After thirty eight years, three months and twenty seven days in public education, Michael O’Brien has retired.
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The deputy principal at Irrawang High School was farewelled on the last day of term three in June.
Mr O’Brien was a teacher at the Raymond Terrace high school for 29 years.
He began teaching life at Dorrigo High School.
After two years of teaching science, geography and sport in Dorrigo, he moved to Nyngan where he stayed for seven years.
Mr O’Brien moved back to his hometown of Raymond Terrace, his young family in tow, in 1988 and took up a position at Irrawang High School as a geography teacher.
Sport, in particular water polo, has played a large role in Mr O’Brien’s life both at school and personally.
After his arrival in Nyngan, Mr O’Brien, who began playing water polo at the age of 15, established a local competition and entered his first ever team in the under-15 Combined High Schools (CHS) Water Polo State Knockout in 1983.
Blacktown Boys High travelled to Nyngan to play the game.
Mr O’Brien also coached the boys and girls’ school teams in both the under-15 and open CHS knockouts.
Back home in Raymond Terrace, Mr O’Brien reconnected with his old water polo club where he had started as a teenager.
He has served in various executive roles for the last 29 years, more recently as president.
Between 2002 and 2010 Mr O’Brien was coach of the NSW CHS Representative Open Water Polo team that competed at the Australian School Championships.
He also coached the Australian School Boys’ team between 2006 and 2010.
During this time the boys annually contested the Trans-Tasman Shield against New Zealand and bi-annually South African School Boys teams.
Every two years an overseas training camp and/or entry into an international competition would be organised, which provided students the opportunity to represent School Sport Australia.
Mr O’Brien was appointed as the head teacher of administration in 2000 before his promotion to deputy principal in 2012.
In 2014, Craig Baumann, then the MP of Port Stephens, presented Mr O’Brien with the Premier’s Community Award for his contributions to water polo as a player, coach and administrator at state, national and international level.
Mr O’Brien plans to stay active in his retirement.
It is nothing for him to have a casual bike ride for 60-100kms on a Saturday morning.
He was known to complete a short daily 20km ride before school.
Mr O’Brien often rides in charity events around the state with his lycra-clad Over the Hill teammates, which he will continue to do.
A spot of caravanning is also high on his agenda.
“We will miss you Mr O’Brien, but we know the link to our school will still be strong as you will continue to enjoy past students meeting you in the street, sharing their successes about their lives, sports, work and families,” Lue Fagan, the community liaison officer at Irrawang High School, said.
“Happy travelling, stay safe and we hope to see you back at IHS, in whatever capacity sometime in the near future.”
