Dillmeier Enterprises founder creates
St. Michael’s College Award to honor late coach
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, 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 his former player 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, 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,” 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.”
David Dillmeier and his wife Allyson (Bradley) are both 1991 graduates of Saint Michael’s College. His 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 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 that 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.”
