Rhode Island Interscholastic League serves 55 schools

By Emily Cerling

In 1932, the Rhode Island Interscholastic League (RIIL) was formally organized to meet the expressed needs of high schools for a functional sports program that would be governed by a committee of principals. Originally, the league was located in Warwick, Rhode Island. For the past 11 years, the RIIL has been located on the campus of Rhode Island College in Providence. Fifty-five public, private and parochial schools make up the high school association.

Administrative staff

The RIIL consists of two full-time administrative staff members, one treasurer and three secretaries.

Executive Director Tom Mezzanotte serves as the chief adminstrative officer of the League and takes the initiative in enforcing its constitution, bylaws and policies, and in promoting its aims and objectives. He also is responsible for handling finances, correspondence, publications and sponsorship of the League as delegated by the Principals' Committee on Athletics. Prior to joining the RIIL in 2004, he was an assistant superintendent in Providence.

Assistant Executive Director Richard Magarian has been assisting the executive director in the day-to-day operations of the League since 1996. He administers the sports of basketball, wrestling and tennis, and in 2000, he was inducted into the Rhode Island College Athletic Hall of Fame.

RIIL Treasurer Jana Hale is responsible for authenticating official documents and maintaining all financial records. She also serves as the custodian of all League funds, pays all the bills, keeps an accurate and up-to-date account of all financial transactions, and submits books, records and accounts for an annual audit.

Susana Borges, Julie Mancini and Gail Lepore all serve as secretaries at the RIIL. They assist in the day-to-day operations of the organization and support member schools and their athletic directors in the administration of their sports programs.

Governance

The RIIL is administered by a 15-member board of directors. The governing body, the Principals' Committee on Athletics, is composed of either a principal or assistant principal from Rhode Island member high schools. The board meets on a monthly basis, except for July. All meetings are open to the public and anyone who wishes may attend.

Standing committees are appointed by the chairperson of the Principals' Committee on Athletics with the approval of the committee. Standing committees are established for each sport.

Mission

The RIIL has a mission statement, which reads as follows:

The mission of the RIIL is to provide opportunities for students through interscholastic activities and to provide governance and leadership for its member schools in the implementation of athletic programs.

To carry out the mission, the RIIL governs with equity, fairness and justice and strives to treat people with respect and dignity. The RIIL promotes positive activities that support the academic mission of schools and healthy lifestyles. In essence, sports should be fun for student-athletes.

"We are here on behalf of the kids," Mezzanotte said. "We want to maximize their participation in sports and provide an educational atmosphere for them."

The RIIL's mission also concentrates on citizenship. Because sports and fine arts activities provide an environment to learn respect for oneself and others, it also is placed in a very unique context – competition. The RIIL remains strong in its belief that it must promote citizenship in all of its member schools.

Championship competition

The RIIL sponsors 59 state competitions in 26 sports. Eight of the state tournaments are individual competitions, and the remaining are group competitions divided into four different classifications. Alignment is determined by the size of the school, its location and its previous record. However, schools may elect to move to a higher classification.

The most recent addition to the RIIL offerings is cheerleading, which is now represented as a sport and also includes a statewide championship.

Programs

In order to instill wellness and character in Rhode Island student-athletes, the RIIL has identified sportsmanship, character education and leadership among its primary goals. Ethical conduct, integrity, playing within the spirit of the rules and good sportsmanship are important components of every high school athletic program. To enforce these qualities, the RIIL Foundation was established to provide grants to schools for the development of school-based sportsmanship, leadership and character education programs.

Another program that promotes these positive qualities is the RIIL Leadership, Sportsmanship and Character Education Conference. This is a yearly conference open to all coaches and student-athletes to reinforce values such as teamwork, discipline, effort and time management that will enable them to enjoy athletics in the future.

For the safety and physical wellness of Rhode Island student-athletes, the RIIL is in the process of developing the RIIL Wellness Program, which is designed to support the educational purposes of Rhode Island high schools by enhancing the health and wellness of student-athletes. The goals of this program include developing a Student-Athlete Wellness Playbook and a Student-Athlete Nutrition Manual, and scheduling a statewide wellness fair for all student-athletes.

In the four years Mezzanotte has served as the RIIL executive director, he has seen these values in student-athletes increase.

"We focus on sportsmanship, leadership and character, and all of our member schools seem to be actively carrying out these values," Mezzanotte said.

Issues

As budget issues have increased in Rhode Island, the RIIL has had to cut back the maximum number of games in each sport to help schools deal with rising costs in athletics. As a result of those measures, schools have been successful at maintaining their sports programs.

While Mezzanotte is not aware of any schools that have implemented athletic participation fees, a number of Rhode Island schools offer cooperative programs in which two high schools pool their resources together to field a single team. In addition, booster clubs have been able to assist in funding various sports programs.

The RIIL also stresses the importance of quality coaching. The organization wants to ensure that coaches are well-prepared and educated. In fact, the RIIL has mandated that all coaches complete the National Federation of State High School Associations' Fundamentals of Coaching Course to provide a unique, student-centered curriculum for high school coaches. The course also assists them in creating a healthy and age-appropriate sports experience, while coinciding with the academic mission of Rhode Island schools.

The RIIL also attempts to recruit well-qualified and skilled officials to promote fairness and the RIIL conducts an annual evaluation of officials.

As a means of dealing with gender issues, the RIIL and the Rhode Island Board of Officials for Girls' Sports are collaborating to recruit female athletes as coaches and officials. This initiative was also supported by the Rhode Island Interscholastic Girls and Women in Sports Committee.

While eligibility cases have become an issue in some states, Rhode Island has tailored its rules to maintain consistency and fairness for all athletic teams. Since the time those rules were altered, the number of eligibility cases has decreased. The eligibility cases that remain typically deal with transfers.

Emily Cerling is a fall semester intern in the NFHS Publications/Communications Department. She is a senior at Butler (Indiana) University, majoring in integrated communications.