David Dillmeier of Dillmeier Enterprises in Garden City creates St. Michael's College Award to honor Schimoler

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The late Paul Schimoler, left, legendary Saint Michael's College lacrosse coach, and Pat Ivory, right, current St. Mike's coach.

COLCHESTER, VT (07/10/2013)(readMedia)-- Garden City resident, David Dillmeier, president of Dillmeier Enterprises, wants to inspire leadership and commitment in students through sports. A lacrosse player as a Saint Michael's College student in Vermont, who graduated in 1991, Mr. Dillmeier was impressed with the Saint Michael's lacrosse coach, Paul Schimoler, who led the team from 2004 to 2011, amassing the best record of any Saint Michael's lacrosse coach.

Paul Schimoler died February 15, 2013, following a short battle with cancer, and Mr. Dillmeier decided to honor the coach and his alma mater with an award and a contribution.

Paul Schimoler was a beloved and highly successful coach, player, husband and father, coaching at Dartmouth College (2011 to 2013) when he died. A Long Island native, Paul Schimoler was head coach at Saint Michael's for eight years and ranks as the most successful coach in the program's history. He was named the NEILA Division II Coach of the year in 2011, and more recently he founded the Vermont-based lacrosse school VTribe.

Because of his respect for Coach Schimoler and his love of Saint Michael's College, Mr. Dillmeier has given Saint Michael's a gift to create the Coach Paul Schimoler Player of the Year Award, to be given annually to the male lacrosse player best showing leadership and commitment, as exemplified by Coach Schimoler.

"Paul Schimoler was a student of the game of lacrosse; he loved everything about the sport," Mr. Dillmeier said. "With his passion for teaching the game coupled with his lacrosse knowledge he was able to take the Saint Michael's lacrosse program to new heights. He did this by recruiting and coaching well rounded student athletes who worked hard in the classroom as well as on the lacrosse field. Paul brought the best out of the Saint Michael's athletes and for that we are truly grateful," Mr. Dillmeier said.

David Dillmeier and his wife Allyson (Bradley) are both 1991 graduates of Saint Michael's College. Mr. Dillmeier's father Robert Dillmeier served on the Saint Michael's Board of Trustees from 1993 to 1999.

The Coach Paul Schimoler Player of the Year Award will be presented to the first honoree in the fall of 2013 at the annual alumni lacrosse gathering at Saint Michael's.

Coach Schimoler was succeeded by Brian Kingsbury and most recently by Patrick Ivory, a 2008 graduate of Saint Michael's who played under Paul Schimoler, was named following a national search, after serving as interim head coach since January 2013. Ivory was named Coach of the Year by the New England Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association (NEILA) and the Northeast-10 Conference this spring, his first as a college head coach.

"I was fortunate enough to be able to play for Coach Schimoler during my career at Saint Michael's College and to work with him as his assistant for the last three years of his tenure," Coach Patrick Ivory said, as he endorsed Dillmeier's new award. "Coach Schimoler was the ultimate competitor, a truly inspirational figure who gave all he had to his team and his family. He was my coach, friend, and mentor and I am honored for the opportunity to try and live up to the standard which he has set for the lacrosse team here. David Dillmeier's generous donation and award will honor Paul's memory for our student athletes for years to come," Coach Ivory added.

Coach Paul Schimoler, a Hall of Famer

Paul Schimoler grew up in Upper Brookville, Long Island, and attended St. Mary's High School in Manhasset, before attending Cornell University. He graduated from Cornell in 1989, where he was a four time All-Ivy and All-American selection, and 1988 Ivy League Player of the Year. He had extensive post-collegiate playing experience and was inducted into the Cornell Hall of Fame in 1999 and the Long Island Metropolitan Lacrosse Hall of Fame in 2004. He coached at Saint Michael's from 2003-2011 and would have been in his second year as an assistant coach at Dartmouth College when he died.

About Saint Michael's

At Saint Michael's College www.smcvt.edu  students are challenged to do their best, find their niche, take on opportunities to grow, and immerse themselves in academic pursuits. Intellectual rigor, compassion, teamwork, caring-these characterize a Saint Michael's experience. A residential Catholic college, Saint Michael's is steeped in the social justice spirit of its founding priests, the Edmundites. Saint Michael's is located three miles from Burlington, Vermont, one of America's top 10 college towns. Headed by President John J. Neuhauser, the college has 1,900 undergraduate students and 500 graduate students. Identified by the Princeton Review, 2013 as one of the nation's Best 377 Colleges, and included in the Fiske Guide to Colleges 2014, Saint Michael's students and professors have received Rhodes, Woodrow Wilson, Goldwater, Pickering, Guggenheim, Fulbright, and other grants. The college is one of the nation's top-100, Best Liberal Arts Colleges as listed in the 2013 U.S. News & World Report rankings.

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