GSSHOF Class of 2025 and Team of Honor Biographies

Brittany Brigandi (lacrosse)

An All-American lacrosse player, Brittany Brigandi was a force on both the lacrosse and soccer fields during her illustrious high school career at Christian Brothers Academy. The two-time All-Central New York lacrosse standout earned All-America honors as a senior in 2008 after setting a Section III single-season record (121 goals). Brigandi continued her success at Le Moyne, where she became a two-time Intercollegiate Women's Lacrosse Coaches Association (IWLCA) All-American and a Northeast-10 Conference First Team selection. Brigandi led the Dolphins to back-to-back NCAA Division II tournament berths and the program's first-ever Northeast-10 regular season championship in 2012. She was named the 2012 IWLCA Midfielder of the Year, as well as the Northeast-10 Conference Player of the Year, after leading the Dolphins back to the NCAA Championship semifinals. In 2011, Brigandi and the Dolphins advanced to the NCAA Championship semifinals for the first time in program history.

 

Tom Coughlin (football)

Two-time Super Bowl champion head coach Tom Coughlin began his tenure on the sidelines as a head coach of the Rochester Institute of Technology club football team. The only full-time staff member, Coughlin led his RIT teams (club, later Div. II and III) to a 16-15-2 record from 1970-73. A three-sport scholastic standout at Waterloo High School, Coughlin played collegiate football at Syracuse University and was a backfield mate of Orange greats Floyd Little and Larry Csonka. Following graduation, Coughlin was a graduate assistant at his alma mater in '69. In 1974 Coughlin returned to Syracuse as the quarterbacks/offensive backfield coach and he was promoted to offensive coordinator in 1978.  In 1981, he moved to Boston College as the quarterbacks coach and in 1984 moved to the NFL, where he spent seven seasons coaching the wide receivers for the Eagles, Packers and Giants. After a three-year stint as the Boston College head coach, where he spent three seasons, Coughlin became the first coach of Jacksonville Jaguars in 1994 leading up to their inaugural season in 1995. His 1996-99 teams were a collective 45-19, earning four consecutive playoff berths. He was UPI Coach of the Year in 1996. In 2004, a 12-year run began with the Giants. The best of times came in 2007 and 2011 --Super Bowl XLII and XLVI titles. After his coaching days, Coughlin spent time in the NFL office and as Jaguars' Executive Vice President of Football Operations. In 1996, Coughlin started the Jay Fund, named for Jay McGillis, a player he coached at BC, who died of cancer. The fund provides comprehensive financial, emotional and practical support for families fighting childhood cancer. 

 

Buddy Hardeman (football)

Auburn High School’s, Buddy Hardeman loved playing quarterback. After a standout three-sport scholastic career on the gridiron, where he was a two-time Central New York Cities League all-star (1971-72), the hardwood and the diamond, Hardeman went to Iowa State to play football. The dual-threat quarterback gained nearly 3,000 yards in total offense and his touchdown put the finishing touch on an upset of Top 10 Nebraska, playing for head coach Earle Bruce. Undrafted by the NFL, Hardeman chose football again played for the CFL’s Toronto Argonauts (1978), then two seasons for the NFL’s Washington Redskins, who had a future Hall of Fame quarterback named Joe Theismann. He had turned down an offer from the Cincinnati Reds right out of college. Hardeman played 25 NFL games, had 71 runs for 256 yards (3.6) and caught 37 passes for 375 yards (10.1), including a 41-yarder for a touchdown delivered by Theismann.  He also returned punts (longest 52 yards) and kickoffs (33 tops). He also completed a 30-yard pass. In 1983 Hardeman played for the USFL’s fledgling Washington Federals.

 

Christine Lindsey (lacrosse)

A three-sport standout at Baldwinsville’s Charles W. Baker High School from 1991 to 1994, Christine Lindsey excelled as a tennis player and a volleyball player, but she truly left her mark as one of the girls lacrosse program’s most decorated goalkeepers. Lindsey earned All-Section III and All-American honors, including three as a first-team selection, in each of her four years of varsity lacrosse and was twice named her team's most valuable player. She was also a two-time volleyball All-American. The senior captain in all three sports also earned the Baldwinsville Outstanding Team Player Award as a freshman in 1991. Following her stellar high school career, Lindsey made her way to Georgetown University, where she still holds the NCAA record for career saves (1,067 in 65 games). She was a three-time first-team All-American and she earned an honorable mention nod once. The 1998 NCAA Goalkeeper of the Year, Lindsey led the Hoyas to the NCAA tournament, as an independent at-large bid in the eight-team field. Lindsey returned home after graduation in 1998, where she joined the Syracuse University women’s lacrosse coaching staff as a volunteer assistant coach while she pursued her MBA. She was a member of the coaching staff for four seasons, beginning in 1999 when the Orange won the ECAC Championship and in 2000, 2001 and 2002 when the team earned NCAA Championship invitations. She was also a presence on the US Women’s National team. In 1998 Lindsey was selected for the US Women’s team, which resulted in her being named an alternate for Team USA in the 2001 World Cup. Four years later she was selected as a member of the 2005 World Cup team, which won a silver medal.

