After the 2020 ceremony was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the GCHSAA’s Hall of Fame induction dinner made its valiant return on April 7 at Russo’s on the Bay in Howard Beach.
This year, 10 honorees joined the ranks of dozens of former student-athletes, coaches, administrators, and officials who have been celebrated for their contributions to girls’ high school sports in the Diocese of Brooklyn and beyond.
For the first time, seven GCHSAA lifers received the new Joan Casazzone Service Award, named for the former league president and longtime basketball coach who died in 2017 after a battle with cancer.
The award winners included Bob Mackey, Christ the King H.S., Middle Village; Richard Matzelle, St. Agnes H.S., College Point, and basketball chairperson; Angela Proce, Bishop Loughlin H.S., Fort Greene; Ann Marie Rich, St. Francis Prep, Fresh Meadows; Carol Ann Timpone, Christ the King and St. Saviour, Park Slope; Joann Wagner, St. Francis Prep; and Dan Wiatre, St. Edmund Prep H.S., Sheepshead Bay.
Meet this year’s GCHSAA Hall of Fame class:
Kerry Donohue
Donohue was a four-year basketball player and team captain at St. Vincent Ferrer H.S., Manhattan, where she later helped establish the athletic department.
She also officiated basketball, starting in the local Catholic Youth Organization and advancing all the way to the NCAA. She is the founder and CEO of the Metropolitan Approved Girls Basketball Officials (MAGBO), which is recognized by the National Association of Sports Officials as being the leading basketball referee educational organization in New York City.
Karen Erving-Schiera
Erving-Schiera’s basketball career took off quickly after it began in fifth grade at Our Lady of Angels, Bay Ridge. She starred for St. Saviour as a power forward and team captain and scored her 1,000th career point in her junior season – just the second Pandas player to accomplish that feat.
She then moved on to St. Francis College, Brooklyn Heights, where she remains the school’s all-time leading scorer and rebounder for both the men’s and women’s hoops teams. Her No. 40 jersey was retired in 2019.
John Fayad
Fayad has coached girls’ varsity soccer at Christ the King for the past 14 years, during which his teams had won 126 games, three city championships, two intersectional titles, and nine diocesan championships.
The Lebanon native and three-time NYC Coach of the Year is also a youth developmental soccer coach for the renowned Blau-Weiss Gottschee Academy and a respected science teacher at I.S. 93 in Ridgewood.
Kathy Kelly
Kelly has an extensive resume as a championship varsity softball and volleyball at St. Joseph by the Sea H.S., Staten Island. She spent 20 years as softball coach and nine as volleyball coach.
She also has been involved in the administrative side of the Archdiocese of New York’s GCHSAA league. She worked as an assistant athletic director, the girls’ athletic director, the boys’ and girls’ athletic director, and league secretary.
John Lorenzetti
Beginning as a teacher at St. Edmund Prep, Lorenzetti held many roles at Nazareth H.S., East Flatbush, before returning to Sheepshead Bay as principal in 1995. In both stops, he was a notable supporter of the schools’ athletics programs.
He served as the president of the Principals’ Association of the Diocese of Brooklyn overseeing both the CHSAA and GCHSAA from 2000 through his retirement in June of 2017.
Frank Marinello
In baseball or softball, catchers often make the best managers. Such is the case for Marinello, a competitive softball player who has coached varsity softball at Fontbonne Hall Academy, Bay Ridge, for nearly 20 seasons.
He helped transform the Bonnies’ softball program into one of the most respected in New York City. He has been the longest tenured coach in Fontbonne’s softball history and has a career record of 230-85.
Virginia Mayrose
Mayrose has been a teacher and coach for over 20 years, starting at Bishop Ford H.S., Park Slope. She later founded the volleyball program at St. Joseph Hill Academy, Staten Island.
In 2010, St. Joseph Hill became the first Staten Island school to win a playoff match in the city playoffs, eventually reaching the Archdiocesan semifinals. Her teams won the Staten Island championship each year while going undefeated for a five-year stretch from 2011-2015.
Regan McGorry Beaton
McGorry Beaton was a three-sport athlete at St. Francis Prep from 1986-1990. She played volleyball, basketball, and cross country/track and field – captaining her teams and earning 12 varsity letters.
Some accolades include a 1987 undefeated city championship in basketball, being named a volleyball captain her junior and senior seasons, and setting a school record in the 1600-meter relay during her sophomore year.
Michele Cucci-O’Brien
Cucci-O’Brien was a 12-season varsity student-athlete on the volleyball, basketball, and softball teams at St. Dominic H.S., Oyster Bay, L.I., before graduating in 1983. As a junior, she guided the basketball team to its first-ever State Federation Tournament in 1982.
After earning her degree in physical education, she returned to her alma mater in 1989 as a physical education teacher and head varsity basketball. In addition to a 29-year basketball coaching career, she also spent seven years as St. Dominic’s athletic director.
Maureen Rosenbaum
Rosenbaum was the first teacher and coach hired at Archbishop Molloy H.S., Briarwood, when the school went co-ed in 2000. She started coaching junior varsity softball and volleyball and stuck with the softball team as it jumped up to the varsity level.
Over a 19-year coaching career, she won nine diocesan championships, six city championships, and two state championships. In 2011, she was named ESPN Coach of the Year following a Stanner state title victory.
Contact Jim Mancari via email at jmmanc@gmail.com.