Inaugural Service Awards Presentation

The ACC held its inaugural Service Awards presentation at Mazenod College yesterday, with 18 recipients from across our member schools recognised for their outstanding contribution to ACC Sport and Music over many years.

The Recognition of Service Award is an acknowledgement and appreciation of continuing and substantial involvement in ACC activities over an extended period. The staff members were thrilled with that recognition and appreciative of the opportunity to be involved in this inaugural event.

 

Click on the PDF link for individual photos: CLICK HERE

 A BRIEF BACKGROUND OF THE 2017 ACC SERVICE AWARD RECIPIENTS:

DE LA SALLE COLLEGE
Gerard Barns

Gerard has been employed at De La Salle for 22 years. In those 22 years he has coached at least two ACC teams per year, usually coaching 3 or 4.

He is a long time cricket, football and hockey coach as well as having a long association with ACC Athletics. Most recently he has volunteered to coach ACC soccer. It is estimated he has coached over 50 teams during his employment period at De La Salle. He is a popular ACC coach due to his diligence with planning and most entertaining match reports, which he prepares weekly for his students.

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SALESIAN COLLEGE
Steven Beckham

Steve has been a part of the ACC Athletics management team since 1999, overseeing a large group of Salesian students that assist with the various tasks required to successfully manage our largest annual sporting event. He does a superb job and runs a tight ship, but he is well respected and the staff love his sense of humour. He is a great asset to us for this event and is always willing to be involved. Steve also coaches soccer at the school. 

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WHITEFRIARS COLLEGE
Brad Bird

Brad is now a Deputy principal at Whitefriars and he has had an enormous involvement with the College sporting program over many years.

He coached first XVIII most years from 1996 through to 2009, winning 2 ACC Titles and a Herald Sun Shield.

He has Coached Year 10 Football to 2 ACC Championships, Won Vic Championships 2003

Brad coached the Basketball Firsts from 1996-2013, winning 3 EIS Titles 10, ACC titles, Runners up National Championships 2006, Semi Finalist National Championships 2007

He has also coached a range of other year levels.

Coached/Managed ACC Aths team 1996-2002

Coached Senior Tennis/Table Tennis/VolleyBall at times

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ST BERNARD’S COLLEGE
Gerard Brown
Gerard has been a St Bernard’s staff member for 27 years, and has been active in all sports during that time.

He has held the role of Sports Coordinator and Head coach of Athletics & Cross Country, achieving numerous ACC titles under is guidance.

Gerard has given up his own personal time on many occasions to ensure the college programs have run successfully. He has put all his efforts into these programs without asking for anything in return and the results of his work are a credit to his dedication and work ethic. He is a worthy nominee for this award.

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WHITEFRIARS COLLEGE
Peter Ciardulli
Pete has put in over 23 years to the Whitefriars Sporting Program.

As Head of Sport, he was the major player in the move to the ACC in 1999.

He is passionate about the college’s sporting program and giving the boys the opportunity to excel.

Many of the sides he has coached have had great success due to his passion, care and organisation. He has a terrific role model as Director of Sport.

After arriving at Whitefriars in 1993, Pete was Head of Sport from 1998 – 2010.

He has coached Footy every year since – Yr 7, Yr 10, Seniors (1sts & 2nds) – (winning the Herald Sun Shield amongst many ACC titles)

He has also coached Cricket every year – mainly Year 10 & Senior (1sts & 2nds)

Hockey – at least last 10 years – Yr 7, 8, Seniors

Athletics – actively involved while Head of Sport

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WHITEFRIARS COLLEGE
Shane Cotter

Shane embodies all of the ACC values. He has devoted a massive portion of his life to assisting the Whitefriars boys and providing opportunities to be involved in quality sporting programs. Whether through 7am swimming and cross training sessions, weekend sport, or fixtured ACC sporting competitions; many students would be forever indebted for the assistance that he has provided them. He has always gone above and beyond.

* Managed the school swim team since 1981 (through to 2016 – many titles won)

* Coached EIS and ACC football teams at all levels from 1981 – 2016

*Coached Year 7 Tennis 2005-2016

*Managed cross country side from 1996-2013

*Head Of PE at Whitefriars since 1996

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SALESIAN COLLEGE
Tim Cox

Tim has been a huge part of the ACC since Salesian re-joined in 1999. There has not been a term in over 15 years that Tim has not coached a sport.

Tim has coached Salesian teams in every sport that has been on offer by the ACC.

His commitment to coaching has inspired many young students to pursue their sporting talents. His infectious personality helps drive the Salesian sporting program and he has a great manner with the students.

He is a regular at the ACC social activities and makes sure that his Salesian colleagues do likewise.

