Notre Dame inducts four into sports wall of fame
A storied coach, two talented athletes and an association were honoured last Friday with inductions into the Notre Dame Sports Wall of Fame.
Joining the wall were Mike Rao, Larissa Bruzzese, Mike Hominuck and the Notre Dame Alumni Association.
MIKE RAO
Rao made his mark as a boys basketball coach before concluding his career by coaching the girls soccer team to a fourth-place finish at the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations championships.
Rao coached the midget boys for two seasons, the junior boys for 16 years and the senior boys for 19 seasons.
With the senior boys, Rao guided teams to OFSAA on seven occasions, made the top eight several times and finished fourth one on occasion.
“For me, it was the people I surrounded myself with. I was blessed to have people to go through a lot of the good times with and some of the bad times,” he said. “A lot of the time, you need those people because when you do well you double the pleasure. When you do poorly, you divide the pain.”
For Rao, it was more about the journey than anything else.
“I was always proud of every team and all the teams because we are a small town in Welland, but we always competed at the top level. We competed against Toronto year in and year out and worked with what we had. For me, the idea was to bring them together and do the best we could. I thought we did that a lot of times.”
The highlight of his career was getting the chance to coach his son, Chris.
“I have many favourite players but my favourite was Chris Rao. That has to be my fondest memory.”
He was overwhelmed by how many former players came to last Friday’s induction ceremony.
“I don’t know how many players there were but there was a lot of them. Even my girls from Brock came and that’s what I am all about.”
The 2024 Welland Sports Hall of Fame inductee had a highly successful career with coaching the Brock women’s team. He led the Badgers to an Ontario University Athletics gold medal and U SPORTS silver in 2019-20. At the conclusion of that year, he was named the OUA and U SPORTS coach of the year, the H.L. Cuddly Memorial Award winner in Welland and the St. Catharines Sportsperson of the Year.
LARISSA BRUZZESE
During her time at Notre Dame, Bruzzese, a 32-year-old Welland native, competed in basketball, soccer, volleyball and track and field for the Irish.
In soccer, Bruzzese and her teammates made it to OFSSAA three times as Southern Ontario Secondary Schools Association champions.
In basketball, she was part of a Tribune championship team and was a Tribune all-star. The team made the SOSSA senior finals in her Grade 10 year.
In track and field, she qualified for OFSAA in the 100 metres and made it to the SOSSA championships in the 100 metres and 4X100-metre relay in Grade 10 and 12.
She was the rookie of the year on the soccer and basketball teams in 2007, MVP of the soccer and basketball teams in 2010 and was the school’s senior female athlete of the year in 2010.
Her 2010 accomplishments were her career highlights but her fondest memory was a team dinner hosted by soccer coach, Natalie Pullar, before the squad went to OFSAA.
“It was that foundation and family unit. The soccer team was a family and it alway felt like a family. It was building and maintaining the relationships with my teammates.”
She describes Notre Dame as a special place because of its school spirit.
“The foundation of that spirit is built by the care and dedication of the staff. The teams and clubs students can be a part of, builds that spirit.”
When her ND career was over, the teacher at Eastdale had a successful soccer career at Brock that was cut short by a knee injury after two years. In her rookie season, she was an Ontario University Athletics all-star and broke the team’s scoring record.
MIKE HOMINUCK
At Notre Dame, Hominuck won multiple MVP honours for lacrosse and also coached lacrosse and hockey at Notre Dame.
“We went to OFSAA for lacrosse but we were always in tough against some of the St. Catharines teams because lacrosse in Welland is not as big as it is in St. Catharines,” the 43-year-old Welland native said. “Every year we would go up against some of those stacked teams in St. Catharines and we wouldn’t like the outcome. But in my OAC (Grade 13) year, we did manage to beat Niagara-on-the-Lake in a one-game showdown and ended up going to OFSAA in Toronto.”
His fondest memories at Notre Dame were the friendships he made with his teammates.
“Some of those gentleman I am still friends with today. I don’t remember winning or losing but I do remember creating the bonds with my teammates during the course of my four years here.”
The Grade 7/8 teacher at Holy Name in Welland went on to have a great lacrosse career after Notre Dame. The 2017 Welland Sports Wall of Fame inductee’s accomplishments included: winning a Minto Cup with St. Catharines in 2001; capturing three straight Mann Cups with Brampton; winning four national university championships at Brock, including three as a player and one as a coach; and playing professionally in the NLL for 11 seasons with Buffalo, Philadelphia, Portland, Edmonton, Minnesota and Toronto.
NOTRE DAME ALUMNI ASSOCIATION
The alumni association plays a key role in Notre Dame athletics.
Formed in 1964 to make the purchase of the first bleachers in Dillon Hall a reality, the inaugural members took out personal loans of $1,000 to contribute to the $10,000 purchase before fundraising to pay themselves back.
The association has raised $186,155 since 2015. It donates $45,000 annually to the school.
Among its contributions to athletics are: $50,000 to the first all-weather track; $25,000 to the new Lacavera Field; $5,000 over the past two years for the weight room; and, purchases of equipment and uniforms, including $5,200 for uniforms for junior girls basketball, varsity girls lacrosse and one other squad this year.
“It is a super honour and I don’t know how it couldn’t be,” said, Dan Marshall, president of the Notre Dame alumni association. “Our work is for the students and to be honoured by the hall of fame committee is great. We have been in existence since 1963 and have donated more than half a million dollars to the school. It allows us to do things that the board can’t.”
The association is massive.
“We consider anyone who ever attended Notre Dame a member of the alumni association so that would probably number in the 20,000 range,” Marshall said. “My board of directors is 21.”
Funds are raised through bingos, reunions, purse bingos and other initiatives.
