Their names are in headlines and on social media. Their decisions affect the lives of thousands of athletes. They are successors to icons who once dominated sports in Rhode Island.
Who are the leading sports figures in Rhode Island today? Do we count native sons and daughters who have enjoyed success elsewhere? Do we consider athletes and coaches from afar who have come here and made an impact?
A little of both, I have decided. Who reigns today? Here are my picks.
JOE MAZZULLA
Okay, Johnston’s favorite son does not live in Johnston any longer. So what! He coached the Boston Celtics to their 18th NBA championship last June, right? He referenced his Rhode Island roots often and returned this summer toting the handsome Larry O’Brien Trophy to the State House steps in Providence, didn’t he? He posed for pictures and signed autographs as the local boy made good should.
And the experts who make a lot of money knowing about such things favor the Celtics to do it all again next spring. We’ll see about that. For now, Joe Mazzulla is our No. 1 prominent sports figure.
Think about it. The Johnston kid who starred for a basketball powerhouse in high school, Bishop Hendricken, and a solid program in college, West Virginia, reached the pinnacle in only his second season as an NBA head coach.
At 36 he joins Naismith Hall of Famers Red Auerbach, Bill Russell, Tom Heinsohn, K.C. Jones, and Bill Fitch plus Doc Rivers as Celtics coaches responsible for those banners hanging in the TD Garden rafters.
Stunning, would you agree?
Mazzulla’s star may fade with time — staying on top is harder than getting there —but this fall his is the brightest light shining above Rhode Island and New England.
KIM ENGLISH
Normally the head coach of Providence College men’s basketball would hold the top spot on the list of prominent Rhode Island sports figures. Not this year. Kim English’s Friars were 21-14, 10-10 in the Big East last season, his first in Providence after Ed Cooley had departed for Georgetown. The Friars earned an NIT bid. Good for them. Problem is, we expect more from PC basketball than a bid to the NCAA’s second-tier tournament.
Let’s face it. Ever since Joe Mullaney took the 1960s Friars to the NIT — when it meant something — and Dave Gavitt followed with the Final Four team of Ernie DiGregorio, Marvin Barnes and Kevin Stacom — the Friars have been our pro team. They play in the best basketball conference in the country, call the biggest arena in Little Rhody home and fill the Amica Pavilion at least several times a season. Season tickets are sold out for the third consecutive year.
Managing such lofty expectations on and off the court is English’s challenge. He must recruit in the transfer portal and among elite club programs. He has to keep an eye on high school prospects. He must coach his team in an era when the locker room door is like a turnstile, players coming and going with each passing season. He must schmooze with boosters, deal with what’s left of the media here and scout opponents. It can’t be easy. But he did it in his first year and should continue this season.
English declined my request for an interview, saying through a PC spokesman that he wants the focus on his players, not on him.
TAMMI REISS
Irrepressible Tammi Reiss has revived URI women’s basketball in her five seasons in Kingston. After a 13-16 start in 2020 her teams have posted four consecutive winning seasons and a won-loss record of 93-52. The Rams have won a regular-season championship, and she has been coach of the year twice. That’s the best run in URI women’s basketball history since the program started in 1975-76.
But Reiss is at a point in life — she is 54 — where she doesn’t dwell on the past or look too far in the future. She has learned to lose herself in the moment.
“I have no idea what will transpire in three months the way college sports are going,” she said Tuesday in a phone call. “Right now I am losing myself in this season. We have a lot of new faces.”
That said, her goal remains the same: “Get better from the first day of the season to the last. Compete for league championships and get to the postseason,” she said.
Reiss has done it all in basketball. High school standout in New York.. All-America at Virginia. Brief stint in the WNBA. Assistant coach at several colleges. Assistant coach for the bronze-medal-winning U.S. women’s 3×3 Olympic team. Off the court she has been a motivational speaker, television commentator and camp director. She thrives on helping her players reach their dream, whether earning a degree orf playing pro overseas. And she relishes the challenge of growing the game at the youth level.
“When you’re young, you’re hungry. You want to get to the next level. You want to make more money,” she said. “Now, Rhode Island is my home. It’s where I want to be. It’s where I want to establish a legacy. I’m very happy right now.”
STEVE NAPOLILLO
If you look at Providence College athletics as a business, then Steve Napolillo is the CEO. In addition to men’s basketball, important divisions are women’s basketball and men’s hockey. After years of stumbling about the Big East, the PC women are on the way up under coach Erin Batth. The Friars finished 13-21 last season. Coach Nate Leaman’s men’s hockey Friars have had 12 consecutive winning seasons, highlighted by the 2015 NCAA Championship and a Frozen Four berth in 2019.
Napolillo is perfect for his job. He went to Bishop Hendricken and Providence College. After a stint in merchandising and sales with the Pawtucket Red Sox, he joined PC Athletics in 2004 and honed his skills in fundraising and external affairs. He took over as athletics director in January 2022, upon Bob Driscoll’s retirement.