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ST BEDE’S COLLEGE
David Cracknell

David has been involved in Senior ACC Hockey since its resurgence as an ACC sport in 1979. As a student he played in the ACC Senior Hockey Team for three years being co-captain in 1981. Coming back to St Bede’s as a teacher in 1987 he was immediately drawn to Senior Coaching and has coached the Senior Team ever since. Over the thirty year coaching term he has seen the transition from grass to synthetic turf and witnessed many changes to the rules and the way the game has been played. David was part of the foundation group who formed the Old Collegians Hockey Club in 1982 and played with the club for approximately 33 years until recently retiring. This has allowed him the special opportunity of playing with many of the ACC players he coached and building the on-going friendships he enjoys today. David has coached the Senior Hockey Team to eleven premierships during the last thirty years with the most recent being the 2016 premiership. His passion for the game extends to the players he coaches and has allowed David to build strong relationships with and within the teams he has coached.

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WHITEFRIARS COLLEGE
Andy Dalrymple
Andy has a massive contribution to Whitefriars sport for over 27 years. This has been spread across a number of different sports. His main passion for the last 15 years though has been the Whitefriars Golf program.

Football:

1st XVIII : 1988 – 1993 (EIS), 2003 – 2008 (ACC)

2nd XVIII : 1987, 2001, 2002

Years 8 , 9 , 10 at various times over the years

Cricket:

1st XI : 1989 – 1994

EIS Combined Team 1990

Years 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 1989-2016) at various times

Golf : 2002 – 2016

He has also coached Volleyball, Table Tennis at different year levels.

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SALESIAN COLLEGE
Carl Egan

Carl Egan is one of the larger than life characters of our Association. He was part of the ACC for two years in the 80’s before Salesian re-joined in 1999 and has been working closely with the ACC till this present day.

Carl has been on numerous ACC committees during his time as Director of Sport.

He has coached every sport that has been on offer by the ACC and participates in competition every term.

The ACC has given Carl the opportunity to pick the ACC soccer Team of the Year for many years. He has a trophy named in his honour for the annual senior soccer match between Mazenod & Salesian – The Egan Davies Shield.

Along with being athletics coach at the college Carl has served as the sports master for 16 years and been a part of the ACC for 18.

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ST BEDE’S COLLEGE
Julie Heatley

Julie has been involved with the St Bede’s ACC Swimming team since 2004. In that time she has attended hundreds of early morning sessions, coaching St Bede’s students to try and improve their technique and fitness and work towards achieving their best results. After each training session Julie would also organise breakfast for all of the students involved. In her time as Swimming coordinator, she has been responsible for new team uniforms, organising a training camp each year to Phillip Island and introducing regular training sessions for all students at St Bede’s – not just those in the ACC team. From 2009 to 2016, Julie was also responsible for organising the House Swimming Carnivals at St Bede’s which involved three events at the local swim centre. A highlight of Julie’s involvement was the 2007 ACC Championship, which ended a 16 year drought. Since then she has led the squad to collect the Champion school trophy in 2007, 2009, 2010 and 2013.

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ST BEDE’S COLLEGE
Owen Lalor

Owen has coached ACC teams every year since 1997. His main roles have been with Football and Cricket. He coached the Year 8 team from 1997 to 2001, the Year 9 team from 2002 to 2009 and the Senior 1st XVIII from 2010 to present. He also coached the Year 10 Cricket team from 1998 to 2010 and then the Senior 1st XI from 2011 to present. Since Owen has taken over the senior teams the Football team have been premiers once and runners up twice. The Senior Cricket team have won three premierships in the six years Owen has coached the team. Owen has been very willing to give up his time to be involved in ACC Sport over the years on top of his normal teaching load and coaching commitments each weekend in the local community. He is a worthy nomination for this award.

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PARADE COLLEGE
Martin Macaulay

Martin is the Director Music at Parade College and has been involved in all things musical associated with the ACC since its inception some 15 years ago. He has hosted numerous workshops for the ACC, arranging guest presenters and managing the organization of the day. His expertise with the Stage Band has seen some outstanding workshops held at Parade over many years.

Martin has also been a key member of the production team for the two major ACC concerts that we have held at Hamer Hall, Arts Centre Melbourne. His knowledge of productions, event management and logistics have proven to be a great asset for our Production Teams and his professionalism has added significantly to the success of our events.

