Sports Update
Townie Football in New Alignment
East Providence High School football is guided by third year head coach, Jon Stringfellow as they enter the 2022 interscholastic season in a new alignment. Although in his third year of leading the Townies squad, Stringfellow is a veteran of East Providence and high school football, having played and coached at many levels. East Providence has been rebuilding its program, hoping to get back to being one of the premier footballs in the state. At one point, East Providence had the most football state championships but has not won a title since 2006 when the Townies beat Hendricken 35-13 at Pierce Stadium. Before that, the Townies beat LaSalle for the title in back-to-back wins 35-21 and 19-6 in 2002-03 respectively. With the emergence of Hendricken and LaSalle trading places at the top in recent years, East Providence now holds 15 state championships while Hendricken has 17 and LaSalle has 16. Hendricken has won every year since 2010 except in 2017 when LaSalle beat them. The Townies title years were 1943, 1949, 1950, 1953, 1966, 1967, 1969, 1970, 1979, 1980, 1997, 1999, 2002, 2003 and 2006.
East Providence continues to see changes as they will play its second season in their own brand-new stadium behind the new high school. The interscholastic league has also realigned football divisions. Among a growing chorus of schools who believe that the schools who can take players from anywhere in the region have an unfair advantage over schools limited to students within their geographical borders, schools have been shuffled a bit. The new setup still allows the non-public schools to play in the interscholastic league.
The state’s top Division will now include Hendricken, LaSalle, Central and North Kingstown. Division 2 will include Barrington, Burrillville, Cranston East, Cranston West, Cumberland, East Greenwich, East Providence, Mt. Pleasant, Portsmouth, Shea, South Kingstown, St. Raphael Academy, Westerly and Woonsocket. Division II will be divided into 2A and 2B. The new D-2 group includes many schools formerly from D-1 play.
The Townie footballers had a busy summer with passing leagues, scrimmages and weekly weightlifting and conditioning workouts. Coach Stringfellow and his staff are not in love with the current state lineup but are hopeful they can work their way back to statewide prominence.
The 2022-23 football schedule is:
09/02/2022 - Injury Fund at 4:45 pm EPHS at Cumberland High School 4:45 pm
09/09/2022 - Pilgrim High at East Providence High School 6 pm
09/15/2022 - St. Raphael at East Providence High School 6 pm
09/24/2022 - Cumberland at East Providence High School 10:30 am
09/30/2022 - East Providence High at Cranston West High 7 pm
10/07/2022 - East Providence at Mt. Pleasant High School At Conley Stadium 6 pm
10/14/2022 - East Providence at East Greenwich High 6 pm
10/21/2022 - Burrillville at East Providence High 6 pm
10/28/2022 - East Providence at Hendricken 7 pm
11/24/2022 Thanksgiving Day Game - LaSalle at EPHS at Pierce Stadium 10 am
EPHS Basketball has Busy Summer
The members of the East Providence High School basketball team have taken advantage of their brand-new weight room and athletic facilities that the new high school offers. The team has completed a couple of successful playoff seasons and is looking forward to the coming school year. “As summer is ending here the boys basketball team has fully utilized this weight room this summer. We consistently had 10 to 15 guys each morning and went three times a week. Some players without a ride, walked to school from Riverside. The group seems very motivated,” said Townie head coach Joe Andrade.
“These are the things that many people don't see or even understand. The kids worked hard all summer and will look to continue that when the school year starts in weight room. High school basketball is more than basketball we also gain life skills,” added Andrade. The coach explains how he teaches kids to be an advocate for themselves. “I tell them that even at my age, I need to advocate for myself. Nothing is handed to me as I work for everything and they need to advocate for themselves inside and outside the classroom,” advised the popular coach.
Acknowledging that coaches aren’t paid during the summer, Andrade said he still comes in for three days a week conditioning. “I do as much as possible for these kids. We were in a Massachusetts premier tournament and a great summer league in Johnston. We have to keep it going,” said Andrade. The Massachusetts premier tournament was in late June and the Townies went 2-1. “We played very good teams from out of state in that Massachusetts tourney. In the Johnston summer tournament, we made it to the final four and lost out to Central High. We lost a good overtime game to LaSalle and we defeated Hendricken in the last game of the summer season.”
“Individually, Junior Xavier Hazard has become stronger, more confident and you can argue he is one of the best shooters in the state. Senior, Max Collins, had an amazing summer. He is learning to control emotions and be a leader. Senior Will Winfield has worked himself into amazing shape and will be a problem for other teams and Try Rezendes had a good summer also,” recapped the coach. Andrade also pointed out that several younger kids including freshmen and sophomores were involved and looked promising. Townie basketball is looking like fun, both boys and girls. The girls’ team will be profiled in an upcoming issue.