Last fiscal year, Napolillo’s team raised a school record $10.7 million in donations and $8.5 million in ticket sales. He played a key role in the $75-million campaign to enhance athletics facilities on campus. Last month, he announced PC will add men’s and women’s golf to its lineup, bringing the total to 21 intercollegiate sports.
Steve was out of his office when I called, and we couldn’t connect before my deadline.
THORR BJORN
This is Thorr Bjorn’s 18th season as director of athletics at the University of Rhode Island – trailing only Frank Keaney (36 years) and Maurice Zarchen (19) – and at almost 58 years old he is more excited now than when he arrived in the summer of 2007.
“I would argue that URI is in a great place,” he told me this week.
And so it is. The football team is 3-1, ranked No. 22 in the Football Championship Subdivision and is chasing its fifth consecutive winning season, a rare achievement in Kingston.
“I really believe in [coach] Jim Fleming and turning football around. Coming to Kingston is a lot of fun now with the expectation of winning,” Bjorn said.
Women’s basketball is riding high on four consecutive winning seasons and a pair of WNIT appearances under coach Tammi Reiss. Men’s basketball is a work in progress. The unheralded track program continues to excel. Facilities upgrades have occurred — Meade Stadium has turf and lights — and will continue thanks to a $64-million investment from the state.
The picture was not always so bright. “Within my first year we had a $1-million budget cut and had to eliminate four sports,” Bjorn said.
Now, URI supports 500 athletes in 17 sports. The goal every year is to compete nationally in basketball and for conference championships in everything else. Reaching those goals has become more of a challenge in this era of the transfer portal, NIL money and collectives.
“It’s harder, and it’s only going to get more challenging,” Bjorn said.
MIKE LUNNEY
As executive director of the Rhode Island Interscholastic League, Mike Lunney is responsible for an organization that involves 71 high schools, 61 middle schools, 40,000 athletes and 31 sports.
“It’s lively,” Lunney said Tuesday while driving to a regional conference in Plymouth, Mass. “When I started in 2011, it was much different than it is today.”
Lunney and his small staff still have to deal with perennial issues of rules and regulations, eligibility, transfers and conference realignment. Co-op teams, scheduling out-of-state opponents, sports clubs, gender and even NIL compensation are significant concerns today.
The mission remains the same: providing the maximum number of participation opportunities for kids, supporting member schools and keeping everything in perspective.
“The lines get blurred. People look at college issues, and they trickle down to high schools,” Lunney said,
Without question, the best part of Lunney’s job is championship weekend. The regular season with its ups and downs is history. Playoffs have eliminated all but two teams. It’s one game for the title.
“That’s when we in the office enjoy everything that’s great about high-school sports. It’s 100 percent the most fun time of the season. This is why we’re doing this,” Lunney said,
KEVIN McNAMARA
For three decades his byline and column logo were familiar to readers of the Providence Journal. Kevin McNamara covered everything, and did it well. A Syracuse alum, he even found time to write a book about Big East basketball.
College basketball — especially Providence College basketball — remains Kevin’s specialty.
Since the Journal let him go in 2020 in one of many ill-advised staff reductions, he has re-invented himself. He launched the 401 Podcast during the pandemic, which caught the attention of the folks at WPRO radio. The Kevin McSports Hour followed. Then Kevin McSports online. Now he is on the radio weekdays — 790 The Score from 5-7 p.m. and WPRO from 6:00-7:00 p.m. PC and college basketball are still his strengths, but he follows the other Rhode Island colleges and checks regularly on the pro teams in Boston.
“Once radio happened, I slowed down the podcast,” he told me Monday. “I created this off the brand. So, thank you Providence Journal for giving me a brand for 30 years.”
Full disclosure: Kevin and I were colleagues on the sports staff at the Providence Journal during my 36-year career at the newspaper.
ALSO RECEIVING VOTES
I could go on about locals who have gone on to bigger things. Rocco Baldelli, manager of the Minnesota Twins. Jeremy Peña, shortstop for the Houston Astros. Kwity Paye, defensive end of the Indianapolis Colts. Mike Malone, coach of the 2023 NBA Championship Denver Nuggets.
In the media world, we have locals who have thrived here at home. Frank Carpano has been on the air at NBC 10 in Providence since 1980 and sports anchor since 1984. He has also been the public address announcer for PC basketball at the AMP for two decades. Steve McDonald has been the morning sports guy on WHJY and voice of the URI Rams football and basketball teams forever, it seems. Too bad those URI games are no longer on the radio; streaming only. Bobb Angel, has been the radio voice of Aquidneck Island on WADK for 58 years. Eric Rueb has high schools covered for the ProJo while colleague Bill Koch adds a column to his mix of high school, college and pro sports stories. Brendan McGair is doing it all at the Call & Times.
Finally, Nick Coit and Ian Steele on ABC6, and Taylor Begley and Sam Knox on WPRI 12 work hard and are good at what they do.