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ST BEDE’S COLLEGE
Christopher Murphy

In 1984 Chris began work at CBC St Kilda and that is when his involvement with athletics and cross country coaching began. At that school he worked closely with Pat Kaufman and Paul Munday who were responsible for him joining the club of which he is now a life member, Glenhuntly AC. He first worked at St Bede’s from 1990 to 1992 and returned in 2000. In his first years at St Bede’s, Chris worked closely with the legendary Phil Hackett who led the school to many ACC and All Schools’ Cross Country Championships. Phil was an uncompromising and highly dedicated coach who set the benchmark for dedication and passion. In the area of Athletics, Chris worked with the late John Clements and then co-ordinated Athletics at St Bede’s for a number of years. During this time he took over the co-ordination of Cross Country and remained in that role for more than ten years working with Sports Masters Michael Roberts and Michael Naughton. Chris continues to be involved with both Athletics and Cross Country, currently under the leadership of Craig Radley. He values the opportunity that sport provides for a classroom teacher to know boys in a different context, to allow boys to experience success and to teach them valuable life-lessons. Chris regards his involvement with sport as one of the gifts of his job; there have been many afternoons and mornings when he has run with, and supervised boys along the beautiful beaches of Mentone. He says the cares and concerns of the job tend to fall away and he finds himself amazed at his own good fortune.

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ST BEDE’S COLLEGE
Michael Naughton

Michael Naughton has been Director of Sport at De La Salle College from 1991-1997, before taking up the reins as Director of Sport at St Bede’s College from 2012 to the present day.

Michael has been actively involved in the ACC since 1987. He was employed at De La Salle College from 1987 to 2007 where he coached numerous teams including Athletics, Swimming, Cross Country, Cricket, Tennis, Football, Soccer and Basketball. He was Director of Sport from 1991 to 1997. During this period he was the organiser of the ACC Swimming Carnivals 1993/4 and the ACC Athletics Carnivals 1996/9. His highlights of this time include being involved with the highly successful DLS Athletics teams that won the ACC Championships from 1993 to 2000 and when DLS won the three major Carnivals, ACC Swimming, Athletics and Cross Country in 1993.

Since moving to St Bede’s in 2007 he has again taken on the position of Director of Sport, a role that he finds challenging and rewarding. He has watched the ACC expand and evolve over 30 years and has thoroughly enjoyed his involvement with the many coaches and Directors of Sport from the various schools in the Association.

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EMMANUEL COLLEGE
Carmelo Puglisi

Carmelo has represented 3 ACC schools in Music Events since the inception of ACC Music from around the year 2000. He has taken a major role in yearly ACC events, hosting vocal workshops and band workshops for the last 10 years. He also composed the opening fanfare for the last Hamer Hall concert and was on the Production Team for the event. He is amazingly passionate about the ACC and what this represents across all colleges.

Carmelo has been a strong supporter of the ACC across three different ACC colleges,

1998 – 2002: St Bede’s Mentone

2003 – 2015: St Bernard’s Essendon

2016 – : Emmanuel Altona Nth

Carmelo has been a huge supporter of and instigator of many ACC Cultural events for the ACC in his role and passion for music and the arts.

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ST BEDE’S COLLEGE
Kevin Rafferty

Kevin worked for some twenty odd years at Salesian College, Chadstone, before a transfer to St Bede’s College in 2011. In the early 1990’s Salesian College was part of the EIS competition where Kevin could indulge his passion for AFL by coaching the senior team. 1999 saw Revolution, with Salesian, Mazenod and Whitefriars Colleges breaking away from the EIS to become full members of an expanded ACC. This expansion included competitions for the junior boys and an expansion in the sports available for the boys to play.

In a smaller school such as Salesian College, Kevin could not always choose to follow his sporting fancies. There were teams to be coached and only a limited number of staff to get the job done. One had to become an all rounder, a jack of all trades, so he filled the coaching void in a variety of sports.

Highlights of his time in ACC competition include replacement stints in charge of sport, working with ACC legend and personality, Carl Egan, Salesian Sports director for decades. Clashes against St Bede’s folk hero, Peter Wintle in senior cricket and hotly contested, but rarely successful Volleyball encounters against Mazenod College led by Joe Moore.

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ST BEDE’S COLLEGE
Paul Russo

Paul’s involvement started in 1990 with the Senior Tennis team and finished in 2013. In the earlier years, St Bede’s and De La Salle were the top teams and Paul has fond memories of strategic battles with the De La coach every time they played. St Bede’s won a number of ACC titles over the years, but the highlight was in 1998, when they won the ACC premiership, then won the Victorian Schools title. That win gave St Bede’s the chance to represent Victoria in the Australian Schools championships in Adelaide later that year where they finished 3rd winning a Bronze medal. Paul believes that the Senior tennis team was a great way to be involved in the ACC as you are dealing with a number of friendly, easy going kids, who excel at their sport, and he has enjoyed watching their battles over the years.

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Our thanks to the schools for providing background details on each of the recipients.