In 14 seasons as the RC head coach, Pilat has led the Maroons to a top-10 ranking nine times, culminating with a number-four ranking in 1992 and 1997. He has coached 41 All-Americans, 51 First Team All-ODAC selections, and five conference Players of the Year. In 12 of his 14 seasons, the Maroons have completed the season ranked among the nation’s top 20.

Since taking over the reigns of the lacrosse squad at Roanoke, Pilat has led the Maroons to the NCAA post season four times, including a stretch of three straight from 1996 until 1998. Five times during his tenure, Pilat has been named the ODAC Coach of the Year in a vote of his league peers, the most of any ODAC coach. Against ODAC opponents, Pilat has led the team to 62 wins and just 18 losses. He has claimed five Old Dominion Athletic Conference championships, the latest coming in 1997. Since becoming the head coach of the Maroon program in 1989, all but one of Pilat’s four-year players have earned degrees from Roanoke College.

Pilat led the Maroons to their finest season since winning the National Championship in 1978. In 1992, after a 10-4 regular season and the program’s 10th Old Dominion Athletic Conference title, Roanoke beat Gettysburg College and Ithaca College to advance to the NCAA Division III National Championship game. Pilat coached six All-Americans that season, was named ODAC Coach of the Year, and was a finalist in the "Babe" Kraus National Coach of the Year voting.

Pilat is an integral part of Roanoke’s lacrosse excellence both as a player and a coach. As a player, Pilat was a three-time All-American, two-time ODAC Player of the Year, and the 1985 Roanoke Male Athlete of the Year. Also in 1985, Pilat received the C. Markland Kelly Award and the Hero’s Award as the nation’s top goaltender. With 710 collegiate saves, he has 59 more stops than any other keeper in school history. In addition to leading the program in career saves, Pilat has also coached six of the nine other players ranked in the top 10 all-time saves list at the school. Three of those goalies have earned All-American status.

In addition to coaching and recruiting, Pilat has been very active in the lacrosse community. A current member of the Division III Advisory and All-American committees, he has served as the president of both the ODAC and Division III Coaches associations. He has been the chairman of the United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association’s Century Club and was a member of the U.S. World Lacrosse Team player selection committee. His talks at the annual national lacrosse conventions have drawn interest from coaches throughout the country. Pilat is also one of the nation’s most recognizable summer camp directors, running several camps in Virginia, Florida, Connecticut, and New York. His ‘Goalie School’ is regarded as the nation’s best camp for goalies. Pilat’s latest venture is a new goalie video aimed at improving the skills and fundementals of both novice and advanced keepers. In just over a year on the market, Pilat’s video has sold over 1,000 copies.

Pilat graduated cum laude from Roanoke in 1985, and earned a master’s degree from Alfred University in education in 1986. While at Alfred, he served as a graduate assistant with the Saxons’ lacrosse program. Pilat spent the 1987 season as a member of the Washington & Lee University staff, helping the Generals to a national semifinal appearance, before returning to Roanoke as an assistant in 1988.

He currently resides in Roanoke with his wife, Diana and their nine-year old twins, Emily and Will.