Scholastic Roundup: Dianne Nolan enters another hall

April 12, 2024 Andy Furman

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Make it five for Dianne Nolan.

The former women’s basketball coach at Brooklyn’s St. Francis College was recently named to the Fairfield County Sports Hall of Fame, which is overseen by the Fairfield County (Conn.) Sports Commission.

Nolan is already a member of the Connecticut Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame, as well as the St. Francis College Hall, the Fairfield Hall and her alma mater, Glassboro (N.J.) State.

One of the most successful women’s college basketball coaches in history; she won 575 games as a head coach — including a school-record 456 during her 28-year run at Fairfield University.

She took over the Stags in 1979 and oversaw their transition to NCAA Division I in 1981. She is in the Top 50 All-Time in D1 victories. At Fairfield, Nolan’s teams earned four NCAA tournament bids, one WNIT appearance and captured three MAAC regular season and tournament titles. She had six 20-win seasons, including three 25-win campaigns.

With Fairfield’s 69-53 victory at Rider College on January 29, 2006, Nolan became the 28th coach in Division I history with 500 wins.

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Nolan was recognized for her accomplishments as a five-time MAAC Coach of the Year, Connecticut Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame inductee (2005) and selection to the Fairfield University Hall of Fame in 2001.

She concluded her college coaching career in 2015 after five seasons at Lafayette (Easton, Pa.), following three years as an associate head coach at Yale.

At. St. Francis, she was hired as only the second women’s coach for the Terriers in 1974 and in only her third season she transformed a losing operation into a team that participated in a post-season tournament.

In fact, it was the Terriers’ first post-season tournament berth in the Eastern Intercollegiate Association Women’s Tournament. They finished second as they defeated Manhattanville College (51-50) and Oneonta State University (66-59) then lost to Fitchburg State University (63-59).

In 1976-77, she led the Terriers to a second-consecutive postseason invite to the EIAW Tournament.

She finished her five-year coaching career at St. Francis with a record of 61-57 (.517); and finished her career first in wins and ranks third behind John Thurston (73) and Irma Garcia (68).

The Fairfield County Sports Commission plans to honor Nolan and the class of six later.

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North Carolina State’s run to this year’s Final Four – despite a semi-final 63-50 loss to Purdue – is still historic. The Wolfpack were just the sixth 11-seed to reach a Final Four, and their streak of nine consecutive elimination-game wins was simply remarkable.

And stories of Jim Valvano and NC State’s incredible 1983 championship run came out of the archives. If you forgot, it was Lorenzo Charles who scored the game -winning points in that 1983 title game – a win over the University of Houston.

Charles was a 1981 graduate of Brooklyn Tech High School. He scored that game-winner as a sophomore on a put-back dunk off an airball shot by Dereck Whittenburg in the final seconds that broke a 52-52 tie at The Pit in Albuquerque, N.M. That Houston team featured Hakeem “The Dream” Olajuwon, Clyde “The Glide” Drexler and the rest of Phi Slama Jama.

As a senior, Charles averaged 18 points a game and grabbed more than six rebounds as NC State finished the regular season tied for first-place with a 9-5 conference record in the Atlantic Coast Conference. The Wolfpack advanced to the Elite Eight in the 1985 NCAA Tournament, but fell 69-60 in the West region finals to St. John’s University, led by the player of the year, Xaverian High’s Chris Mullin. Charles’ number 43 was honored by NC State in 2008, 25 years after his most-famous dunk.

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A total of 10 Brooklynites were honored on the CHSAA annual Diocesan All-Star team, highlighted by three from St. Edmund Prep, followed by two each from Cristo Rey, Nazareth Regional and Xaverian High School.

The Brooklyn All-Stars:

Halon Rawlins, Nazareth, junior forward, averaged 16.5 points per game; he was on the CHSAA ‘AA’ All-League First Team

Tristan Rogers, Nazareth, senior guard, averaged 12.4 points per game

Brandon Margolin, Xaverian, junior guard, averaged 12.5 points per game. He was selected to the Catholic High School Athletic Association’s “AA” All-League Third Team

Patrick Evans, Xaverian, senior guard, averaged 13.3 points per game

Richard Jackson, Bishop Loughlin, sophomore guard, averaged 15.6 points per game

Class ‘A’ All-Stars:

Gavin Paulsen, St. Edmund Prep, senior guard, captain, averaged 15.1 points per game and 8.4 rebounds per game. He was selected to the CHSAA ‘A’ All-League Team

Jordan Boreman, St. Edmund Prep, junior guard, averaged 10.0 points per game and 6.0 assists per game

Matt Brock, St. Edmund Prep, junior guard, averaged 13.0 points per game and 4.8 rebounds per game

Class ‘B’ All-Stars:

Justyn Capellan, Cristo Rey, senior forward, captain, averaged 18.8 points per game, 11.2 rebounds per game, 3.0 assists and 2.0 blocks per game. He was selected to the CHSAA’s “B” All-League Team

Johann Batista, Cristo Rey, senior guard, captain, averaged 10.0 points, 5.0 assists and 2.0 rebounds per game

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Lauren Van Der Kamp and Payton Walker represented the St. Joseph’s University, Brooklyn softball team in the latest Skyline Conference weekly report.
Van Der Kamp earned a share of the league’s Player of the Week, while Walker was tabbed Rookie of the Week.

Batting .800 in the Bears’ 4-0 week, Van Der Kamp produced three RBIs, five runs and eight hits. The junior went two-for-three with a pair of runs scored in the Bears’ sweep of St. Joseph’s (Long Island). She followed it up with a six-for-seven day against Yeshiva, where she had three doubles, as many runs scored and an RBI.

Playing in three of the four contests last week, Walker had eight RBIs, five of which — courtesy of a trio of doubles — came against the Golden Eagles last Saturday. The first-year belted her first career home run in a 17-0 win over the Maccabees Sunday evening. Walker finished the contest batting two-for-four with a double, three runs and as many RBIs.

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The Pratt Institute men’s volleyball team wrapped up their 2024 campaign and won the opening set before falling to the University of Valley Forge at The Hill Center, last week.

The program honored K. Johnson and Joji Kawamura in pre-match Senior Night ceremonies. Kawamura registered a 13-kill, 12-dig double-double, while Johnson landed three error-free kills and bringing up a trio of digs.

The women’s tennis team at Pratt Institute grinded a 6-3 victory over Baruch College Sunday afternoon to remain unbeaten (9-0) on the season.

The Brooklyn College men’s tennis team got back to their winning ways last Friday, cruising to a 9-0 conference victory at Lehman. Brooklyn improved to 5-5 overall and 2-1 in CUNYAC play.

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The last word comes from Jeff Schrier, the former Tilden High School basketball coach, on Dan Lynch Jr’s. recent commentary that appeared in Scholastic Roundup. Lynch was quite upset when Rick Pitino and his St. John’s University basketball team turned-down an invitation to the National Invitational Tournament.

“My main point,” Schrier writes, “was that the snub by the Pitino-led Johnnies was indeed against New York City; the place that supposedly was going to “Come alive with Basketball Excitement,’ according to local New York City sportswriters; now that St. John’s Basketball was once again going to ‘Fill the local press with their hoop success.’

“Winning the 2024 NIT, whether the final game was at Madison Square Garden, Indianapolis or Foster Park, would have been great for their players, students, fans and New York City basketball followers.”

Andy Furman is a Fox Sports Radio national talk show host. Previously, he was a scholastic sports columnist for the Brooklyn Eagle. He may be reached at: [email protected]; Twitter: @AndyFurmanFSR