Bob Bellemore (born October 26, 1940) is a known presence in Rhode Island's

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...

and

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

communities. He is a former standout

goaltender In ice hockey, the goaltender (commonly referred to as the goalie) is the player responsible for preventing the hockey puck from entering their team's net, thus preventing the opposing team from scoring. The goaltender mostly plays in or near t ...

and baseball player for

Providence College Providence College is a Private university, private Catholic Church, Catholic university in Providence, Rhode Island. Founded in 1917 by the Dominican Order and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence, local diocese, it offers 47 undergradua ...

in the

National Collegiate Athletic Association The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

. He has also served as the goaltending coach for the

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

New Jersey Devils The New Jersey Devils are a professional sports, professional ice hockey team based in Newark, New Jersey. The Devils compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference (NHL), Eastern ...

Early life and education

Bellemore was born in

Providence, Rhode Island Providence is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. One of the oldest cities in New England, it was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, a Reformed Baptist theologian and religious exile from the Massachusetts Bay ...

, where he graduated from

La Salle Academy } La Salle Academy is an American private, Catholic all-boys' high school in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York. The school is run by the Eastern North American District of the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools. ...

in 1959. He later attended Providence College. In 1964 Bellemore, then a sophomore, led the Providence College ice hockey team to its first-ever

ECAC Hockey ECAC Hockey is one of the six conferences that compete in NCAA Division I ice hockey. The conference used to be affiliated with the Eastern College Athletic Conference, a consortium of over 300 colleges in the eastern United States. This relati ...

championship and first-ever birth into the NCAA final four. He also starred on the diamond. Appropriately a catcher and third baseman, he played for four years at Providence College, and served as a captain his senior year. A 1984 inductee into Providence College's Athletic Hall of Fame, he is regarded as one of the greatest athletes in the history of Providence College.

Coaching career

Bellemore's coaching career officially began in 1968, when he was named an assistant coach for the Providence College men's ice hockey team. He had been a part-time volunteer assistant for the program previously. He remained an assistant for Providence College until 1986, when he briefly took the title of Schneider Arena Director. In 1987, he left Providence College to serve as the goaltending coach for the New Jersey Devils, a position he held until 1991, when he returned to Providence College to pursue a master's degree in special education. He also re-joined the Providence College hockey coaching staff upon his return, this time as the women's goaltending coach, a post he still holds today. In addition to coaching at Providence College, he helps lead the goaltending segment of USA Hockey Elite training camps in

Lake Placid, New York Lake Placid is a village in the Adirondack Mountains in Essex County, New York, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 2,303. The village of Lake Placid is near the center of the town of North Elba, southwest of Plattsburgh. ...

. He also occasionally provides color-commentary for the PC men when they are televised on Cox Sports Television. After earning his master's degree Bellemore began serving as a special education instructor at

South Kingstown High School South Kingstown High School (SKHS), originally known as the Wakefield High School is a public high school located in South Kingstown, Rhode Island. Approximately 931 students attend South Kingstown High School in grades 9–12. South Kingstown Hi ...

. He is currently employed as a guidance counselor at South Kingstown High School. In addition to his coaching and career in education, he is also a baseball

umpire An umpire is an official in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The term derives from the Old French nonper, ''non'', "not" and ''per'', ...

in Rhode Island, covering games for the

Rhode Island Interscholastic League The Rhode Island Interscholastic League (RIIL) is an organization that runs and regulates interscholastic high school activities in the U.S. state of Rhode Island. A total of 54 public and private schools participate in the league and about 20,00 ...

, the Rhode Island Independent Amateur Baseball League, and other local leagues.

Personal life

Originally a native of

Smithfield, Rhode Island Smithfield is a town that is located in Providence County, Rhode Island, United States. It includes the historic villages of Esmond, Georgiaville, Mountaindale, Hanton City, Stillwater and Greenville. The population was 22,118 at the 2020 cen ...

, Bellemore now resides in

Westerly, Rhode Island Westerly is a town on the southwestern shoreline of Washington County, Rhode Island, first settled by English colonists in 1661 and incorporated as a municipality in 1669. It is a beachfront community on the south shore of the state with a popula ...

with his wife Marguerite. His son Bruce, a 1991 Providence College graduate, was also an ice hockey player for the Friars. Bellemore and his wife are the grandparents of eleven.

Awards and honors

References

External links