The Manhasset Booster Club is honoring five alumni and a former lacrosse coach this weekend as it inducts the six men and women into Manhasset’s Athletic Hall of Fame.
Former coach Alan Lowe and former student-athletes Alison Cole, Conor Denihan, John Gagliardi, Greg Mone and Sabrina Gallagher Roszko will be inducted into the Hall of Fame at 6:30 p.m. Saturday in the Manhasset High School gymnasium.
The Hall of Fame will also honor the Manhasset High School 1997-98 girls’ field hockey team, which took home the Nassau County championship.
“It’s a really special night,” Manhasset Booster Club Vice President Lauren Barrett said. “To come back to your high school where you had such fond memories, I think it’s special for them, so it’s special for us to make the event so nice for them.”
The Hall of Fame is designed to honor those Manhasset High School athletes and coaches who have left a permanent stamp on the Manhasset community and the Manhasset school system, Barrett said.
Cole, a member of the Class of 1995, was a two-sport athlete at Manhasset High School, excelling on the tennis court from 1991 to 1994 and the lacrosse field as the varsity goaltender. Barrett said her former coaches emphasized her strong leadership qualities on and off the field.
In 1995, Cole was awarded the coveted Manhasset Booster Club All-Sports award and was voted to the All-American team, named the team’s most valuable player and participated in the annual North-South game the same year.
Cole attended Yale University, earning All-Ivy and All-American honors for her four years as goaltender as well as a national All-American designation in 1999. Cole was also named the team’s most valuable player during her junior and senior years.
She still holds the Yale record for total career saves with 801 and saves in one season with 238.
Denihan, of the Class of 1997, was a triple threat for Manhasset High School in basketball, football and lacrosse.
He joined his relatives in the “Denihan dynasty” during his freshman year when he joined the varsity football team, and during his sophomore year he was a key member of the Nassau County championship team.
Denihan was a two-year varsity member of the basketball team, but was benched during his senior year for an ankle injury.
Denihan’s gift, however, was lacrosse. As a four-year varsity member, he helped the team win the New York state championship in 1995 and was named All-Nassau and All-American during his junior and senior years.
Denihan took his athletic prowess to John Hopkins University and joined its hallowed lacrosse program, earning distinctions as an All-American twice during college and was named Johns Hopkins’ co-midfielder of the year in 2001.
After graduation, Denihan went on to play lacrosse professionally for the Long Island Lizards for four years, including the 2004 season, when the team won the league championship.
Denihan has since relocated to Manhasset with his wife, Molly, and their two daughters, Campbell Marie and Emma Kathleen, to keep the Denihan dynasty alive.
Gagliardi, another three-sport athlete, played lacrosse, football and track during his high school career.
The Class of 1992 member was a three-year starter as a defenseman on the high school’s lacrosse team and was chosen for the All-County team during his junior year followed by an All-American honor his senior year.
During his senior year, Gagliardi was chosen to play in the North-South All Star Game and for the Long Island Empire team, where he was named captain and chosen for the All-Tournament team.
Gagliardi, a member of the Manhasset and Long Island halls of fame, continued his defenseman position at Johns Hopkins as well and was chosen as a third team All-American his junior year and first team his final year. After college, Gagliardi played lacrosse professionally, including as a member of the Philadelphia Wings, who won the National Lacrosse League in 2001.
Gagliardi helped create Maverick Lacrosse, a company specializing in producing lacrosse equipment.
Former coach Lowe led his lacrosse team to two state championships, six Long Island championships, nine Nassau County championships and an undefeated season in 2004.
Lowe, who was also a two-time recipient of Nassau County’s Coach of the Year award, was also the first fencing coach at Manhasset High School and the assistant varsity coach and head junior varsity coach for football.
A Hempstead High School alumnus, Lowe served as the captain of the first United States lacrosse team that won the world championship before joining the Manhasset school district in 1975.
When Lowe retired in 2006, he left with a winning record of 511-110 with a yearly average of 15-3. In 2004, his undefeated team was ranked No. 1 nationally.
Mone, a member of the Class of 1994, received numerous awards for his achievements in the pool.
A varsity swimmer for four years, Mone’s specialty was the breaststroke. He placed third in the 1993 Junior National Championships and qualified for the USA Swimming Senior National Championships, placing second as part of a relay team against the country’s leading college and Olympic swimmers.
At Harvard University, he was a four-year member of the varsity swimming team and is listed in the Top 5 all-time leaders in the 200-yard breaststroke race.
Mone has since become a successful author with nine novels. His latest, “Jack and the Genuises,” was written in collaboration with Bill Nye the Science Guy and appeared on the New York Times best-seller list.
Roszko joined the Manhasset High School varsity gymnastics team as an eighth-grader, eventually earning an unprecedented 16 varsity letters before graduating in 1988.
During her five years on the gymnastics team, Roszko competed for four years on the track team, earning All-Nassau honors in 1987 and 1988, and three years on the field hockey team, also earning All-Nassau honors for the same years.
Roszko was also a member of the lacrosse team, helping lead the group to state championships in 1985 and 1988. She was selected captain as well as most valuable player her junior and senior years.
After high school, Roszko took her lacrosse skills to Loyola College, where she was twice named an All-American, a four-time all-star for the South Atlantic Conference and was a key player when Loyola reached the NCAA Final Four in 1990.
She ranks 10th on the list of all-time goal scorers at Loyola with 127 goals and 10th in a statistic that all coaches love — scooping up ground balls.
