• 2016 CoSIDA Special Awards general announcement/release
• Special Awards feature story schedule
by Jim Seavey, Massachusetts Maritime Director of Sports Information
Bernie Cafarelli recognited by Notre Dame colleagues and student-athletes prior to leaving her alma mater for her new American Athletic Conference position this spring.
“I couldn’t have built this program without you.”
Those words spoken by University of Notre Dame Head Men’s Basketball Coach Mike Brey to his team this past January weren’t directed toward a specific player or one of his assistants.
They were directed toward Bernie Cafarelli.
Brey’s words are truly the highest compliment that any athletic communications professional could ever receive from a coach, and Cafarelli will receive yet another well-deserved honor in June as the 2016 recipient of the Arch Ward Award. This is presented annually to a CoSIDA member who has made an outstanding contribution to the field of college sports information, and who by his or her activities, has brought dignity and prestige to the profession.
Anyone who has ever come in contact with Cafarelli immediately comes away with the feeling that you’ve made a friend for life. That same sentiment is shared by Brey, who fondly recalled his first meeting with Bernie upon arriving in South Bend from the University of Delaware in 2000—a meeting that stretched from a 20-minute “hello and how are you” to a six-plus hour visit that created a lifelong bond.
“Bernie’s so passionate about what she does, and that passion for our program and for the university was something I saw immediately,” Brey said. “I was coming into a new situation, and she was taking the time to educate me about the team and the program, which proved to be invaluable.
“I valued Bernie’s opinion and treated her as if she were one of my assistant coaches,” Brey continued. “She is so
Cafarelli as the Notre Dame men's basketball contact and with head coach Mike Bray, on and off the court.
amazingly loyal to the players, to my staff, to me, and to her alma mater, and I couldn’t have asked for anything more.”
Cafarelli’s journey on the sports information highway began during her undergraduate years at Notre Dame, where she spent two years as a student assistant before graduating in 1983. After earning a master’s degree in sports administration from Ohio University the following year, she served as an assistant at the College of William & Mary before heading back north to accept a position as an assistant director at Providence College in 1987. Bernie served as the Friars’ primary contact for 16 sports, including women’s basketball, and also assisted with daily operations for the men’s basketball program.
A return to her alma mater beckoned in the fall of 1994, and Cafarelli came back to Notre Dame as an assistant sports information director and subsequently earned three promotions, the last to Assistant Athletics Director in 2007. Her impact on Fighting Irish student-athletes wasn’t limited to men’s basketball, as she also served as the women’s basketball contact and assisted in football game-day operations where she continued to make amazing impressions on so many individuals, including one member of the media with whom she has a very special bond.
“Bernie is the sterling standard for what CoSIDA represents,” Hall of Fame broadcaster and longtime CoSIDA Academic All-America® program spokesman Dick Enberg said of Cafarelli, who has been a member of the Academic All-America® committee for the past 28 years and currently serves as it’s co-chair. “She is a conscientious, caring and creative force who tirelessly supports student-athletes and their institutions. I’m very grateful to call her a friend.”
Anyone who has enjoyed such a storied career earns well-deserved accolades along the way, and Cafarelli is no exception. She was inducted into CoSIDA’s Hall of Fame in 2013 and was the recipient of the organization’s Lester Jordan Award, which is presented to an individual for exemplary service to the Academic All-America® program and the promotion of the ideals of being a student-athlete, in 2000.
Yet, it isn’t the awards that make a special individual—it is the relationships she has forged along the way that make a lasting impression.
“She’s such a caring individual—she takes a personal interest in all of my players’ well-being both on and off the court,” Brey said. “I mean, how many SID’s have a team over for dinner at their house? Bernie did—and that created a bond of trust that was so important for our program. She prepared them for every situation they would encounter and made them realize how important it was to represent themselves and the university in a positive way every day.”
Cafarelli accepted a new challenge earlier this year, as she returned to Rhode Island’s capital city to become the Associate Commissioner for Communications with The American Athletic Conference. Leaving her alma mater was undoubtedly a very difficult decision, but the new “Mike” in her life is just as impressed as the “Mike” she left back in South Bend.
“Bernie is extremely well-respected, not only by her colleagues at the institutional and conference levels, but also by national and local media,” American Athletic Conference Commissioner
Mike Aresco said at the time of Cafarelli’s appointment. “Her vast experience, perspective and expertise will greatly enhance our strategic communications efforts."
And so it was on a Friday afternoon in late January earlier this year when Brey gathered his team together so he, and they, could say one last goodbye to someone who had played such a large role in their lives. Here was one of the nation’s most successful and respected basketball coaches paying tribute to an athletic communications professional for all that she had done for him and his program.
But Brey didn’t look at it that way. He was saying thank you to a lifelong friend, someone who he is so happy to receive another well-deserved honor and to whom he paid another amazing compliment:
“Bernie is family to me. I truly couldn’t have done any of this without her.”