Chris Rotelli, the 2003 Tewaaraton Award honoree, who led UVA Lacrosse to two ACC titles and a national title, has been selected for induction to the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame.
The honor for Rotelli by USA Lacrosse, which announced the eight-member 2026 Hall of Fame class on Thursday.
Rotelli will be the 15th person from the UVA Lacrosse program to be enshrined in the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame, and the first since Kris Snider was honored as part of the 2021 class.
The newest members of the Hall of Fame will be inducted during a dinner ceremony at the M&T Bank Exchange in Baltimore on Saturday, Jan. 9.
Rotelli helped UVA to ACC championships in 2000 and 2003 and NCAA semifinal appearances in 2000, 2002 and 2003, before he and the Cavaliers capped his senior campaign in 2003 by capturing the program’s third NCAA title.
He finished his career first among UVA midfielders in points (126) and second in both goals (85) and assists (41) all-time.
In 2003, he set the program’s single-season points record by a midfielder with 49 and became the first UVA midfielder since 1996 to lead the team in scoring. With 26 goals and 23 assists, he also became UVA’s first-ever midfielder to record at least 20 goals and 20 assists in the same season.
In addition to winning the Tewaaraton Award, Rotelli was named the recipient of the Lt. Donald McLaughlin Jr. Award, presented annually by the United States Lacrosse Association to the nation’s top midfielder, and became UVA’s fourth midfielder to earn USILA First Team All-America honors twice, having also done so in 2002.
Rotelli was selected #1 overall by the Bridgeport Barrage in the 2003 Major League Lacrosse Draft. Throughout his eight-year MLL career, he also had stops with the Boston Cannons, San Francisco Dragons and Chicago Machine.
A three-time MLL All-Star, Rotelli finished his professional career with 163 points (109 goals, seven 2-pointers and 47 assists) in 76 career games.
Rotelli has spent the past two decades growing the sport of lacrosse on the West Coast as a coach and club founder, helping establish the game in a region of the country not traditionally considered a lacrosse hotbed.
Four years after the North Coast Section officially sanctioned lacrosse as a high school sport in the state of California, Rotelli founded the Golden State Lacrosse Club in 2006. Following a three-year career in commercial real estate, he returned to lacrosse full time in 2012, when he founded ADVNC Lacrosse, which currently supports almost 300 teams across 15 states, primarily in non-traditional lacrosse markets.
In 2014, he became the head coach at Sacred Heart Prep in Atherton, Calif., where he has steered the Gators to six league championships.
“I get so much more fulfillment out of helping people through lacrosse and also running my own business,” Rotelli told USA Lacrosse Magazine in a recent article chronicling his lacrosse journey.
“Lacrosse is one of these things,” he said. “When it gets in your blood, it stays there.”
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