Ron Hill Inducted into Hall of Fame
Onondaga’geh Ongwawenna’
November 12, 2012
On October 21st, 2012 Ron Hill along with seven other honorees was inducted into the Lacrosse Hall of Fame. The ceremony was held at the Links in Erie Village in East Syracuse, N.Y.
In the late 1950s, Ron started playing organized youth box lacrosse on the Onondaga Nation around the age of 10. In the mid-1960s he moved from youth box lacrosse to high school lacrosse at Lafayette Central where the boys teamed enjoyed a few dominant years in Onondaga Highs School League. The 1967 team was the first “team” to be recognized by the Greater Syracuse Sports Hall of Fame.
The early 1970s found Ron at Syracuse University playing for Roy “Slugger” Simmons Jr.
In 1974 and 1975, he played professional box lacrosse for the Syracuse Stingers and Montréal Québécois of the National Lacrosse League.
Ron started his coaching career in the spring of 1999 at Lafayette Central as assistant to head coach Jerry Vredenburg of the girls lacrosse program. He became head coach in 2003.
He was honored to be the male presenter of the second annual 2002 Tewarraton Award at the University Club in Washington DC, and proudly handed the most valuable player of college lacrosse award to Syracuse University’s Michael Powell.
He moved from Lafayette to Onondaga Central to assist in the new girls lacrosse program which starts at the modified level in 2004, progressing to varsity in 2007. A bright star on the horizon, Ron helped develop Lindsay Abbott who would go on to rewrite Cortland State women’s lacrosse record book. He moved on to assist Head Coach Dick Lundblad at Marcellus Central in 2007 to the present. This great lacrosse organization enjoys year-to-year success by building and developing the entire program from grades three through twelve, crediting the efforts of the entire Marcellus girls lacrosse club coaching staff. The staff includes many volunteer parents who helped make this club what it is today. The dedicated parental support is so important and much appreciated by head Coach Lundblad. Ron’s current coaching status at Marcellus is on a volunteer basis. In 2009, he retired from National Grid and moved to Deland, Florida near Orlando.
From 2012 to the present, Ron enjoys being the assistant and offensive coach of the girls lacrosse program at Bishop Moore Catholic High School, a small C size school in the heart of Orlando. In three short years he has been instrumental in helping develop the girls lacrosse program to a more prominent status. Previous to his arrival, Bishop Moore was mediocre at best, but with hard work and the introduction of sound fundamentals to stick work and ball movement, they progressed all the way to runner-up status in the 2012 state championship game. Ron’s win-loss record stands at 51-16. Florida lacrosse season runs from mid-January to early May and once this season ends, Ron heads for Marcellus to help the Mustangs.
An early exit in the playoffs for the Mustangs in 2012 allowed Ron to volunteer assist his daughter Courtney at Shaker High in Albany, NY. This year under Courtney’s leadership as Section II and Regional Champions allowed Shaker to advance to the Class A state semifinals, falling to Penfield at Cortland State. Due to the retirement of the head coach, Ron will take command of the Bishop Moore girls lacrosse program in January, 2013.