St. John Fisher University Athletics

A Street & Smith’s Preseason All-American, Chris Violante was the leading scorer on the 1999 men’s basketball team that posted a 24-2 record and earned the No. 1 seed in the East Region of the NCAA Division III Championship.

That year, Chris was named the Rochester Area Collegiate Association (RACA) Men’s Basketball Player of the Year. He was also selected to the NABC Division III East Region First Team, the ECAC Upstate New York First Team and the Columbus Multimedia First Team.

Chris was also named the Most Valuable Player in the Chase Scholarship Tournament in the 1998-99 season, leading the Cardinals to an 89-61 win in the title game.

As a senior, he led the Cardinals in scoring at 15.6 points per game and was second on the squad in rebounding with 6.5 boards per contest that season. He finished his four-year career as being part of the winningest class in the history of men’s basketball at the College.

In his junior year, Violante averaged 12.3 points and 7.3 rebounds and was named to the All-East Region Second Team.

While his offensive numbers were impressive, Violante’s biggest contributions came on defense, where he was typically responsible for guard the opposition’s top scorer.

Chris finished his four-year career with an 86-19 overall record and currently sits 28th in school history with 915 points.