Mount Saint Mary College Athletics

Lorraine Santacroce started her tenure at Mount Saint Mary College as the Athletic Director in the dawn of the college. It was New York State standards regulation that each graduate had physical education credit to graduate. Sr. Mary Francis McDonald asked Coach Santacroce to help the students to fulfill their requirement to graduate. Santacroce with her baccalaureate and master degrees in Physical Education from Ithaca College was teaching grades 3-12 at Mount Saint Mary Academy and Bishop Dunn Memorial School, stepped up to the plate and gave these young women experiences that they still reminisce about today.
 
Santacroce taught volleyball, tennis, bowling, and basketball, and coached cheerleading. In the academic year of 1968/69, Coach Santacroce was approached and asked to join a basketball tournament with other Catholic colleges such as Mercy, Dominican, Elizabeth Seton and Good Counsel. Mount Saint Mary College was considered the underdog but Coach Santacroce gave them the pep talk they still remember, Sue Greenhagen '69 recalls, "Lorraine kept telling us, "You can win this."  We began to believe her, and by golly, we did win". With Coach Santacroce's expertise and guidance Mount Saint Mary College won the College's first tournament in 1969.
 
Lorraine left the Mount in 1979 after many years of building strong relationships with the Dominican Sisters and her students. She still has fond memories of those days and remains in contact with many of the Sisters and her students.
 
Lorraine Santacroce's love for the Mount is reflected with her donation of the benches at the south end of the Dominican Center, the flagpole at the baseball field and the jackets the girls' basketball team wears today. She has also established a scholarship for current students. She is a committed friend of Mount Saint Mary College and the college cannot thank her enough for what she did for us.