Bill Belisle never sought the spotlight while becoming one of the most successful hockey coaches in America, so he would be embarrassed by the outpouring of sympathy, respect, admiration and, indeed, love upon news of his death Wednesday at the age of 92.
Bill coached hockey at Mount St. Charles Academy in Woonsocket for 44 years. He took a program teetering on the brink of mediocrity in 1975 and built a dynasty that will never be matched. Mount St. Charles won 32 Rhode Island State Championships with him behind the bench. His teams won 26 consecutive state titles from 1978 to 2003, a streak that put the small Catholic school in the decaying mill town at or near the top of national rankings for years.
After a four-year “drought” during which Toll Gate and Bishop Hendricken each won consecutive championships. Mount St. Charles returned to the summit with six titles in seven seasons from 2008 to 2014. Bill retired after the 2019 season, shortly before Mount opened its hockey academy. His teams had won 1,000 games, and he had been inducted into the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame.
Bill’s players went on to skate in college, in the Olympics, and in the National Hockey League. Goalkeeper Brian Lawton in 1983 became the first American selected with the top pick in the NHL draft. Defenseman Bryant Berard was the overall first pick in the 1995 draft. Twenty Mounties signed NHL contracts. Other alums became hockey coaches.
Nobody saw that coming. Normand “Bill” Belisle was born in the Manville section of Lincoln, graduated from Mount St. Charles in 1948, enlisted in the Army, fought in the Korean War, returned home to work and raise a family of four boys with his wife Yvette. In 1974 Mount St. Charles hired him to manage the school’s ice rink, Adelard Arena, and assist with the hockey program. He became head coach for the 1975-76 season, and two years later the streak began.
Richard Lawrence, athletics director, coach and English teacher at Mount St. Charles for 50 years, marveled at title upon title. The Mounties found a way to win whether they had the best talent or not.
“During that time I often wondered how all of this could be actually happening. I often wondered that there had to be some secret to this incredible success,” Lawrence wrote in an email.
“And always, as I searched for that key, I would fall back to some of the qualities that this man carried throughout his life — devotion to his God, devotion to his wife and sons and devotion to the young men that came to him to learn the game of hockey. And I do not use that word ‘devotion’ lightly.”
Joe Cavanagh, a star on the Cranston East state championship teams of the mid-1960s, an All-America at Harvard and a volunteer assistant coach at Toll Gate High School from 1995 to 2001, saw the same qualities from across the ice.
“Bill Belisle was deeply committed to his family and his wife, and he had great faith in God. He was French-Canadian. He was old school. He was faith, family and hard work,” he told me Thursday. “What Bill Belisle brought was amazing intensity and competitiveness to the game and his team. He was the best I’ve seen in getting the most out of his players. . . . He was very good at getting the average journeyman players [to] almost perform beyond their skills.”
Bill Belisle’s practices were legendary for their intensity, but few outside the hockey program saw them because he locked the doors to the rink.
“His kids were in good physical condition, and they played hard. The pace of their game was a frenzy. You’d watch them play and say they must practice at that high rate of speed. I think he worked his kids hard. He never had them let up or take a day off. You don’t find that intensity in every coach,” Cavanagh said.
Bill and his son, David, who joined him on the bench in 1981, had the benefit of Mount’s Adelard Arena and, being a private school, the ability take players from anywhere. Goaltender Garth Snow, for example, came from Wrentham, Mass. He won Rhode Island championships, an NCAA national championship at the University of Maine, played on the U.S. Olympic team in 1994, and played for five NHL clubs.
But the Belisles also benefitted from local talent. Some became stars.
“How do you get Brian Boucher and Bryan Berard to grow up in your city,” Cavanagh asked with a laugh. Boucher and Berard were teammates at Mount, and Boucher was the 22nd pick in the 1995 NHL draft after Berard went first.
Most became all-important role players, as freshmen learning the Bill Belisle way of doing things, growing in the system and then passing the lessons on to the next generation, as Cavanagh put it.
Opposing coaches, players, and fans have grumbled about the advantages Mount St. Charles, Bishop Hendricken and La Salle Academy enjoy as private schools, but in the end they respected the Belisles for their approach to the game and their integrity. Mark Divver, former assistant sports editor at The Providence Journal and a contributor to the New England Hockey Journal, recalled opponents lining up in front of the Mount bench to shake Bill Belisle’s hand after a game.
“I’ve never seen that,” Divver told the Hockey Journal. “They all wanted to win those games just as badly, but when it was over, they had so much respect for the man that they lined up and showed their respect. That is one more thing that gets to the heart of what he meant.”
Bill Belisle was more than a hockey coach. He was a role model, mentor, friend. Bill was never about Bill. He was all about others.
“Bill Belisle was a 2nd father to so many at Mount St. Charles,” Lawton tweeted. “I could never list here all the things he taught so many of us. I feel blessed to have known him. RIP my friend!”
Mount St. Charles honored Bill Belisle on his 1,000th victory with a ceremony at the packed Adelard Arena. Before the event Richard Lawrence sat in Bill’s office in the locker room and listened to his old friend reminisce.
“There were times during that talk when he choked on his words and tears welled up in his eyes,” Lawrence wrote. “It was at this moment when I discovered something that I had been searching for for the many decades that I had known him and worked with him. That it was love that drove him. Yes, love for his God, love for his family, love for his school, love for the game, and love for his many players.
“I feel fortunate to have witnessed the power of this love — a love that could move mountains. I feel fortunate to be able to say that he was a dear friend and that I will miss his presence in my life.”