EPHS Boys Soccer Schedule:
09/07/2022 4:00pm vs Moses Brown at Moses Brown School
09/10/2022 1:00pm vs North Kingstown High School at East Providence High School
09/14/2022 6:30pm vs Mt. Hope High at East Providence High School
09/17/2022 6:00pm vs Portsmouth at Portsmouth High School
09/21/2022 6:00pm vs South Kingstown High School at Curtis Corner Middle School
09/24/2022 4:00pm vs Tolman High School at East Providence High School
09/28/2022 6:30pm vs Hendricken High School at East Providence High School
10/01/2022 12pm vs Barrington at Barrington High School
10/05/2022 TBD vs Central High School at East Providence High School
10/08/2022 10:00am vs Central Falls High School at East Providence High School
10/12/2022 6:30pm vs Cumberland High School at East Providence High School
10/14/2022 5:30pm vs Classical High School at Al Morro Athletic Complex
10/19/2022 6:00pm vs Lincoln at Lincoln High School
10/26/2022 6:30pm vs La Salle Academy at East Providence High School
EPHS Girls Soccer Schedule:
09/08/2022 6:30pm vs South Kingstown at East Providence High School
09/12/2022 5:00pm vs Cranston West at Cranston West High School
09/14/2022 6:30pm vs East Greenwich at East Greenwich High School
09/15/2022 7:00pm vs North Providence at North Providence High
09/20/2022 6:30pm vs La Salle Academy at East Providence High School
09/22/2022 6:30pm vs Pilgrim High School at East Providence High School
09/26/2022 6:00pm vs Chariho at Chariho High School
09/27/2022 6:30pm vs Smithfield High School at East Providence High School
09/29/2022 6:00pm vs Barrington at Barrington High School
10/04/2022 6:00pm vs Mt. Hope High School at Mt. Hope High School
10/06/2022 6:30pm vs Cumberland High School at East Providence High School
10/10/2022 6:30pm vs North Kingstown High School at East Providence High School
10/12/2022 4:00pm vs South Kingstown High School at Curtis Corner Middle School
10/14/2022 6:30pm vs Cranston West at Pierce Field
10/20/2022 6:30pm vs East Greenwich High at East Providence High School
10/24/2022 6:30pm vs La Salle Academy at LaSalle Academy
10/26/2022 4:00pm vs Pilgrim High School at Pilgrim High School
EPHS Girls Volleyball:
9/02/2022 6:30pm vs Scituate at East Providence High School
09/06/2022 6:30pm vs Mount Saint Charles at East Providence High School
09/08/2022 6:30pm vs Middletown High at East Providence High School
09/13/2022 6:30pm vs Pilgrim High at East Providence High School
09/15/2022 6:30pm vs Ponaganset High at Ponaganset High School
09/19/2022 6:30pm vs Cumberland High at East Providence High School
09/21/2022 6:30pm vs Exeter West Greenwich at Exeter West Greenwich
09/23/2022 6:30pm vs Portsmouth at East Providence High School
09/27/2022 6:30pm vs North Smithfield at East Providence High School
09/29/2022 6:30pm vs Westerly at Westerly High School
10/03/2022 6:30pm vs Chariho at East Providence High School
10/06/2022 6:30pm vs Barrington at Barrington High School
10/11/2022 6:30pm vs Rogers High School at East Providence High School
10/13/2022 6:00pm vs St. Raphael at St. Raphael Academy
10/17/2022 6:30pm vs Johnston High School at East Providence High School
10/19/2022 6:00pm vs BurrillvilleBurrillville High School
10/25/2022 6:30pm vs Mt. Hope High at East Providence High School
10/27/2022 6:15pm vs Lincoln at Lincoln High School
EPHS Boys Cross Country:
09/12/2022 4:30pm vs St. Raphael, Tiverton & Barrington at Barrington High
09/19/2022 4:00pm vs Moses Brown, Shea, Tiverton, Tolman at Slater Park - Pawtucket, R.I.
09/19/2022 4:00pm vs Shea High School, Tiverton, Moses Brown, Tolman at Slater Park
09/24/2022 9:00am vs many schools at the Goddard Memorial State Park Invitational
09/26/2022 4:00pm vs La Salle Academy, Tiverton, Portsmouth at Tiverton
10/08/2022 9:00am vs Many Schools Invitational at Ponagansett
10/10/2022 9:00am vs Many Schools Invitational at Exeter West Greenwich
10/20/2022 9:00am vs Many Schools Invitational at Burrillville
10/22/2022 9:00am vs Many Schools Invitational at Goddard Park
10/24/2022 9:00am Freshman Championships at Deerfield Park
10/29/2022 9:00am Class Championships at Ponagansett
11/05/2022 1:00pm State Meet at Ponagansett
11/12/2022 11:00am New England Championships at Ponagansett
Girls Cross Country – Check with EPHS Athletics for schedule update
(Other school teams will be profiled in coming issues and online)
Rumford Little League Play Continues
Rumford little league (RLL) continues with post little league tournament play. The RLL 10U team represented well in the annual Joe Charette memorial 10U tournament. With a hard fought 3-0 win which featured great pitching & stellar defense, the team moved on to semifinal action. The team lost out to eventual champions Warwick Continental.
The 12U team started pool play in the Joe Charette tourney with a 1-0 win vs. Silverlake. The team was carried by the outstanding 1 hit 18 strikeout performance of Jamison Sydney. However in follow up 12U action, the team fell 3-0 to Narragansett. The team will move on to playoff action TBD at press time.
In other RLL action, Sean Black pitched a complete game with no walks and 6 strikeouts. He let up 0 earned runs and had Rumford in a 0-0 game in the last inning! With great defense all the way up to the last inning, Rumford fell 2-0. However, they advanced to the playoff portion of the tournament, TBA.
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