The Rochester Knighthawks today named Paul Suggate as the fourth head coach in franchise history.

The team also announced that Mike Hasen and Freeman Bucktooth will join the staff as assistant coaches.

"It is an honor to be surrounded by guys like Regy [Thorpe], Jody [Gage] and Curt [Styres]," said Suggate. "They are high-caliber guys that are doing what they can to win a championship."

Suggate is a lacrosse icon in Canada and brings an impressive resume to Rochester, a city that won the 2007 NLL Champion's Cup. He is a member of both the Canadian and Ontario Lacrosse Hall of Fames and has excelled as both a coach and a player.

"My focus is simple: I want to be the best that I can and help the guys be the best that they can be," added Suggate. "Each night we have to earn the right to be the best."

Suggate's exploits on the floor are legendary and is regarded as the "best two-way players to ever have played the game." In the mid-70s he played for the Maryland Arrows of the old National Lacrosse League. In 40 games with the Arrows in 1974, he scored 115 goals and added 124 assists to win the league scoring title with 239 points. He was also named to the NLL First All-Star Team as a defender.

Away from the floor, Suggate has coached at the international and at the Canadian junior and senior levels. He worked as the head coach of the now-defunct St. Catharines Athletics in 2005 and 2006. In 2007, he coached Team Scotland at the World Indoor Lacrosse Championship. This past summer, he coached the Junior A Mississauga Tomahawks in the Ontario Lacrosse Association.

Suggate has been named the Coach of the Year at both the junior and senior levels, earning the honors in 1996 with Mississauga (OLA Junior A) and in 2005 with St. Catharines (OLA Senior A).

Hasen retires after 13 seasons in the NLL, nine with the Knighthawks, to become the team's head defensive assistant coach. He served as team captain from 2003 through 2007.

"This is a great opportunity and with the support from Paul and Freeman, I look forward to making the transition from player to coach, in the organization that meant so much to me as a player," Hasen said.

Bucktooth begins his first season with the Knighthawks as the team's head offensive assistant coach. He returns to the coaching ranks in the NLL after a nearly 10-year hiatus, having last worked in the league in 1999 as the head coach of the Syracuse Smash. The resident of Onondaga Nation has an extensive background as a player and as a coach.

"It's a dream come true," said Bucktooth. "I look forward to working with Paul and Mike and winning a championship."

As a coach, Bucktooth has worked at the international and Canadian junior and senior levels. In his career, he has been the head coach of the Onondaga Junior B's, Syracuse Lacrosse Club (Vail Colorado) and Lafayette High School (1999-00), where he was named Coach of the Year.

On the world scene, Bucktooth led the Iroquois Nationals to their first medal at the 1999 Under-19 World Games in Adelaide, Australia, and earned World Games Man of the Year honors for his work with the Iroquois Nationals.