St. Thomas More football coach to receive prestigious award
By Larry Moko
The Hamilton Spectator (Apr 25, 2009)
A former McMaster Marauder player and assistant coach will return to his old stomping grounds next week to receive a prestigious football coaching award.
Claudio Silvestri has been selected by Mac as the 2009 Golden Horseshoe Football High School Coach of the Year.
The presentation takes place Thursday during the 12th annual McMaster Football Gala Dinner at the David Braley Athletic Centre.
Silvestri, 42, has served as head coach of the St. Thomas More Knights senior team for the past 11 years. His squads have won three consecutive Hamilton Catholic league titles.
In 2006, Silvestri became the first Hamilton coach to win the Golden Horseshoe Bowl under the new OFSAA Bowl format.
In 2007, he guided the Knights to a second straight Golden Horseshoe Bowl and was the winner of the fourth annual Wismer Award for high school coaching excellence.
At Mac, Silvestri played from 1986 to 1989 for head coaches Bernie Custis and Steve Bruno. He then returned to the Ontario University Athletics school in 1996 as an assistant to Al Bruno.
"Claudio is a very deserving winner," Marauders head coach Stefan Ptaszek said of the lifetime achievement award. "In recent years St. Thomas More has been one of the best programs in the nation, producing athletes of the highest level."
Silvestri's teams at Mac only made the playoffs once. In his final season with the Maroon and Grey, he won the Special Teams Award, proving you don't have to be a star player to become an outstanding coach.
"In fact," Ptaszek said, "the sacrifices and things you do as a role player often make those types of athletes better coaches because they aren't selfish. They're used to not being the star."
There are four of Silvestri's former More players on the Mac roster. They are John Hornby, Jason Medeiros, Jesse Montani and Elliot Hudecki. As part of the Coach of the Year award, the St. Thomas More football team will receive $1,000 in football equipment from T. Litzen Sports.
Tickets for the gala -- reception at 5:30 p.m., dinner at 7 p.m. -- are available for $125 on the McMaster website at www.marauders.ca or by phone at 905-525-9140, ext. 24464.
lmoko@thespec.com