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NOEL MUGAVIN

CLASS OF 1973

Recently we farewelled Mr Noel Mugavin after 32+ years of teaching at St Ann’s and Emmanuel College. Noel’s connection to Emmanuel College however, began with his own schooling at CBC.

“I have great memories of the Brothers. Wednesday afternoons was sport. You could play whatever sport you liked. For me it was always football. Each House had a team and we’d spend all week working out the team and how we could beat the opposition. It was great! And the Brothers encouraged the competitive nature of the games.”

Noel recalls, “In those days you played for your school, so I played for CBC Green in U/15s and then onto the U/17s. Then in U/18s I went and played for Port Fairy in the Hampden League. I ended up getting a game for Port Fairy in the seniors. In my second game I broke my arm in two places. When I went to school the next week Br D’Orsa said ‘serves you right for not playing for the school.’ He was a very hard man but a great teacher too.”

While Noel admits that later in his schooling he was often distracted by his interests of football, greyhounds and racehorses, he equally insists that he worked hard at his studies while at CBC. “I did not get the strap once at school.” he firmly declares. “It was a bit of a competition who could get the most straps.”

If you get to know the person, you’ll get things coming back that you never realised. You’ve got to put time and effort into them, trying to find the button that best suits them.

After matriculating, Mr Mugavin was accepted into Bachelor of Human Performance at Melbourne University. These studies proved not to be the right fit for Noel, and so saw other interests take priority. The main one of course being Football. His determination and skill saw him play the game he loves professionally, first for Fitzroy (now the Brisbane Lions), then briefly for Richmond. After suffering a ruptured spleen and having it removed, Noel headed across the country to Western Australia and enjoyed playing for West Perth in the WAFA. Eventually Noel made the decision to return to study. “I had this passion then for teaching. I always thought I’d like to be a school teacher.”

Noel did well at Teachers College, and with the arrival of his first son Benjamin, Noel couldn’t think of a better place to start his teaching career than where he had had his love of school and study fostered - in Warrnambool. So in 1988, Noel relocated his young family to take up his first teaching position at St Ann’s College. He enjoyed it right from the start.

Throughout his time at the College, he has taught Maths, IT, Religious Education and Physical Education, and held many different leadership positions including the Year Level Coordinator for various year levels, and the Head of Middle School. Memorably, his first leadership appointment as Year 10 Coordinator was granted on two conditions laid down by Principal at the time, Br Peter Richardson – no jeans, and wear a tie.

“It was an expectation that he wanted for all the staff. Present yourself well. It wasn’t as though we didn’t present ourselves well, he just wanted us to improve our dress as an example to the students. Throughout that period there was a great changeover from the uniforms from the CBC and St Ann’s into the Emmanuel College. This was just one of the many changes that the school community had to adjust to” Mr Mugavin explains.

While there are possibly as many Noel-tales from students of his Maths and IT classes, it is the stories of his involvement with the Football Academy and Football teams, that he loved so much, that highlight him best.

Mr Mugavin’s most treasured memories of teaching the football academy at Emmanuel will remain the gratitude the students had for the program. “I used to pinch myself how boys after Football Academy would come up and shake your hand. It just gave you the best feeling. They’d shake your hand and thank you for the class – they didn’t realize I got as much out of taking this class as they did.”

Beyond the glory and teachings of football, Mr Mugavin is appreciated for the unique way he had of investing in and building connection with his students. This approach to life and teaching has led to many lifelong friendships over his years in the classroom. Even in the recent three weeks he filled-in at Emmanuel, he made a point of trying to connect and learn something about each of the students he taught. “If you get to know the person, you’ll get things coming back that you never realised. You’ve got to put time and effort into them, trying to find a connection that makes them feel about themselves.” he comments.

Talking to the Football

as told by Noel Mugavin

I’ll never forget that. One of the key learning things in the Academy was for the boys, I always said was, ‘You’ve got to get the ball to talk, for it to do whatever you want it to. You’ve got to have a connection with the football. I am sure they thought I had lost my mind.

This day, we were up on the outdoor netball courts, and I said ‘You should be able to, from one end to the other, get the ball in the ring up the other end.’

For the next 20 minutes or so, there’s footballs going everywhere. No one could get it in.

So I said ‘I’m sick of this, you’re not concentrating. All I want you to do is just hit the backboard. You haven’t got that feel of what you want that ball to do.’

And away they went. Still no goals.

I said, ‘Someone should be getting this in.’ Then they said, ‘You couldn’t.’

I said ‘Give me the ball.’

I went up, first kick and straight in.

So it didn’t matter what I said after that, they believed whatever I said.

Excerpt from the 1995 Annual

Written by then Year 12 students Kristen Gleeson and Brenton Morgan

Emmanuel College’s first game was against the physically strong Brauer College at the Davidson Oval with the Brauer team in front of their home crowd. Emmanuel registered the first two goals of the game under the watchful eye of stand-in coach, Noel Mugavin.

The second quarter started with Brauer in a relentless mood, totally outclassing the Emmanuel team scoring six goals to the scoreless Emmanuel. The boys were taken into the rooms at the half time break and were presented with the ugly side of ‘Mugsy’. When one player offered a word of encouragement ‘Mugsy’ soon let us know who was doing the talking. ‘Mugsy’ reminded us that we were to have ‘pride in the jumper’, dressing down each player individually and alerting them to statistical details.

We started the third term well with a few goals, working hard to get back into the game. We clawed our way to within thirteen points and worked on this in the final quarter, gathering momentum and taking the game to a standard of which we knew we were capable, much to the elation of Noel Mugavin.

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