St. Mary’s Varsity Club inducts 12 new members
Ten standout athletes, one coach and a state championship team were inducted into the St. Mary’s Varsity Club Thursday in a ceremony at the Tony Conigliaro ’62 Gymnasium at the school.
The 2025 Varsity Club inductees are: Todd Collier ’12, Dick Conway ’50, Tom Dawley ’78, Mark Giardina ’87, Jennie Mucciarone ’14, Michael O’Shea ’78, Brianna Rudolph ’14, Ray St. Cyr ’58, Sharell Sanders ’14, Ed Tibbetts ’54, girls basketball coach and athletic director Jeff Newhall ’94, and the 2005 football team.
Collier rushed for 2,046 yards and scored 196 points as a senior in 2011. On defense, he made 110 tackles. He earned Boston Globe and Boston Herald All-Scholastic honors and was named to the All-State team as one of the best 26 players in Massachusetts. He was a three-time Catholic Central League MVP and a Shriners and Agganis All-Star.
Conway was standout in basketball and baseball. After graduating, he signed with the New York Yankees and was assigned to their minor league team in Twin Falls, Idaho. He was the catcher for the Class C Twin Falls Cowboys in 1951, batting .277 with 11 home runs and 35 RBI. In 1951, he was struck by a batted ball during pre-game warm-ups and died as a result of his injuries.
Dawley was football team MVP as a senior when he threw 22 touchdown passes and rushed for 750 yards and was named Daily Item Player of the Year. He was a three-year starter for coach Bob Guidi and a Catholic Conference All-Star as a shortstop and center fielder. He led the league in hitting as a senior with a .509 average, leading the Spartans to an Eastern Mass. title. Dawley was also a league All-Star in basketball.
Giardina was one of the best players on the first of St. Mary’s back-to-back state championship baseball teams in 1987. He was among the team leaders in batting average and RBI along with being an outstanding outfielder and baserunner. He was a Catholic Central League All-Star and a Boston Globe All-Scholastic. Giardina was a four-year basketball player and played goalie in soccer as a senior.
Mucciarone was a four-year starter and played on two state championship basketball teams (2011 and ’14), graduating as the sixth-leading scorer in program history with 1,240 points. She earned Boston Globe and Boston Herald All-Scholastic recognition and was a Catholic Central League All-Star. A four-year starter in soccer, she led the Spartans to a sectional final as a sophomore. She also played softball.
O’Shea was one of Dawley’s favorite targets on the St. Mary’s football teams of 1975-77. A tight end and excellent receiver, he was an outstanding blocker and hard-hitting linebacker on defense. He was a two-time All-Catholic selection, a Boston Herald All-Scholastic and an Agganis All-Star. He was also an excellent baseball player as a third baseman and left fielder who started on the 1977 Eastern Mass. championship team.
Rudolph helped St. Mary’s win two state basketball championships (2011 and ’14) and reached No. 5 on the school’s all-time scoring list. As a senior, she set a single-season record with 526 points, including 31 of her team’s 47 in an upset of top-ranked Archbishop Williams in the state semifinals at Boston Garden. Rudolph was a two-time Boston Globe and Boston Herald All-Scholastic who received a full scholarship and played four years at UMass Lowell.
Sanders was a lockdown defender who also scored 905 career points. A three-year starter and two-time state champ (2011 and ’14), she is the all-time leader in assists, playing a pivotal role in Rudolph and Mucciarone becoming 1,000-point scorers. She earned a full scholarship to Caldwell University in New Jersey, where she started three years and scored 1,165 career points.
Tibbetts was considered one of the two best basketball players in Lynn, along with Eddie Robinson of Classical, who went on to play at Yale. Tibbetts was a three-year starter and All-Catholic selection as a senior, averaging 21 points and leading the team in rebounding. He also played football four years and was the starting quarterback as a senior. He went on to play basketball at Spring Hill College in Alabama and was inducted into the Hall of Fame there in 2011.
Newhall has a career record of 419-152 (.734 winning percentage) with six state championships. He also coached the golf team to a state title in 2006. In the 20 years he has coached the girls basketball team, 100 percent of the graduating seniors have gone on to four-year colleges, with 16 receiving full scholarships to Division 1 or 2 schools. With Newhall as athletic director, St. Mary’s teams have won at least one state championship 18 straight years and 24 state titles overall.
The 2005 football team was the first St. Mary’s squad to win a MIAA Super Bowl championship. Coached by Mike Stellato, the Spartans went 12-1 in 2005, culminating in a dominant 21-0 victory over South Shore Vocational in the Div. 3A Super Bowl. In the championship game, Manny Begon and Stephen Masella scored on runs of 62 and 59 yards, respectively, while quarterback Chris Dwyer added a one-yard TD.
