Mr Ian Robilliard of Terrigal has received an Order of Australia Medal (OAM) in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List for service to sport as an administrator, coach and competitor.
Mr Robilliard founded the Central Coast Academy of Sport in 2003 and has been its Managing Director since then.
He has also been the Managing Director and a Board Member of the Gold Coast Academy of Sport since 2009, which he helped to set up with a very similar business model to the successful Central Coast Academy.
Mr Robilliard said he is still committed full-time to the Central Coast Academy.
He described himself as a sports tragic, having played Rugby Union and Basketball as a child.
In his teens, Mr Robilliard was a member of the Australian Olympic Basketball Squad and, although he missed out on Olympic team selection, he did represent Australia in a test match in 1981.
Professional basketball sustained the young Ian Robilliard, first in Sydney as a player for the City of Sydney, a foundation NBL club, then for the Newcastle Falcons from 1981 until 1986, including four years as captain.
Mr Robilliard managed to complete his qualifications to become a PE teacher while playing professional basketball.
He then returned to Rugby Union as a First Grade Player for Parramatta Two Blues in the NSW Rugby Shute Shield.
When he stopped playing professional basketball, Mr Robilliard worked as a basketball commentator for the NBL on NBN Television.
He became Chief Executive Officer of the Sydney Kings and their Head Coach in 2012.
He had also been Assistant Coach and Co-Captain with the Kings when he played in the team.
He served as a Board Member on the Sydney Kings Foundation in 2013-2014.
Having been a volunteer coach for each of his three sons, Mr Robilliard is still coaching for the Central Coast Crusaders and Central Coast Rebels in the Waratah Championship League.
He was a member of the Mentor Program at the Australian Coaching Council in 1999.
Mr Robilliard also had a period of professional involvement in golf, as Chief Operating Officer for the Professional Golfers Association of Australia.
He also served as its National Education Director, a Member of the Junior Golf Advisory Panel, and a Member of the Golf Management Committee at the Australian Institute of Sport.
Mr Robilliard founded the Donnica Clarke Foundation in 2007 and served as a director until 2016, after Ms Donnica Clarke, an elite athlete, fell to her death in Terrigal.
The Foundation is now able to support 15 young athletes each year with scholarships using interest from invested funds.
Mr Robilliard has been Chairman and a Board Member of the Regional Academies of Sport Inc. since 2005.
“I have always said that it is the people you meet along the way when you are involved in team sport that are the best part of it, you basically make friends for life,” he said.
He congratulated the other Central Coast OAM recipients, two of whom he said he knew personally.
As to whether or not the award had changed his life, “I was still out coaching last night,” he said of his volunteer role with the Central Coast Crusaders basketball side.
Source:
Interview, Jun 14
Ian Robilliard, Terrigal
Media release, Jun 5
Kaye Browning, Office of the Australian Governor General
Jackie Pearson, journalist