2019 -- H 6154

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LC001846

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     STATE OF RHODE ISLAND

IN GENERAL ASSEMBLY

JANUARY SESSION, A.D. 2019

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H O U S E   R E S O L U T I O N

HONORING MOUNT ST. CHARLES ICE HOCKEY COACHES BILL AND DAVID

BELISLE AS THEY CONCLUDE THEIR LEGENDARY COACHING CAREERS

     Introduced By: Representatives Millea, Mattiello, Shekarchi, Filippi, and Casey

     Date Introduced: May 28, 2019

     Referred To: House read and passed

     WHEREAS, Mount St. Charles Ice Hockey Head Coach Bill Belisle will be retiring

alongside his son, Assistant Coach and Co-Head Coach Dave Belisle, after 44 years of incredible

success. Both coaches have had an enormously positive influence on the lives and aspirations of

the countless young men who played ice hockey for their teams; and

     WHEREAS, Head Coach Bill Belisle was himself both a graduate of Mount St. Charles

High School, in 1947, and a hockey player for the Mounties, winning a State Title as a player in

1947; and

     WHEREAS, Coach Belisle began his legendary High School hockey coaching career in

1975 and since has compiled a record of winning and achievement second to no one in the history

of high school hockey in the United States. He won a national record of 26 state titles in a row

from 1978 to 2003, and nine times during that period his teams were ranked number one in the

nation. Overall, he has won 32 state championships and has won more than 1,000 games as head

coach, the most by any High School hockey coach in the United States; and

     WHEREAS, Few high school coaches in the United States can match the ability of Bill

and Dave Belisle to develop players. More than twenty Mount St. Charles ice hockey players

have been drafted by National Hockey League teams, and two have been selected first in the

NHL Draft: Brian Lawton in 1983, the first American to ever be chosen with the number one

selection in the NHL draft, and Bryan Berard in 1995; and

     WHEREAS, More Importantly, Coaches Bill and Dave Belisle believed that developing

good young men to be productive people and citizens was as important as their development as

hockey players. They taught their players the value of hard-work, discipline and team-work, and

showed them that these traits would not only make them better players and athletes, but also

make them better husbands, fathers, workers and members of their communities; and

     WHEREAS, In recognition of his outstanding success and the integrity with which he has

run his hockey programs, Coach Bill Belisle has been the recipient of many prestigious honors

including being inducted into the United State Hockey Hall of Fame, the Rhode Island Hockey

Hall of Fame, the National Federation of State High School Associations Hall of Fame, and the

Mount St. Charles Athletic Hall of Fame; and

     WHEREAS, In a recent touching and emotional ceremony held at Adelard Arena, the

Mounties home ice facility, an outpouring of support came from a capacity crowd as Coach Bill

Belisle and his son Dave were honored in their last season coaching hockey at Mount St. Charles.

Nearly 1,000 attendees, including 90 former Mount St. Charles hockey players, and Belisle

family members all came together to give Bill and Dave Belisle a standing ovation in honor of

their incredible coaching careers and to thank them for all they have done on behalf of the Mount

St. Charles community and for the game of hockey; now, therefore be it

     RESOLVED, That this House of Representatives of the State of Rhode Island and

Providence Plantations hereby honors and congratulates Bill and Dave Belisle as they conclude

their incredibly successful coaching careers; and be it further

     RESOLVED, That the Secretary of State be and hereby is authorized and directed to

transmit duly certified copies of this resolution to Mount St. Charles Boys Ice Hockey Head

Coach Bill Belisle, and Co-Head Coach Dave Belisle.

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