Meekins taking on new roles
New Davies AD will also coach boys basketball team
LINCOLN – As a first-time athletic director and someone who is giving it a second goaround as the boys’ basketball head coach at the William H. Davies Vocational & Technical High School, Bill Meekins plans to operate within a five-year window.
More specifically, Meekins is on a mission to breath new life into a hoops program that’s won just three league games over the past three seasons.
A veteran health and physical education teacher who to date has already provided 30 years of dedicated service to the school located off Jenckes Hill Road, Meekins hasn’t had to worry about introducing himself to the Davies clientele in his new/familiar capacities. He takes over for Chris Piasczyk, who held the titles of athletic director and boys’ basketball head coach until as recently as this past September. He resigned from both posts.
“It was hard for Chris. He wasn’t in the school and didn’t know the kids,” said Meekins in a phone interview on Monday. “You can’t monitor a kid’s grades unless you’re in the school.”
It stands to reason that Meekins is one the busiest individuals to walk up and down the Davies hallways each day.
“It’s a lot of hats to wear,” Meekins said with a laugh, “but I also know how to delegate and hand out responsibilities. I am surrounded by people who have experience, but they’re also retired and can help me out a great deal.”
Returning as the boys basketball coach was a topic that was first broached to Meekins this past spring at a Davies alumni basketball game that he helped organize. Meekins coached the Patriots as recently as the 201415 season.
“In talking with a lot of folks, they wondered why the basketball team was struggling. They also asked, ‘Why aren’t teachers involved with the kids?’ I said that’s a good question,” said Meekins, who was officially handed the keys to the basketball program two weeks ago. “I then felt guilty because I coached basketball until a couple of years ago before I stopped doing it. I said that I would give it a shot.”
In effort to speed along the rebuilding process, Meekins said he turned to the program’s former highly successful head coach to see if he would return to the Lincoln campus to run summertime basketball minicamps for the current Davies players. Vern Gaskin guided the Patriots for 28 years (1971-2000) and was at the helm for back-to-back Division III titles in 1985 and 1986.
“I came to Davies in 1987. My goal is to return this program to where it once was,” said Meekins. “We had a dynamite program and I’m going to try and have that again before I leave.”
Meekins said Gaskin will be around from time to time this season. Dan Correia, who’s also no stranger to Davies basketball or the R.I. Interscholastic League scene, will also be in the fold.
One of the reasons why the New Jersey-raised Meekins wanted to, once again, immerse himself in Davies basketball stems from making sure his charges remain academically eligible.
“I was discouraged because the kids kept flunking off. At Davies, we have a different policy than any other school in the state. You flunk one subject and you’re ineligible,” said Meekins. “Instead of fighting the system, I realized I had to work with it. Now I stress to the kids they have to pass all their subjects if they want to compete.”
So far, the majority of the Davies basketball players have responsded to Meekins and his tough-love academic mindset. The lone exception is a player who barely missed out with a grade, “that he’s going to remember. He is a player so I’m going to let him practice with the team. He just can’t play until the second quarter is over.”
Meekins assumed the athletic-director reins after the 2017 boys and girls soccer seasons at Davies were already underway.
“It was hectic and I was working a lot of long hours in order to get things organized … bus schedules and everything like that. But it’s all about putting the hours in,” said Meekins. “I have athletics in my background. I grew up on a football field and a basketball court. I also started the soccer program at Davies.
“You’ve got to find something new to keep your enthusiasm. Things can get monotonous after a while,” Meekins added. “Becoming the AD, it keeps me busy. I enjoy the kids and love sports. You need somebody who’s in the school and that’s me. I can connect with the kids and monitor their grades.”