Recently retired Roanoke College men’s lacrosse coach Bill Pilat is still winning awards. The Intercollegiate Men’s Lacrosse Coaches Association (IMLCA) and the US Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association (USILA) have announced their annual accolades with Pilat earning the Howdy Myers Man of the Year award. Both associations will honor and acknowledge over 16 individuals within men’s college lacrosse on Friday, December 12, in Orlando, Florida at their co-hosted Annual Awards Luncheon.
The Howdy Myers Man of the Year Award is presented in honor of one of the sport’s most outstanding coaches. Howdy Myers coached 17 championship teams at St. Paul’s, Johns Hopkins and Hofstra. Myers was elected to the Lacrosse Hall of Fame in 1971. The nominee for this award should have contributed to the game of lacrosse in a capacity over and above the normal efforts and in so doing, has shown unselfish and untiring devotion to the game.
Pilat, one of the winningest coaches in NCAA men’s lacrosse history, retired in May with a 413-187 record over 37 seasons at Roanoke College. He is the sixth winningest coach in the country across all divisions overall among active and retired coaches. Pilat had a 202-50 record in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) for a winning percentage of over 80 percent.
Bill, a goalie as a student at RC, was inducted into the school’s Athletic Hall of Fame in 1995, and his number 37 jersey is retired. He’s also a member of the New Jersey Lacrosse Hall of Fame.
Pilat coached the Maroons to 10 ODAC titles and 15 NCAA Tournament appearances with four trips to the Final Four. He was named the ODAC Coach of the Year 11 times and has coached 19 Roanoke College Male Athletes of the Year. Pilat has mentored 22 student-athletes inducted into the RC Sports Hall of Fame and he played with an additional four Hall of Famers. His players have earned 114 All-American Awards.
As a player, Pilat was a three-time All-American, two-time ODAC Player of the Year and the 1985 Roanoke College Male Athlete of the Year. Also in 1985, Pilat received the C. Markland Kelly Award and the Hero’s Award as the nation’s top goaltender.
With 710 collegiate saves, he has 29 more stops than any other keeper in school history. In addition to leading the program in career saves, Pilat has also coached six of the nine other players ranked in the top 10 all-time saves list at the school. Three of those goalies have earned All-American status.
