![]() They did the right thing.”Īs time went on, he became more involved in the athletic program at the high school, serving as junior varsity coach of the baseball and basketball teams for years before getting the nod as the head coach.Īnd as time went on, it became clear that DeMeo was going to have no problem continuing Johnston’s strong legacy in both sports. At the time, I always thought I should have gotten more at-bats, but then you look back. “I was like the 13th guy on a 14-man team,” DeMeo joked about his baseball career. While at the school, DeMeo played junior varsity basketball and varsity baseball. He was the senior class president in 1969. It’s not as though DeMeo was new to Johnston, however. I’m not a teacher or anything, and coming from the outside, he trusted me with his legacy, basically.” He entrusted me with this job, and he had faith in me. “He’d be very proud of what we accomplished the last few years. Smith, I wouldn’t even be here,” DeMeo said. Smith was instrumental in DeMeo taking over as head coach in both sports. However, DeMeo forgot to mention longtime Johnston coach Bob Smith, who coached both baseball and basketball from 1960 to 1989, served as athletic director and stayed on as an athletic administrator at the school until his death in 2009. “Their name never gets in the paper, and they never get quoted, but they do all the dirty work and they do a lot of preparation and scouting.” “They do a lot of work that nobody sees,” DeMeo said. Without both Ed Bedrosian, his basketball assistant, and Brian Iafrate, his baseball assistant, he doesn’t think any of the success would have been possible. We have good kids, real good kids, and they want to be good athletes.”ĭuring his speech at the ceremony, DeMeo thanked his wife, athletic directors Gary Mazzie and Ed Di Simone, and his assistant coaches as well. ![]() “The Isaac Medeiros’s and the Ryan Geraghty’s and the Gian Bianchi’s and the Chris Pistacchio’s, I’m very lucky. “The bottom line is that when you receive an award like this, you have talent,” DeMeo said. Then, in the spring, DeMeo pioneered the baseball team to a 16-2 record – the best in all of Division II – and the school’s first baseball state championship since 1995.īut DeMeo, who has been coaching the basketball team for seven years and the baseball team for six, was quick to deflect the praise on to the players who made the successful seasons possible. It was a very formal type atmosphere.”Īnd it was well-deserved, given the success of both the teams DeMeo coached this past season.įirst, in the winter of 2011, he led the basketball team to a 17-1 regular season record and the Division III-North crown. But the night of the dinner, it was very special. “At first, it didn’t really dawn on me how important it was,” DeMeo said on Tuesday. It’s not an honor to be taken lightly, and DeMeo certainly didn’t. The award spans across all interscholastic league sports, and is reserved for just one coach among all of Rhode Island’s schools. Two weeks ago, he added another memory that made it even more special.ĭeMeo, the head coach of the Johnston High School boys’ basketball and baseball teams, was honored by the Rhode Island Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association at a banquet at the Crowne Plaza Hotel on April 3 as the state’s Male Coach of the Year. ![]() It does not store any personal data.Steve DeMeo couldn’t forget 2011 if he tried. The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance". This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary". The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other. The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional". The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics". These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly.
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