Central Legacies
We’ve all seen the countless athletic trophies, the academic “Top Ten” plaques, the cast and crew photographs of musicals past, and the names written in textbooks from years ago. But who are the people behind these pieces of Aurora Central history? Who lived the lives that left these things behind?
The forty years of Aurora Central as a school community are rife with legacies: the legacy of an exceptional Catholic education to its students and the legacy of school pride and leadership for the future that these students leave behind for future Chargers.
ACC alumni pursue various futures. We have business owners, doctors, and lawyers. Some became teachers. Some became coaches. Some became police officers. And one is even Father Etheredge’s assistant.
We see him every day at lunch, and he brings genuine Central pride to the pep rallies. He’s a police officer and a proud graduate of our school. Officer Mike Carrasco says that his experience at ACC made him truly appreciate that his mother thought enough of him as a son and wanted better for him that she sent him to Catholic schools. He says that being a student at Central, working hard to succeed, really molded him into who he is today. He was involved in football and wrestling, and he loved the rivalry with Marmion Academy that is still a tradition for Chargers today. For current Central students, he advises, “If you want anything in life, you have to work for it. The harder you work, the more you appreciate it. There are no handouts in life; it’s up to you… The sky’s the limit.”
She’s Father’s assistant extraordinaire, head of the Prom Committee, and an ACC alumni. In her time at Central, a period she describes as being full of great memories, Mrs. Peggy Smith was involved in volleyball, basketball, and the very first girls’ track team. She has wonderful memories of the pep rallies; she says they were LOUD and had “enthusiastic, emotional speeches that got people revved up and excited to be part of the ACC community.” Like today, there were no seats at basketball games! She says that it’s great to be back at ACC, that it gives her a different perspective. She encourages current ACC students to get involved—- by doing so, she made the memories and great friends that she still has today.
He was the lead in the school musical two years in a row (Carnival and Music Man), a captain of the football team, one of the three members of the 1969 Glee Club, and a member of the band, which played at school dances.. He is Vince Bellafiore, a 1969 graduate of our school who experienced the transition from the all-boys Roncalli to the coed and unified Aurora Central Catholic. He says that there was a lot of excitement to be part of the beginning of our school, to be in a new environment. One memory that really jumps out at him is when the Prom’s theme was “Bridge Over Troubled Water” and the school had an actual pond on the gym floor for it. The pond broke, and I can attest that the floor in the old gym is still damaged! He says that Central provided the foundational Catholic education that keeps people grounded, that it tells you when you have strayed too far. Mr. Bellafiore is the LEAD program director at Marmion Academy, and he says to current Central students, “You have to lead yourself before you lead others. Spend time to know who you are and be true to the principles you have been taught.”
Ray Villa, Coach V to Central cross country and track runners, remembers being on the varsity cross country team (as was his brother, Alex, who still holds ACC’s 3 mile record) in 1994 that qualified to the state meet and did both the school and his coaches, Troy Kerber and Karl Regnier, proud. His senior year, he was a member of the relay team that took 3rd place at the state meet in track. These experiences as a student-athlete at ACC taught him, “You get what you put into whatever it is that you are involved in. If you work hard and put forth the effort, YOU WILL SUCCEED!” Now, he is a full-time coach for Central’s cross country and track teams, a personal trainer, an employee at All In Fundraising (which raises money for Chicago charities), and a student at Waubonsee Community College, as he pursues his goal of being a junior high math teacher in the near future. He tells Central students now to “work hard every day and to strive to be the best you could be. We live in a tough and demanding world, so take your education seriously and take advantage of the opportunities your parents are providing you with.”
ACC alumni positively contribute to their communities and attribute good memories and experiences that prepared them for life to Aurora Central Catholic. Even recent alums have expressed already that ACC prepared them for the college educational experience with the block schedule and the opportunity to socialize with a wide variety of people.
What is your legacy to Central? What have you learned from the legacy that is our school, and what will you leave behind for the people that will follow? We have athletes, dancers, singers, actors, academics, leaders, and so many bright personalities that fall into several of these categories and more now. Who will you become?
