The following eleven (11) distinguished athletes, coaches administrator and sportscaster were inducted into the Rhode Island Interscholastic League High School Athletic Hall of Fame Class of 2012 on Wednesday, May 2, 2012 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Warwick, Rhode Island.
James Adams (Posthumous)
Jimmy Adams and great basketball history are synonymous in Rhode Island. The coach, who died in June of 2009 at the age of 73, piloted the Central High Knights for 12 years (1960-72), which included the era of super-star center Marvin Barnes. Under Adams, Central made the state playoffs eight of those dozen seasons, including two consecutive undefeated seasons and four state titles in a row. But basketball wasn’t Adams’ only metier. He briefly coached football at Hope High in the early 1960s, and later embarked on an eight-season career at Central. During that period, the Knights won two state championships in Class B.
Bobb Angel
For an astonishing 44 years - in drafty press boxes, on cold baseball and softball fields, in noisy gymnasiums (on one occasion perched on the roof of a school bus!) Bobb Angel has broadcast high school football, basketball, softball and baseball games throughout Aquidneck Island for Newport radio station WADK-AM. (He also covers nighttime games on WJZS-FM). With unwavering enthusiasm and steadfast objectivity, Angel has described innumerable school contests, as well as occasional collegiate football, basketball, softball and baseball games played at Newport’s Salve Regina University.
Robert "Bob" Bellemore
Bob Bellemore’s resume affirms his status as a protean sports figure. He was an All-State athlete in high school, and a standout in college. He’s been a coach, teacher and a Hall of Fame baseball umpire. A 1959 La Salle Academy graduate, Bellemore earned Providence Journal-Bulletin All-State honors as a goalie on the Rams’ hockey team, and was an All-State catcher on the school’s baseball squad.
Edward DiSimone
As an educator, coach and administrator, Ed Di Simone has been the face of Johnston High School for half a century. He began at the school as a physical education teacher in 1960, and served as athletic director for 29 years. Di Simone was the Panther baseball coach for 10 seasons, winning four divisional titles. His ‘63 Panthers captured the state championship. He also coached the school’s football forces for three seasons (1961-64).
Paul Donovan
Over the span of an amazing 44 years (1957-2001), a generation of Rhode Island high school baseball players have benefited from the knowledge of the quiet and unassuming Paul Donovan; a “gentleman coach’’ in the truest sense. A La Salle graduate, where he ran track and played baseball, Donovan earned Providence Journal-Bulletin All-State accolades in both areas. After graduating from RI College (Class of ‘51), Donovan played professional and semi-pro baseball for 13 seasons, interspersed with four years’ service in the U.S. Marine Corps.
Robert E. Doyle (Posthumous)
If the description “running legend’’ has any validity at all, it must apply to the late Bob Doyle. He was a local product whose fame went beyond Rhode Island borders. A graduate of Hope High School, Doyle was an All-State cross country and track star for the Blue Wave under legendary coach Ted Mc Laughlin (for whom he also ran in college). Doyle coached at Woonsocket High, where his 'Novan harriers won the 1996 state title. Doyle, who died in 2007 at the age of 58, excelled not only in college, at the University of Texas/El Paso, but in the great international event known as the Boston Marathon. He was a member of the UTEP cross country team that won the 1969 NCAA Division I championship, and earned All-American honors in the process.
Kathleen E. Hazard
Though she never had the opportunity to compete in high school sports (she graduated before the inception of girls’ programs), Kathy Hazard nonetheless left an indelible mark on female student/athletes at Coventry and Ponaganset Highs. In fact, she started three Chieftain teams that, theretofore, hadn’t existed. Hazard piloted girls’ track at Coventry for three years in the 1970s. She then coached girls’ track and cross country and gymnastics at Ponaganset from 1975 through the ‘80 season. In 1978, Hazard approached the Foster-Glocester Regional School Committee about forming a girls’ volleyball program at the high school, and initiated Chieftain girls’ and boys’ tennis. She is also responsible for beginning a state junior varsity tennis tournament for boys and girls.
Kevin Jackson
Kevin Jackson’s involvement with track and field dates back to high school, where he was a successful runner at Pilgrim. That initial encounter with the sport turned into a life-long passion that has included coaching, and the formation of the Providence Cobras Track Club. Jackson was an All-State and All-New England harrier at Pilgrim and was a member of the 1976 team that won the New England cross country title. Jackson is also a former highly successful cross country and boys indoor and outdoor track coach at Hope High School.
Bernard Thomas "Slick" Pina
In the Jack Cronin era of La Salle Academy football, one of the noteables was Bernard “Slick’’ Pina. A three-year varsity starter for the Maroon, Pina was a Providence Journal-Bulletin All-State halfback, and team captain in his senior year. During that season (1949), he was considered one of the state’s most dazzling runners.
Domenic "Zip" Raiola
Generations of young basketball players have come under the tuterage of Dom “Zip’’ Raiola, the legendary Bristol and Mt. Hope High coach who amassed 500 career wins. "Zip" coached his teams to a championship in an amazing five different decades. He began coaching when Eisenhower was in the White House, and from that 1953 jumping-off point, coached at Bristol High for 25 years, with a seven-year hiatus. During that time Raiola served as an assistant to Joe Mullaney at Brown University and Providence College.
Roland Rodrigues
Rodrigues was one of the most successful athletes and coaches in Bristol high school history. A football standout while at Colt in the late 1950s, Rodrigues was a Providence Journal-Bulletin All-State halfback. He continued his football career at URI and then returned to Bristol high as a teacher and legendary wrestling and football coach. Roland is also a member of the RI Football Coaches Association and Bristol Athletic Halls of Fame.
