Hall of Fame
Karen Honan Falardeau ’84 – Class of 1994
The Striker…
The young woman’s resume included 16 letters, four basketball, four soccer, four volleyball and four softball from Baker High School in Baldwinsville. Her strongest sport was in its first year of varsity at Le Moyne, and the striker’s five goals as a freshman were important to a team struggling to keep its head above water. In the more established basketball program, she played on a Dolphin team that finished 11-7, featuring future hall of famers Kathleen McEneny and Eileen Emmons.
In her second year, soccer began to show potential. The striker scored 10 goals and was selected offensive player of the year on a squad that built a respectable 5-6 record. In basketball, she continued to improve her game on a team that finished 7-10.
Soccer continued on an upswing in her junior year. Her scoring output more than doubled, to 21. The team finished 6-6-2. But there was to be a new coach next year and a far tougher schedule. In a bold move she decided to focus her energies on soccer, her basketball career was over.
Le Moyne women’s soccer arrived in 1983. The record: 10-6-1; second place in the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference post-season tournament. The striker was a leader in the practice when the brand new coach called in sick on her second day, and she went on to lead a squad that faced far more talented opponents in virtually every match; yet routinely came from behind as if adversity was a tonic that brought about success.
Le Moyne’s striker had a single-minded determination to put the ball in the net, and opposing defenders quickly learned that she was not easily denied. She was tough. She was strong. She played the game with deliberate concentration. Records for that season stand today: most goals in a game; most goals in a season; most career goals. She was selected as the first recipient of the John J. O’Brien S.J. Award as Le Moyne’s Senior Female Athlete of the Year.
That 1983 team ushered Le Moyne into the role of a legitimate competitor in intercollegiate women’s soccer. The team and its leader demonstrated that toughness and strength are not only physical attributes, but qualities of character that can overcome any obstacle.
One of the leaders of Le Moyne’s first women’s soccer team to earn post-season play,
Karen Honan Falardeau ’84 is inducted into the
Le Moyne College Athletic Hall of Fame.
February 5, 1994
