Coach Bill Cute Leads D-R Golf Team to Successful Season

The Dighton-Rehoboth Regional High School Golf Team recently finished a championship season. The Falcons were unbeaten in the South Coast Conference regular season (18-0) and won the South Coast Conference Tournament. This year marks the 13th SCC Championship that the D-R golf program has won.

This winning team also has a winning coach – Bill Cute, who has coached the team for 40 years and shows no signs of slowing down. This was D-R’s 10th South Coast Conference title under Coach Cute’s leadership. Last year they finished in fourth place in the SCC. “Our goal was to get back into the top tier of the league where we belong. I knew that we were going to be better than last year, but I didn’t know we were going to do that well,” Coach Cute said.

The team is consistently one of the best in the conference. “We’ve qualified for the SCC Tournament every year since 1993. Getting to the SCC is one thing, getting to the state finals is something else. This was the fifth time our program went to state finals,” Coach Cute said. The team hasn’t been to the MIAA State Tournament since 1998. They finished eighth out of 13 schools.

In his 40 years, Coach Cute has led the team through many tournaments. Coach Cute started coaching golf at D-R the same year he started teaching at the high school. He was a social studies teacher for 35 years. He retired from teaching in 2008. Coach Cute coached one more season and then retired as head coach after 36 years. He left for four seasons, but then returned after his replacement left for another job.

That was four years ago and the rest, as they say, is history. Now Coach Cute is receiving some much-deserved accolades. Coach Cute was honored in October as “home town hero” by television station WPRI-12 in Providence. “I was amazed. It was a nice surprise. I had a good time sitting down with Mark Dondero at the Ch. 12 studio and having him come down to practice and get some video. I couldn’t be more pleased with the finished product,” Coach Cute said.

The players were very complimentary of their hometown hero coach. “I would describe him as one of the nicest, caring people I’ve ever met. He’s done so much for us, not just on the course, but off the course,” senior Co-captain Mitch Brown told WPRI-TV.

Coach Cute was honored again at the annual team banquet on November 10 sponsored by Hillside Country Club. Hillside is the team’s home course and they host a banquet for the team and their parents every year. This year the man of the hour was Coach Cute. Cute’s family was invited and Superintendent Azar as well as Selectman Gerry Schwall, his wife, Town Clerk Laura Schwall and Selectwoman Sue Pimental were in attendance. “It was a very nice evening. They surprised me. To have Dr. Azar there was very nice,” Cute said. Coach Cute says Hillside Country Club has been very supportive of the team. The club hosts the team banquet for free every year. “We get treated like royalty there. They are so generous to our program. We use the golf course whenever we need it,” Cute said.

Coach Cute also praises his team for their performance this year, especially the eight starters: Sam Taraian, Blake Cox, Jack Chrystie, Co-captain Mitch Brown, Co-captain Jack McGuirk, Ian Sullivan, Adam Housley and Collin Gagnon. He says the team’s success this year was largely because of them. (More details on the players can be found in the box.)

The D-R Golf Team has 18 members. Twelve are regular players and six serve as the practice squad. Assistant coach Dan Demers also plays an important role on the team says Cute. Demers, a foreign language teacher at D-R, volunteers his time working with the new players on the team. “I’m fortunate. He’s done a very nice job working with those kids,” Cute said.

Coach Cute says the secret to this year’s success was the performance and chemistry of the eight starting players. “The improvement of the six starters, plus Colin Gagnon, a sophomore who played well for us and freshman Adam Housley, who was incredible. That was it,” Cute said. Coach Cute praised co-captains Mitch Brown and Jack Chrystie. “They were the best captains by far that I ever had,” Cute said. “The leadership that Jack and Mitch brought every day was a big reason why things went so smoothly for us this year,” he continued.
Coach Cute brings his own brand of leadership to his coaching. He expects more from his players than just a good round of golf. “I’m old school. I believe in manners. I believe in achievement. I believe in appearance. I believe in good behavior. That’s what D-R golf is all about,” Cute said. “You have to do well in school, as well as on the green. If you don’t meet those criteria, you’re not going to play,” Cute said.

Coach Cute grew up in East Providence, where he lived till he was 16. Then his family moved to Rehoboth and he spent his last two years of high school at D-R, graduating in 1969. He lived in different places and returned to Rehoboth in 1995. “I walked out of D-R in 1969 and I walked back in after college in 1973 and I stayed there my entire professional career,” Cute said. Coach Cute said D-R has been a very important place in his life for a long time. Coaching golf is important to Cute, too. “It’s like oxygen to me. I love it. I love it more every year,” Cute said.

Forty years of coaching is quite an achievement, but Coach Cute is looking forward. “I’m going for 50. As long as I can still do it and have credibility with my players, I don’t see why I can’t make 50,” he said.