Old Collegian Mark Sertori (SPC 1967-68) visited St Patrick’s College recently with a box full of some of his prized SPC treasures.
Mark, who was a full-time boarder from Ararat, described having very fond memories of his school days at SPC.
A very talented sportsman, Mark revelled in playing in the First XVIII Football and First XI Cricket teams across his two years at the school.
Mark won the First XVIII W.T. O’Malley Best and Fairest Trophy in 1968, and the trophy and framed photograph have been among his special keepsakes ever since.
However, he decided it was time to donate these keepsakes, along with his football guernsey, school cap, school tie, school vest and First XI Cricket jacket, back to the school recently.
Mark recalled with a laugh that his footy ability had seemingly helped his enrolment back in the late 1960s.
“I was a cousin to Barry White who played for Collingwood. I remembered the interviewer asking if I could play footy, and I was in!,’’ he said.
Mark was described in the First XVIII Football round-up in the 1967 College Annual as a player who could “take punishment and still go on with the game”.
This is clearly evident in the BPS Football group photograph, published in 1968, where Mark is pictured with his face bandaged after suffering a broken nose in an earlier football match.
His physical toughness also rated a mention in the lyrics of a song about the 1968 First XVIII Football Team –
“Ararat, with pride and glory,
Idolises MARK SERTORI,
He gets a knock, he looks half dead,
He’s in again, with bleeding head.”
You can read the full song here
Mark was voted in the best in most of the games in the 1968 season and described as “unusually strong for a winger, whose marking thrilled us many times (and he) played wonderful games against East High School, Monivae, Grammar, and for the B.P.S against the A.G.S.” in the 1968 College Annual.
Mark said he continued playing footy after school, notching up an injury list of at least eight broken noses, broken ribs, broken fingers and broken collarbone before retiring at the age of 31.
Mark was also a consistent and accurate bowler and all-rounder in SPC’s First XI Cricket team across his two years.
After graduating, Mark went to university and became a secondary school teacher, teaching at various towns including Heywood and Ferntree Gully. He is now retired.
