Penfield Varsity

Head Coach John Schembri

Coach Schembri joined the Penfield lacrosse program as a player in 1988 as a freshman.  A 1992 graduate of Penfield High School, Schembri was a captain of both the varsity football and lacrosse teams as a senior. During his senior season he was a captain of the first Penfield Section V Championship Lacrosse team under coach Mark Rice that went on to compete in the state semi-finals.  Schembri earned all county and all tournament team honors his senior year.  Coach Schembri went on to play his college career at Cortland State University.  He was a captain his junior and senior season under head coach Mike Pounds at Cortland.  While at Cortland he was a member of the SUNYAC All-Academic team in 1994, 1995, and 1996. He stayed on as an assistant coach at Cortland in the spring of 1997 working with the face-off specialists.  Coach Schembri came back to Penfield in the spring of 1998 and was the head modified lacrosse coach.  In the spring of 1999, he moved up to the varsity with Coach Rice as the defensive coordinator and assisted him at the varsity level the next 10 seasons where the team posted a 76% winning record (144-46), played for four section 5 titles and won two titles in 2000 and 2006 . Coach Schembri took over as the head coach in the spring of 2009 upon coach Rice’s retirement in 2008.  Since that time, Penfield has reached the finals in 2012, 2013, 2015 and 2018, winning titles in 2013 and 2018. During that time 6 players have received All-American honors, 2 players have received Academic All-American honors, 3 players received the US Lacrosse Bob Scott Award, every team has received the NYS Scholar Athlete Team Award from 2009-present, and over 75 players have continued to play lacrosse at the college level.

Assistant Coach Cory Holbrough

Coach Holbrough, a native of Burlington Ontario, has an extensive field and box lacrosse playing and coaching background. During his collegiate career, Holbrough was a standout in both hockey and lacrosse at Union College and went on to play professional lacrosse in the NLL as well as Player/Coach in Australia’s Mens Club Leagues for several years. Holbrough brings more than 15 years of Varsity Coaching experience including stints in the Massachusetts Prep School Leagues and Section V with Brighton and many roles with some of the top clubs in our area; Sweetlax, Monster Elite Girls Lacrosse, 3D Lacrosse, Flyers, Knighthawks and Roots Box Lacrosse. He resides in Rochester with his wife, Keira, and their four children (Brogan 2022, Jack 2024, James 2026, and Eva 2028) and enjoys spending time coaching or watching his kids play and spending time on Cape Cod in the off-season.

Assistant Coach Jerry Dawes

Coach Dawes has been a member of the Penfield Varsity Lacrosse staff since 2010 and earned Monroe County Division 1 Assistant Coach of the Year in 2015. Prior to coaching at Penfield, Coach Dawes was the head coach at Spencerport from 2000-2006 and head coach at Aquinas from 2007-2009. While at Aquinas Coach Dawes earned the GRALL Head Coach of the Year.