Hall of Fame
One of the greatest kickers in the history of the Shippensburg football program, Howie Guarini set numerous school records and was a member of the 1988 team that won a PSAC Western Division championship and the 1991 team that advanced to the NCAA Division II Football Championship.
A four-year letterwinner for the Red Raiders from 1988-91, leading his team in scoring for three seasons from 1988-90. He set the school record for points scored by a kicker (230) and career field goals made (45).
If you include two games in the 1991 NCAA Division II Football Championship, Guarini actually totaled 241 points. However, the NCAA did not allow postseason statistics to be included in career or season statistics until 2004.
In 1990, Guarini set the NCAA Division II record for field goal accuracy in a season by making 15-of-17 attempts for 88.2-percent, a record that stood until 1999 when Milan Smado of Southeastern Oklahoma made 89.5-percent.
Among the other records Guarini set are extra point accuracy for a both a season (23-of-23, 100%) and career (95-of-101, 94.1%), field goals attempted for both a season (18) and career (61), field goals made in a game (4) and consecutive games kicking a field goal (10).
After hitting all 23 extra point attempts in 1988, he extended his streak to 26 when he hit the first three of the 1989 season to set the school record. He later broke that mark in 1990 and 1991 when he hit 27 in a row.
Guarini also held the top two single-season school records for field goals made with 15 in 1990 and 13 in 1989 until both were broken in 2005. His longest field goal was 47 yards against Bloomsburg in 1991, one of the longest in team history.
Guarini was also a three-time All-PSAC Western Division selection, earning Second Team honors as a sophomore in 1989 and First Team accolades as a junior and senior. As a junior in 1990, he was named Associated Press Division II Third Team All-American as well as All-ECAC First Team. In 1991, Guarini was received Honorable Mention All-America honors by Don Hansen’s Football Gazette.
Following his graduation, Guarini moved to Colorado Springs, Colorado where he began work for MCI. While there, he married 1993 Shippensburg graduate Janine DeRosa. Guarini then became employed at ING Variable Annuities in West Chester working as a Senior Programmer/Analyst in Information Technology. He is became involved in coaching Little League baseball and soccer for his son's teams while doing some volunteer work with Habitat for Humanity in suburban Philadelphia.
