John Pirro

John Pirro was an American lacrosse player and coach from Huntington, New York, whose playing and coaching careers were both tied to Roanoke College in Virginia. As a defenseman at Roanoke from 1974 to 1977 he earned first team All-American recognition three times and won the NCAA Division II-III Defenseman of the Year award in both 1976 and 1977. After college he played for the Long Island Lacrosse Club, where he was chosen first team All-USCLA, and in 1978 he was elected to the Long Island Hall of Fame. He returned to Roanoke in 1979 as an assistant to Coach Paul Griffin and took over as head coach in 1982. His 1983 team reached the NCAA Division III national championship game, and he was named that year's Division III national coach of the year. Over five seasons his teams never lost an Old Dominion Athletic Conference game. He was voted into the Roanoke College Athletic Hall of Fame in 1988 and was a 2011 finalist for the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame. He died on August 13, 2013, from complications of Huntington's disease, diagnosed in 2001.