Arthur F. Johnson was graduated from Hobart College in 1935, winning All-American honors two times as a goalie and two years after graduation, was invited to play with the 1937 All America Team on their trip to English where the team won the Flannery Cup. After college he was instrumental in starting a youth lacrosse program in Skaneateles and was elected to the Hobart College Hall of Fame in 2006. Mr. Johnson died in 1986.

A native of Long Island (Baldwin), Coach Gene Peluso, a graduate of Nazareth College where he led his senior class to the D-3 semifinals, started his coaching career as the JV Head Coach at McQuaid Jesuit. After working as and Assistant Coach at Drew University, Gene was selected as the first Head Coach at Lycoming. From 2001 to 2009 Coach Peluso had an 88-45 record with RIT where is coaches twenty-one All Americans and was selected to coach the North squad in the 2008 North/South game.

Also a product of Long Island (Massepequa), Mike Simon, was a high school coach and been the Chairman of Section Five Lacrosse since 1997. A member of the NYSPHSAA Central Committee since 1996, Mike has represented Section Five at the state level and in 2005, received the Distinguished Service award from the NYS Athletic Administrators Association.

An original member of the Knighthawks, in 2009 Regy Thorpe became until recently, the only player/GM in the National Lacrosse League. During his years with the Knighthawks, Regy won three Unsung Hero awards, two Comeback Player of the Year awards,is the only player to have played on both Championship teams and has played in every postseason game in franchise history. He was named to the Knighthawks' All-Time Team in 2005.

The Hall of Fame Dinner will take place at the Burgundy Basin Inn in Pittsford. Early bird tickets are $35 ($45 after October 30th). Reservations are available at the Chapter web site.