Former teacher and rugby coach was real ‘diamond’
TRIBUTES have been paid to a ‘diamond’ former teacher and rugby coach.
Phil Sterio taught at Dunvant Primary School for many years, where he was also sports master and took responsibility for coaching its boys rugby. He also used those skills to coach the village’s first team rugby side.
He died aged 65 after an illness, details of which have not been disclosed. Mr Sterio was married to wife Judith and they shared three children, Tracy, Dean and Jamie.
Dunvant RFC has since paid tribute to him. In a statement they said: “Phil Sterio was one of the most loved people in the club, taking part in most things in our club. He was a senior teacher in Dunvant Junior School and was also sports master. He helped our junior section by advising the children to come and play for Dunvant, this helping the junior section no end.
“Phil bore his illness as he played his rugby – with courage. Our thoughts go out to Judith and the family”.
Mr Sterio was forwards coach with Dunvant RFC in the mid-nineties, and returned as head coach in the early Noughties.
Club secretary Paul Loughlin added: “Phil was an excellent coach for the first team, but he also did a lot for the youth players too. He taught my own son, and everyone thought of him as a very nice man. He was a dedicated coach and a true Dunvant supporter. He would do anything to support the club. He enjoyed the club quizzes, even if he didn’t always get the answers right!”
Long-term colleague at Dunvant school Karen Williams said the current headteacher, Kerry Thomas, was planning a permanent memorial to Mr Sterio in the school gardens.
She added: “Phil was an exceptional and muchloved friend, colleague and teacher who dedicated 36 years to teaching
at Dunvant Junior School (later to become Dunvant Primary). Whether he was teaching in his classroom, or coaching rugby on the playing field, his passion for what he did inspired generations of young people and he is remembered with huge respect and affection.
“Everyone seems to have a special memory of Phil. Younger colleagues have recalled the many and varied ways in which he helped them as they started their careers, former pupils remember the teacher who knew every child’s name and could hold you captivated with his story-telling and would make learning exciting and memorable (like jumping off a table to demonstrate gravity!)
“I worked with Phil for more than 20 years, and I remember him as somebody I looked up to enormously.
“He was a man of great warmth and compassion, and over the years he raised countless funds on behalf of charities such as the Mr X Appeal, a tradition that he would be proud to know we continue. Above all these passions, was his devotion to his beloved family.
“As sad as we all are, it is his family that we are all thinking of and sending our love to at this devastating time”.
Regan Craig was a pupil of Mr Sterio’s back in the Eighties, and went on to be coached by him at Dunvant RFC.
He said: “When I first came to Wales as a child, Phil was my first teacher,
but he became more of a mentor and father figure. I was a bit of a handful growing up but he knew how to handle me. He was a fantastic ruby coach and almost everything we entered we won.
“Phil liked a beer and a chat, and he liked a cigar. He was kind, helpful and would always provide you with a shoulder if you needed it. He was very well respected and an absolute diamond of a man”.
In addition to coaching Dunvant, he also did coaching stints at Penclawdd and Waunarlwydd, where he originally came from and for whom he played No. 8.
He taught at Dunvant Primary School for more than 30 years.
His son Jamie said: “His family was his world. As a husband, father and Bampa he was second to none. As a friend, teacher and coach he was one of a kind. The overwhelming response to his passing shows what an amazing impact he had on so many people. My father worshipped my mother and absolutely doted on his six grandchildren. He was their Bampa and was one of a kind. He would do anything for them, and for us, and for his friends. He was a modest guy who never took plaudits, he was decent and honest.
“The response to his death has been overwhelming which just shows how much he meant to so many people.
“He had been suffering for far too long, but he was a trouper right to the end.”