Hall of Athletic Honor
Lisa De Banico excelled in three different sports at Gettysburg College, but it was her stellar play as a goalkeeper on the 1980 national championship field hockey team that truly cemented her legacy.
De Banico arrived in Gettysburg to join a highly-successful field hockey team that had won the M-A-C title one year earlier. She waited her turn at goalie through the first 12 games before head coach Lois Bowers called on De Banico for the start of the postseason.
All the Bullets would do the rest of the way is win 10 straight games, culminating with the school’s first national championship. During the magical run, De Banico would allow only seven goals while posting five shutouts. The Bullets went 3-0 in the M-A-C playoffs, capped by a 2-1 victory over Franklin & Marshall in the title game in which De Banico made four saves.
Gettysburg then earned the right to host the E-A-I-A-W tournament, and the Bullets captured the regional crown. The Bullets opened with victories over Glassboro and Millersville, and behind seven saves from De Banico, the Orange and Blue blanked Elizabethtown 2-0 in the championship game.
Next up was the A-I-A-W national tournament, which was held at Hollins College in Roanoke, Virginia. The Bullets knocked off Hollins 3-1 before De Banico faced perhaps her toughest competition of the tournament against Denison. Facing 21 shots, she made nine saves as the Bullets prevailed 3-2.
Gettysburg needed overtime to beat Chico State 3-2 in the national semifinals, and although De Banico was credited with just two saves, one included a tremendous barehanded stop on the ground. Finally, playing their fourth game in four days, the Bullets took down Hartwick 1-0 on a goal from Marianne Paparone in the second overtime to win the national title. Gettysburg finished its banner season with a record of 16-4-1.
De Banico concluded her freshman year with an unblemished 10-0 record to go with five shutouts and a 0.67 goals-against average.
The next season De Banico resumed her spot between the pipes as the Bullets were M-A-C runners-up and made it back to the A-I-A-W playoffs, where they finished fifth. De Banico was just as impressive, notching six shutouts and allowing less than a goal per game as Gettysburg finished 12-7-4.
De Banico remained steady in goal and turned in a number of outstanding performances over her final two seasons. She posted 24 saves in an overtime loss to Bucknell as a junior and made a school record 42 saves in 2-1 overtime win over Millersville in her final collegiate game.
Away from field hockey, De Banico played on Gettysburg’s inaugural softball team in 1981 and belted the first home run in program history. She would join the lacrosse team as a junior and despite having never played the sport, she became the team’s starting goalkeeper for her last two seasons.
De Banico graduated with a degree in psychology and went on to earn a second degree in communications from William Paterson before embarking on a career in production and engineering. She and her husband, Bill, currently reside in Berkeley Heights, N.J. and Charlottesville, Va.
