Head coach Colin Smith, second from left, and his Cumberland High wrestling team pose for a team picture with their championship trophy after winning the state title in 2020 at the Providence Career & Technical Academy field house. Smith recently stepped down as the Clippers’ head coach to accept a position as an assistant coach on the Rhode Island College wrestling team.
Cumberland head coach Colin Smith, left, and his assistants, Cody Beaudette, Steve Gorman, and Alex D'Aloisio keep a close eye on a match during a dual meet inside the Clippers' Wellness Center.
Coaches and wrestlers from the Blackstone Wrestling Club take a minute from a workout to gather for a picture. The club called Dean Warehouse its home for the past decade.
The Blackstone Valley Club had made its presence in tournaments along the East Coast for the past decade. In May 2019, they sent a group of wrestlers to the Pop & Flo National Duals at the Lake Placid Olympic Center in Lake Placid, N.Y.
Johnston's Adolfo Betancur, center, who was a three-time state heavyweight champion for Bishop Hendricken High, also wrestled for the Blackstone Wrestling Club and captured a national title in the Senior Division at last year's NHSCA Nationals in Virginia Beach, Va. Joining him for the awards presentation were, from left, Geoff Burgess, Mateusz Kudra, Colin Smith, and Nate Lackman.
Head coach Colin Smith, second from left, and his Cumberland High wrestling team pose for a team picture with their championship trophy after winning the state title in 2020 at the Providence Career & Technical Academy field house. Smith recently stepped down as the Clippers’ head coach to accept a position as an assistant coach on the Rhode Island College wrestling team.
Breeze photo by Eric Benevides
Cumberland head coach Colin Smith, left, and his assistants, Cody Beaudette, Steve Gorman, and Alex D'Aloisio keep a close eye on a match during a dual meet inside the Clippers' Wellness Center.
Coaches and wrestlers from the Blackstone Wrestling Club take a minute from a workout to gather for a picture. The club called Dean Warehouse its home for the past decade.
The Blackstone Valley Club had made its presence in tournaments along the East Coast for the past decade. In May 2019, they sent a group of wrestlers to the Pop & Flo National Duals at the Lake Placid Olympic Center in Lake Placid, N.Y.
Johnston's Adolfo Betancur, center, who was a three-time state heavyweight champion for Bishop Hendricken High, also wrestled for the Blackstone Wrestling Club and captured a national title in the Senior Division at last year's NHSCA Nationals in Virginia Beach, Va. Joining him for the awards presentation were, from left, Geoff Burgess, Mateusz Kudra, Colin Smith, and Nate Lackman.
PROVIDENCE – After spending the past 14 seasons as a coach in the Cumberland High wrestling program, including the past five as the Clippers’ head coach, Colin Smith is taking the next step in his coaching career and returning to his alma mater, Rhode Island College, to serve as an assistant on the Anchormen’s staff.
For the Cumberland resident, the opportunity to coach in the collegiate ranks, and for a program that he wrestled for during the mid-2000s, is truly a dream come true, but it’s also a bittersweet one in more ways than one.
Not only is Smith stepping away from one of the state’s top high school programs, which has captured four state titles since the 2009-10 season, his first with the Clippers’ coaching staff, but he’s also closing the doors to the Blackstone Wrestling Club, which he created a decade ago as an offseason club for middle and high school wrestlers throughout southeastern New England.
“It was a pretty big decision, just because I probably had a little over 100 kids a year in the club,” Smith said. “That club was a big part of my life, and it did so much for so many kids. But I don’t think I could (run the club and coach) successfully. It’s just too much, and with the amount of time that I want to put into coaching at Rhode Island College, I wouldn’t be able to do it.”
Smith took a few minutes last Thursday to not only talk about his decision to close the club and write a new chapter in his coaching career, but also thank several people for their support over the years and their part in helping make his dream possible, from his fellow coaches, wrestlers, and the town’s wrestling community to his family, especially his wife, Laura, and his two boys, Bryce and Cole.
A native of Wading River, N.Y., Smith graduated from RIC in 2009 and has been a physical education and health education teacher at Cumberland High since 2010. He called Cumberland “a phenomenal community, and such a great one to coach in,” he said. “I love living in it, and I’m going to be supporting it as much as possible.”
As for the Blackstone Wrestling Club, Dean Warehouse on John C. Dean Memorial Boulevard was its home for the past 10 years, “and I want to give Brad Dean a shoutout because I appreciated him taking a chance on us and allowing us to start a club there,” added Smith. “That really skyrocketed us.”
And during that decade, “we had over 50 state champions, 30 New England placers, eight All-Americans and a national champion, which is awesome,” he said. “It’s been a good run, and I appreciate it.”
Two people that Smith thanked multiple times as he went down memory lane was former head coach Steve Gordon, who created the Clippers’ wrestling program in 1968 and spent the next 50 seasons as their head coach, and longtime assistant coach Jerred Dean.
“Coach Gordon and Coach Dean have been such great role models to me,” said Smith, who during his time with the Clippers, helped coach 18 state champion wrestlers and 105 wrestlers who placed in the top six of their weight classes at the RIIL championship meet. “They definitely accelerated and helped out my coaching career, and I’m very thankful for that.”
Smith also thanked Steve Gorman “for doing an amazing job as my assistant for the five years I was the head coach.”
At RIC, Smith will join a coaching staff that is led by longtime head coach Jay Jones, who coached Smith during his three seasons as an Anchorman, and includes assistant coach Stephen Masi, a former wrestler for the Clippers who graduated in 2014 and continued his wrestling and academic career at RIC.
“We are very excited to bring Colin onto our coaching staff,” Jones noted in a press release. “His club coaching experience and connections will be a huge asset to the program, as well as working with our upper weights. We look forward to growing the program together.”
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