Belgiovine, O'Neal Honored with NEWMAC Champions of Excellence Service Award
WESTWOOD, Mass. – Former Wellesley College Directors of Athletics Louise O'Neal and Bridget Belgiovine have been recognized as NEWMAC Champions of Excellence Service Award recipients. The NEWMAC is recognizing 21 individuals who were integral to the growth, success and leadership of the NEWMAC's rise to one of the preeminent NCAA Division III Conferences in the country as part of the conference's 25-Year Anniversary Celebration.
Member institutions had the opportunity to nominate individuals for the Champions of Excellence Service Award. The 21 honorees were then selected by the NEWMAC 25-Year celebration committee. A reception to honor the 25 year-anniversary and to commemorate the recipients will be held on Saturday, February 18 at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI). The reception will be by invitation only.
"I feel humbled to be sitting in the chair that these two deserving individuals once occupied," said Bethany Ellis, current Director of Athletics and Chair of the PERA Department at Wellesley College. "The legacies that Louise and Bridget left continue to impact our department and I'm reminded each day, while watching our programs practice and compete and while walking past the banners in the fieldhouse, of the profound impact they had on Wellesley and its student-athletes. While they each led with their own distinctive personalities, their combined contributions were and still are fundamental to Wellesley Athletics."
O'Neal was recognized as one of the Founding Athletic Directors of the NEWMAC. This group of athletic directors were instrumental in the formation of the NEWMAC 25 years ago. The NEWMAC was established in 1998, when the former New England Women's 8 Conference (NEW 8) voted to begin sponsoring conference play and championships for men. At this time, the conference expanded its membership to include Springfield College and the United States Coast Guard Academy, to bring the total number of institutions to 10. The founding athletic directors were: Frank Millerick, Babson College; Linda Moulton, Clark University; Ray Cieplik, United States Coast Guard Academy; Richard Hill, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); Laurie Priest, Mount Holyoke College; Lynn Oberbillig, Smith College; Ed Bilik, Springfield College; Chad Yowell, Wheaton College; Ray Gilbert, WPI and O'Neal.
As Director of Athletics and Department Chair at Wellesley College from 1990-2006, O'Neal oversaw enormous growth and success of the athletics programs and was responsible for the construction of a state of the art outdoor fields complex and the addition of the sports of golf and softball. Wellesley made 16 NCAA Championship appearances during her tenure, with both the field hockey and volleyball teams advancing to the NCAA Division III Final Four. O'Neal was inducted into the Wellesley Athletics Hall of Fame in 2018. She passed away in September 2022 at the age of 83.
Bridget Belgiovine served a 13-year tenure as Director of Athletics and Chair of the Department of Physical Education, Recreation and Athletics (PERA) at Wellesley College. Belgiovine also served as President of the NEWMAC Directors group as well as a member of the Executive Committee and played an integral role in membership expansion and the increase of sport sponsorship to add football to the conference in 2017. Under her leadership, two Blue varsity student-athletes won NCAA Individual National Championships and the crew program claimed the first team NCAA National Championship in school history. Wellesley's teams earned 18 NEWMAC Championships and in 2013-14, the Blue captured their first NEWMAC President's Cup. Belgiovine retired from Wellesley in 2019 and was honored with the Nike Lifetime Achievement Award in 2021 by Women Leaders in College Sports.
The New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference is an association of 11 selective academic institutions: Babson College, Clark University, U.S Coast Guard Academy, Emerson College, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Mount Holyoke College, Smith College, Springfield College, Wellesley College, Wheaton College, and Worcester Polytechnic Institute, that are committed to providing high quality competitive athletic opportunities for student-athletes within an educational and respectful environment that embodies the NCAA Divsion III Philosophy. The conference also partners with five Associate Members: Catholic University of America (Football), Norwich University (Football), Simmons College (Rowing), and U.S. Merchant Marine Academy (Football), while sponsoring 20 sports. Salve Regina University will become the conferences 12th core member effective June 1, 2023 while N.Y. Maritime will be joining as an Associate Member in football.