 

Frank Riccelli (baseball)

A perennial Lyncourt Little League all-star pitcher and a four-year, Frank Riccelli was a first-team All-City hurler and three-sport letterman at Christian Brothers Academy. As a junior, Riccelli posted an earned run average of 0.74 and he struck out 140 batters in 73 innings, leading CBA to a league championship. The following season more than 70 percent of his outs that season were strikeouts. In 1971 he was a first-round draft pick of the San Francisco Giants, selected ahead of future Hall of Fame third basemen George Brett and Mike Schmidt. Riccelli began his pro journey in 1971 with the Great Falls (MT) Giants. The following year he fashioned 16- and 17-strikeout games, fanning 183 that season.  In an 11-year professional baseball career with the Giants, Cardinals, Astros, Pirates and Blue Jays organizations but due to injury Riccelli spent only 1 1/2 seasons in the majors. His big-league debut was Sept. 11, 1976 for San Francisco. In 1978 with Charleston, he led the International League with a 2.78 ERA and hurled three scoreless innings over two appearances with the Astros. But in 1979, at the age of 26, he had to undergo Tommy John surgery and was not able to make it back to the majors. In 1982, he was the Opening Day pitcher for his hometown Syracuse Chiefs.

 

Bill Sanford (rowing)

Having grown up on Syracuse’s South Side, Sanford played basketball at Central High (Class of 1956), during a two-year Army stint and as an SU freshman. Then a Syracuse rowing coach spotted Sanford on the SU Quad and soon after the 6-foot, 7-inch Sanford found himself in the rowing tanks in Archbold Gymnasium and on Onondaga Lake, pulling an oar in a George Pocock wooden shell for Head Coach Loren Schoel. A three-year member of the varsity eight, Sanford was a captain as a senior. He rowed until he was 70 years old.  And at 86, he remains in love with what he calls “the champagne of sports.” Sanford coached SU crews for 39 years — initially as freshman coach, then head varsity coach from 1967 until retirement in 2002. He coached five Olympians. In 1978, Sanford’s varsity eight SU captured the Intercollegiate Rowing Association (IRA) championship and in 1981, his varsity four won the IRA title. Sanford, along with fellow SU coaches Al Bonney (track/cross country) and Jon Buzzard (swimming), founded the Syracuse Chargers, and in more than 50 years, the Chargers have introduced tens of thousands of inner-city youth to rowing, running and swimming. In addition to coaching, he was a county legislator, starting in 1980 and retiring as chairman in 2002 and served a term in the NY State Assembly. Sanford’s three daughters have also impacted the sport. Kris rowed at the University of Washington and then coached SU women’s rowing for 16 years, while Jen is in her 27th year as the head coach at the University of Connecticut and Shawn was the first female coxswain for the SU men’s team. Bill was honored with the 2011 Wisdom Keeper award by F.O.C.U.S. Greater Syracuse Inc. and SU rowing’s state-of-the-art indoor training facility is named the William E. Sanford & Family Rowing Performance Center, located in the Barnes Center at The Arch (dedicated in 2019).

 

Kim Sharpe Green (cross country/track & field)

Cicero-North Syracuse’s Kim Sharpe Green was a pioneer for Central New York distance runners. In 1978, she was the first out-of-state female athlete to receive a full athletic scholarship to North Carolina State, which opened the door for many others to follow in her footsteps. At the collegiate level, Sharpe Green was part of two national championship teams. While at C-NS, Sharpe Green won multiple Section III and New York state championships. She turned a fourth-place finish in the 1975 cross country state championships into a state title the following year. She added a second state title as the first female back-to-back champion in state history the next season and was undefeated in all cross country invitationals she competed in during those two seasons, including winning the OHSL and Section III championships. The Northstars won the 1976 and 1977 New York State Cross Country championships. As a member of the Syracuse Chargers, Sharpe Green recorded top 20 finishes at the Junior National Championships in 1975 (19th place) and 1976 (15th place) and in 1977 finished second at the AAU Junior Olympics. At the first-ever indoor track state championship meet in 1978, Sharpe Green earned two more state titles with first place finishes in the one-mile and two-mile races. Sharpe Green’s outdoor track resume includes the 1977 OHSL and Section III championships in the mile run and second-place finishes in the one-mile and two-mile state championship races, respectively. After her unprecedented high school career at C-NS, Sharpe Green continued her dominance at the next level. She starred for the Wolfpack’s cross country and track teams from 1978 until 1983. As an individual, the two-time cross country team captain qualified for the 1978 and 1979 Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) National Championships. She placed eighth in the first-ever women's Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) championship in 1978 and was a North Carolina state champion in 1982. She also helped lead the NC State cross country team to four North Carolina state titles, two ACC championships and one AIAW national championship. NC State also finished fifth at the 1981 NCAA championships and seventh at the 1982 national meet. As an outdoor track runner, Sharpe Green placed 12th in the 5,000-meter run at the AIAW National Championship and finished 20th at the 1983 NCAA Track & Field Championship and fourth at the 1983 ACC Championship in the 10,000-meter run. She also ran a leg for NC State’s 1981 and 1983 ACC champion 5,000-meter relay teams.

 

1988-89 Westhill Girls Basketball

The year was 1989 and the New York State Girls Basketball State Tournament had been around for less than a decade. Head coach Cindy Moss had her Westhill team primed to take on the state’s top Class C squad -- Our Lady of Lourdes out of Poughkeepsie – in the state championship game. After Our Lady of Lourdes jumped out to a 15-point halftime lead, the Warriors rallied in the second half to win the game by 11 and secure the first state championship for any sport at Westhill High School. Sally Dee, a 2012 Greater Syracuse Sports Hall of Fame inductee, earned the NY State Tournament Most Valuable Player honors and earned USA Today Honorable Mention All-America honors. This Westhill team, which featured six senior captains, won the league title and finished with a 14-1 league record. Westhill then took down top-seeded Bishop Ludden, 57-56, in the Section III Class C-1 championship game. It was the first sectional title for the program and the first of three straight section crowns.  The members of the 1988-89 Westhill basketball team included Dee, Lisa Terranova, Colleen Erwin, Sue Sitnik, Amy Russo, Renee Melfi, Karen Blumer, Lynn Slosberg, Meagan Schlueter and Jennifer Metz.