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Lewis Athletics Announces 2025 Hall of Fame Class; Flyer Red Dinner Set for March 26

The ȺpÎÞÂë Athletic Department announced that five new members and two teams will be inducted into the Lewis Athletics Hall of Fame on March 26, 2025. The ceremony will occur during the  at Bolingbrook Golf Club in Bolingbrook, Illinois, starting at 6 p.m.  The inductees are George DiMatteo, Joe Falese, Amanda Farrough, Isaac Jean Paul, Reetta Laakonen, the 1981 women's volleyball team½ý²Ô»å the 2001 softball team. Janeen Decharinte will be honored as the Brother Raymond McManaman Lasallian of the Year.

 

George DiMatteo
DiMatteo arrived at Lewis in 1972 as a member of the baseball program under Lewis legendary head coach Gordon Gillispie. DiMatteo was a three-year starter while being awarded NAIA All-American during the 1974, 1975 and 1976 NAIA National Championship teams and was drafted by the Chicago Cubs.

DiMatteo joined the sidelines as the head softball coach at Lewis in 1984. He served for 31 seasons and recorded a program-record 1,032 wins until his retirement in 2014. In all 31 seasons at the helm, Lewis qualified for the Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC) Tournament. 

DiMatteo was awarded GLVC Coach of the Year seven times and recorded 10 GLVC championships and finished runner-up nine times. He also led the Flyers to the NCAA Division II Midwest Regional 13 times, including in 2001, where the team recorded a program-best 55 wins and finished as the national runner-up. 

 
Joe Falese

Falese began his journey at Lewis in 1974 as a student and a member of the baseball team. 

Falese began working at Lewis on January 2, 1979, where he worked in various positions for 42 years. He started as the Director of Student Life and Housing, where he was until 1982 before moving on to Assistant Dean of Students and then eventually becoming the Dean of Students where began the oversight of athletics in 1985. 

Falese was named Vice President for Student Affairs in 1989 and continued the oversight of athletics. In 2019, Falese became a senior gift officer in the university advancement office which helped with the Lewis Flyers Golf Outing and other events to enhance alumni engagement before retirement in 2021. 
 

Amanda Farrough 
Farrough was a member of the Lewis women's cross country and track and field programs from 2013-2017. During her four years at Lewis, Farrough was a seven-time NCAA Division II All-American in both women's cross country and women's track and field and earned All-GLVC 20 times.

Farrough won the NCAA Division II Indoor Track and Field Championships for the 5,000-meter run in 2017.  

1981 Women's Volleyball 
The 1981 women's volleyball team won a school-record 51 matches, while earning one of 10 invites to the NCAA Division II Tournament in the first year it hosted under head coach and Lewis Hall of Famer Karen Lockyer. The team won the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) Illinois State Championship and the AIAW Midwest Region Championship, while finishing sixth at the AIAW National Tournament. 

The team defeated Springfield (Mass.), the host school, University of California-Riverside and Florida Southern to advance to the program's first-ever NCAA Division II Women's Volleyball Championship and then finished runner-up after losing to Sacramento State in the final. 
 

2001 Softball 
The program posted a 55-13 record en route to the program's first-ever NCAA Division II Championship Game appearance. The Flyers were coached by George DiMatteo, who is also getting inducted this year. 

Lewis was led by All-NFCA Great Lakes Region players Kim Mackinson and Amanda Driscoll that season. Mackinson pitched 237.2 innings in the circle with program records of 25 wins and 28 complete games, while recording 13 shutouts. Driscoll recorded a team-high 68 hits, seven triples and 35 runs scored.

ȺpÎÞÂë is a modern, enterprising, Catholic university with a growing student enrollment from GED through doctoral level programs. As part of the global Lasallian network of 65 universities, Lewis is known for preparing graduates who impact the world for the better. Visit www.lewisu.edu for further information.