Greg "The Cat" Cattrano (born August 6, 1975) is a retired

lacrosse Lacrosse is a team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game was extensively ...

goaltender In ice hockey, the goaltender (commonly referred to as the goalie) is the player responsible for preventing the hockey puck from entering their team's net, thus preventing the opposing team from scoring. The goaltender mostly plays in or near t ...

, who is recognized as one of the most successful and accomplished goaltenders in the history of the sport.

High school career

Cattrano played for

Ward Melville High School Ward Melville High School is a public high school in the Three Village Central School District of Suffolk County, New York on Long Island, serving grades ten through twelve. It is fed by the two junior high schools in the district: Paul J. ...

where he was an All-American in his senior season. His 1992 team won the New York State Lacrosse Championship. In 1993 he was awarded the

Lt. Ray Enners Award The Lt. Ray Enners Award is presented annually to the most outstanding high school lacrosse player on Long Island's Suffolk County, New York. The award is presented by the Suffolk County Boys Lacrosse Coaches Association, Section XI Athletics, to ...

as Suffolk County's outstanding lacrosse player.

Collegiate career

Cattrano attended

Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...

. In 1997, his senior year, he was named

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

Goalie of the Year, All-

Ivy League The Ivy League is an American collegiate athletic conference comprising eight private research universities in the Northeastern United States. The term ''Ivy League'' is typically used beyond the sports context to refer to the eight schools ...

, All-New England, and Brown Bears Team MVP. In addition he was named All-American twice. Cattrano finished his collegiate career with an amazing 68% save percentage, and his three goals still stand as the NCAA record for offensive production by a goaltender in NCAA sports.

NLL career

Cattrano played three seasons indoors for the

New York Saints The New York Saints are a former member of the National Lacrosse League. They played at the Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, New York, from 1989 to 2003. They became an inactive team after the 2002–03 season and were officially defunct in 2006. T ...

of the

National Lacrosse League The National Lacrosse League (NLL) is a men's professional box lacrosse league in North America. The league is headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The NLL currently has fifteen teams: ten in the United Stat ...

(1998–2000), posting a 13.68 goals against average in seven career games.

MLL career

Cattrano played in all five of the league's first Championship Games from

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

, winning the

Steinfeld Cup The Steinfeld Trophy was a trophy given annually to the winners of the Major League Lacrosse (MLL) championship. The trophy is contested in a 4-team playoff where the top teams (based on regular season record) compete in a single-elimination format ...

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

and

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

. His leadership skills helped guide the Barrage from a 1-11 record in

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

, to champions in

. Cattrano has won the

Major League Lacrosse Goaltender of the Year Award Major League Lacrosse (MLL) was a professional men's field lacrosse league consisting of nine teams in the United States. Since the league's first season in 2001, the MLL gave several annual awards to players and coaches. Most Valuable Player ...

three times, and was named Major League Lacrosse MVP in

. Cattrano was also voted to the Inaugural All-MLL Team, and started in multiple

Major League Lacrosse All-Star Game Major League Lacrosse All-Star Game is the all-star game of the MLL. Years 2000s 2001 The inaugural 2001 All-Star Game, was titled the Major League Lacrosse LacrosseStar Game. From 2001–2003, the All-Star Game had the National Division playing ...

. Though his career, Cattrano was extremely durable. In

, he was the only goalie in the MLL to play every minute of every game. Cattrano is the league's goalie leader in wins, boasting an incredible 40-19 record, including playoff games. He has saved 58% of the 1,611 shots he has faced in his career, and has a league-best 13.4

goals against average Goals against average (GAA) also known as "average goals against" or "AGA" is a statistic used in field hockey, ice hockey, lacrosse, soccer, and water polo that is the mean of goals allowed per game by a goaltender or goalkeeper (depending on s ...

. In

, Cattrano became the first goalkeeper to score in an MLL game, tallying his first professional goal against the

Rochester Rattlers Rochester may refer to: Places Australia * Rochester, Victoria Canada * Rochester, Alberta United Kingdom * Rochester, Kent **City of Rochester-upon-Medway (1982–1998), district council area **History of Rochester, Kent **HM Prison R ...

in a 19-15 win at

Villanova Stadium Villanova Stadium is a 12,500 seat stadium located on the campus of Villanova University in Villanova, Pennsylvania, USA. History Villanova Stadium was originally built in 1927 and dedicated on October 8, 1927. The stadium plays host to a wide va ...

. Cattrano also achieved the feat four times in his college career at

, twice playing for NYAC club lacrosse, and six times in high school.longislandlizards.com: Team
/ref> Cattrano originally played for the

Baltimore Bayhawks The Chesapeake Bayhawks were a Major League Lacrosse (MLL) professional men's field lacrosse team based in Annapolis, Maryland since 2010. They played in the greater Baltimore metro area beginning with the MLL's inaugural 2001 season, as the Balti ...

for first three years of the league's existence, before being traded to the

Philadelphia Barrage The Philadelphia Barrage were a field lacrosse team that are based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and member of Major League Lacrosse. They were the Bridgeport Barrage from 2001 to 2003 at The Ballpark at Harbor Yard in Bridgeport, Connecticut. T ...

for the first overall pick in the 2004 Collegiate Draft (Baltimore selected

Michael Powell Michael Latham Powell (30 September 1905 – 19 February 1990) was an English filmmaker, celebrated for his partnership with Emeric Pressburger. Through their production company The Archers, they together wrote, produced and directed a serie ...

). The

Long Island Lizards The New York Lizards, originally the Long Island Lizards, were a Major League Lacrosse (MLL) team based in Hempstead, New York, located on Long Island. They are original members of the MLL. They lost the league's inaugural game on June 7, 2001 to ...

acquired Cattrano, March 29, 2005, sending Philadelphia native

Brian Dougherty Brian "Doc" Dougherty (born December 10, 1973) is a retired Hall of Fame American lacrosse goaltender. He attended The Episcopal Academy before attending University of Maryland. He is currently the head coach at Springside Chestnut Hill Academy. ...

to the Barrage in an exchange of the top two goaltenders in the league. Cattrano retired after the 2006 season, and his number "2" was retired by the

in the 2007. Prior to the MLL forming, Cattrano played club lacrosse for NYAC and represented

Team USA The United States national team or Team USA may refer to any of a number of sports team representing the United States in international competitions. Olympic teams Additionally, these teams may compete in other international competitions such as ...

in the 1999

World Lacrosse Championship The World Lacrosse Championship (WLC) is the international men's field lacrosse championship organized by World Lacrosse that occurs every four years. The WLC began before any international lacrosse organization had been formed. It started as a ...

Awards

References

External links

Suffolk County Ray Enners Award profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cattrano, Greg 1975 births Living people American lacrosse players National Lacrosse League players Major League Lacrosse players Major League Lacrosse major award winners Ward Melville High School alumni Brown Bears men's lacrosse players