2008 Vocational Service Award

Norman "Bill" Belisle named 2008 Woonsocket Rotary Vocational Service Award Recipient
(As seen in the April 24, 2008 issue of the Valley Breeze) 

     The Rotary Club has selected Normand "Bill" Belisle, legendary ice hockey coach at Mount St. Charles Academy, as its recipient of the 2008 Vocational Service Award, according to club president Kevin McPeak. Belisle has earned a national reputation as the winningest high school hockey coach in the United States. His Mount St. Charles teams hold the national record for winning 26 consecutive state titles. The streak was ended, but Mount rose to the top of the Rhode Island high school hockey world this season, once again taking the state championship and Belisle was still at the helm, assisted by his son Dave. The elder Belisle was born in the Manville section of Lincoln and still lives there. He attended St. James parish school and was a member of Mount's 1948 hockey team. While at Mount, Belisle was a member of both the baseball and hockey teams and during his junior year, the Mounties captured the state hockey championship. A veteran of the Korean War, Belisle returned home after achieving the rank of staff sergeant and married his wife Yvette. They have four sons.
     In 1954, he began his coaching career when he coached the Manville CYO junior high baseball team to the Diocesan, State and New England championships, the first time that a parochial school had attained that fete. Later, he helped organize the Manville Farm League, which is still in existence, and for 20 years, he served as a member of the Manville Volunteer Fire Department. In 1974, Belisle was appointed manager of Brother Adelard Arena, and a year later, began coaching the academy hockey team. He is a recipient of the Rhode Island Schoolboy Coach of the Year Award, is a member of both the Rhode Island Heritage and Woonsocket Heritage halls of fame, and is a recipient of the Cumberland-Lincoln Rotary Club's Outstanding Achievement Award. He was also the first Rhode Island high school hockey coach to receive the Mariucci Award from the American Hockey Coaches Association.