By Anthony Rifilato
and for having arguably the best food in the world. It is also renowned for its sports - most notably soccer - especially after its team won the coveted 2006 World Cup last summer. It is not, however, known for a sport that is widely lauded in the United States: Lacrosse.
Now, one man is hoping to change all that, as he attempts to put lacrosse on the map in Italy. That man is Gene Peluso, a 1987 graduate of Baldwin High School and head coach of the Rochester Institute of Technology's lacrosse team - the Tigers - who was recently tapped by the Italian Lacrosse Federation as its head coach.
Peluso was picked in January and will serve as the Italian National Team's head coach in 2007 through 2010, as the team gears up to compete in the 2008 European Lacrosse Championship in Lahti, Finland and the 2010 World Championship in Manchester, England.
With Peluso at the helm, the Italians have an edge as it faces other European opponents, since the RIT coach said he is planning to fine tune the Italian team with his extensive knowledge of the game, a fledgling sport, he said, in most parts of Europe. He is also hoping that the sport catches on with kids in Italy, and, like its U.S. counterpart, becomes a beloved national sport.
"Countries like Italy are at the beginning stages of Lacrosse," said Peluso, who lives in Rochester with his wife, Beth, and two children, Stefani and Patrick. "Our goal is not only to field the national team, but build up the sport of lacrosse in Italy."
It's a position that Peluso, who grew up in a tight-knit Italian family in Baldwin, is ideal for. At Baldwin High, Peluso was active in sports, including football, though the sport he really gravitated toward was lacrosse.
"We always made the county playoffs and had some success," he said of his days playing for Baldwin High. "We had some great teams and players, some of whom became great college players. It's always been a strong tradition in Baldwin."
After graduation, Peluso pursued his love of the sport and was a two-year captain of the SUNY Cobleskill lacrosse team, where he was named All-Regional Junior College All-American in 1989. He continued to play at Nazareth College where he was in one of the top lacrosse teams in the country, leading the Golden Flyers to the NCAA Division III Semi-Finals during his senior year. When he graduated, he said coaching was the next natural step.
He began coaching at a high school in Rochester, and made his collegiate coaching debut at Drew University in Madison, N.J.
He eventually landed the top-coaching job at RIT, and recently entered his sixth season as head coach there.
Last year, the Tigers were ranked fourth in the country and Peluso led the team to a 15-3 record. They won the conference title and advanced to the NCAA Tournament. In the past four years, the Tigers clinched a 53-28 record under Peluso's leadership and have been in the top 10 of Division III lacrosse. He has produced 11 All-Americans and a slew of other players who have been lauded for their performance, including the 2006 Empire 8 Player of the Year.
Peluso, who was named the 1999 MAC Coach of the Year, was also the head coach of the Lycoming College men's lacrosse program before heading to RIT, where he also racked up impressive numbers, including an 11-3 record in 2001, Lycoming's most successful season ever.
"I think Gene is one of the most outstanding lacrosse coaches in the nation at the Division III level and probably overall," said Lou Spiotti, the athletic director at RIT. "He's young but has already done so many phenomenal things. The [Italian National Team] saw that he is a player's coach. They wouldn't put a national team into just anyone's hands. He's caught the eye of a lot of people."
One of them was Gregg Zecca, the general manager of Italian lacrosse, who had his eye on the star coach as a possible successor for some time, Peluso said. The month before the World Games in Canada last summer, Peluso said he received a call to be involved with the Italian National team, and said he jumped at the opportunity.
Last July, Peluso assisted the Italian team during a pre-tournament training camp in Canada. But he quickly found himself in a leadership position. Though he was not officially the head coach during the tournament, Peluso was forced to take the reigns, as then head coach Zecca was faced with a family emergency.
"We went to the World Games right after that," Peluso said. "It was really neat, because as a college coach you build a team for months before you compete. Here I was with a team for a week or two, and then moving right on to the World Games. You immediately try putting together a system and try getting the players familiar with one another."
It was there that the Italians proved to be a formidable team, Peluso said. At the World Games, the Italians finished 9th out of 23 teams, impressive, he said, since this was the first year Italy competed in that tournament.
"That was so huge," Peluso said. "In Canada, it was great to see 23 countries participating and the one common bond was lacrosse. It was fun to watch and fun to be a part of."
While it is not a popular sport in Italy, lacrosse has been catching on in cities like Rome.
"It's a sport that can really catch on," said Spiotti, who is also Italian-American. "It's becoming more of an international sport and growing in popularity."
Peluso said that he is looking to recruit more talented players - most players on the 2006 team were Italian-American, such as Kyle Daddio, a player at Mt. St. Mary's University - in addition to holding clinics "for the citizens of Italy."
It's a non-paying job, and Peluso will remain head coach at RIT. This summer he and the assistant coaches will travel to Italy, and hold lacrosse tryouts and clinics just outside of Rome and Florence. The Italian National Team is also holding tryouts in Rochester for North American players.
"A big part of that reason is that the United States is the best country when it comes to lacrosse," Peluso said. "The best players and coaches are here in the states."
For Peluso, the opportunity to coach in Italy was not only a great opportunity, but a dream come true. His grandparents hail from Sicily and Naples. He felt an affinity for the Italian team, he said, and jumped at the opportunity to serve as its coach.
"Italy's been a huge sense of pride for me, and certainly with my grandparents being from Italy, there's nothing better," said Peluso, whose family still lives in Baldwin "My grandmother still lives in Baldwin. She's 85-years-old and she's my number one fan when it comes to the Italian National Team."
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