Roanoke College’s Sean Smith ’83 and John Sullivan ’79 were inducted into the Long Island Men’s Lacrosse Foundation’s Hall of Fame last Saturday, January 24. The ceremony was held at the Long Island Mariott in Uniondale, N.Y.
As a player at Roanoke College, Smith was named a USILA Division III second-team All-American in 1982 and First Team All-America in 1983. In addition, Smith was honored as a first team member of the All-Old Dominion Athletic Conference team in 1981, 1982 and 1983. He was named Conference Player of the Year following the 1983 season.
Smith concluded his college career as Roanoke’s leader with 145 goals. Smith also ranked third in career scoring with 208 points in 43 games at the end of his three-year career and still holds the record at Roanoke with 4.8 points per game. In 1986 Smith was inducted into the Roanoke College Athletic Hall of Fame.
Following graduation from Roanoke, Smith began his coaching career in 1985 when he served as an assistant coach at Ohio Wesleyan University. In 1986 he moved on from Ohio Wesleyan and joined the lacrosse coaching staff at the United States Military Academy at West Point where was an assistant coach from 1986 through 1990.
In 1990 Smith returned to Long Island and served as the head varsity lacrosse coach and physical education teacher at Levittown Division Avenue High School until 1998 when he moved on to Hofstra University to join John Danowski’s staff as a graduate assistant and obtained his Administration Degree. Following the completion of his course of study, Smith was asked to stay on at Hofstra by John Danowski and remained on his staff until 2006. He finished his career working with current head coach Seth Tierney through the 2012 season.
Smith is retired from a 35-year career in the Levittown School District and he and his wife Carol now live In Calabash, NC. They have three sons, JP who lives in Tampa Florida, Brendan who lives in West Islip, NY, and Conor who lives in West Babylon NY.
Sullivan transferred to Roanoke after winning the MVP award of the Junior College Lacrosse National Championship at SUNY-Farmingdale. He was also named MVP of the 1978 National Championship after making 18 second half stops in a 14-13 RC win over national-power Hobart. In 1978, he made 92 saves for a 68.1 save percentage enroute to capturing the championship.
“Sully” helped the Maroons return to the NCAA Tournament in 1979 and a No. 1 ranking during the middle of the season. By season’s end, he was nationally recognized as a Second-Team USILA All-America selection along with a North-South All-Star game appearance.
Sullivan won the 1979 Paul S. Griffin Award for “dedication and leadership.”
This is Sullivan’s fourth Hall of Fame induction, also joining the SUNY Farmingdale College Hall of Fame, National Jr. College Lacrosse Hall of Fame and the Roanoke College Hall of Fame.
