The Williston Northampton School is proud to announce that Gene DeFilippo ’69, the director of athletics at Boston College, is the 2010 recipient of the New England Preparatory School Athletic Council’s Martin Williams Souders Award. The presentation was made at the NEPSAC annual meeting at the Best Western Royal Plaza and Trade Center in Marlborough, MA, on Friday, November 19. Williston’s former athletic director, New England Basketball Hall of Fame inductee Rick Francis H’00, presented the award.
The Souders Award is given “annually to a graduate of a New England independent school who made a distinguished record in sports and who since made a distinguished record in life through his/her ideals, leadership and accomplishments.” Past recipients have included independent school graduates such as George H. W. Bush, Sargent Shriver, Michael Eruzione, Dee Rowe, and Bill Cleary.
Since Gene DeFilippo became director of athletics at Boston College in September of 1997, he has led the athletics program through a period of innovation, growth, fundraising, and athletic and academic success. He is credited with spearheading efforts to strengthen BC’s athletics program in a number of areas, including facilities, fundraising, staffing and academic support. He also led the program through its transition to full membership in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
DeFilippo is past president of National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics and is a member of the Board of Directors of the National Football Foundation and College Football Hall of Fame. He is also a former representative to the NCAA Division I Management Council. Past honors include the 2000-01 Division I-A Northeast Region NACDA/Continental Airlines AD of the Year, “Penguin of the Year” from Youngstown State University in 2003, and the Distinguished Alumni Award from Springfield College in 2001.
After Williston, DeFilippo went on to Springfield College, where he earned three varsity letters as a quarterback in football during his undergraduate career. He graduated from Springfield in 1973 and received a master’s degree in educational administration from the University of Tennessee in 1974.
DeFilippo is pictured above (center) with Rick Francis (right) and Mark Conroy, Williston’s current director of athletics and outgoing president of NEPSAC.