Mount strong
In Mike Macchioni, Mount St. Charles has officially named a sports performance coach.
For years, NorthEast Sports Training and Rehabilitation (NEST) was synonymous with ex-Mount St. Charles hockey stars who sought to keep their eyes on the prize when it came to sustaining their NHL careers.
Brian Boucher put his trust in NEST founder/owner/strength and conditioning coach Mike Macchioni. So too did Keith Carney, Bryan Berard, and Jeff Jillson. Combined, we’re talking 43 seasons of competing against the very best that hockey has to offer.
As the late 1990s gave way to a new century, word of this facility that’s located near T.F. Green Airport became legendary inside the Mount dressing room. To become a pro, you have to train like a pro. What better place to bridge the gap between fantasy and reality than a spot that features an impressive client roster?
“We did a lot stuff with the high school team because of the Belisles,” said Macchioni, noting the program’s longtime father-son coaching duo, Bill and Dave Belisle.
Fast forward to more modern times. Mount St. Charles President Alan Tenreiro was in the market for an individual who could take the services that are typically only seen in professional sports and Division 1 college programs and make them readily available for students who pass through the doors on the Logee St. campus.
Fortunately for Tenreiro, the best candidate proved to be right under his nose. Certainly it helps to have an individual of Boucher’s credentials in your corner as Macchioni – formally the sport performance coach for the Boston Bruins, where he was part of
the team’s 2011 Stanley Cup win – was appointed with the same exact title at Mount prior to the start of the current school year.
“They did a big search and I’m glad they came back and said, ‘Let’s go with the local guy. He’s as good as any of the top names out there,’” said Macchioni during a recent interview. “It was really just a good fit.”
Before the pandemic forced the closing of schools in mid-March, Macchioni was at Mount 2-3 times per week. In addition, Mountie students had daily access to an athletic trainer who happens to be affiliated with his 20-person staff at NEST.
While the hockey programs – the Mount Academy that enjoyed a successful inaugural first season as well as the school’s entry in the R.I. Interscholastic League that ended up sharing the state title with La Salle – were the primary beneficiaries of Macchioni’s guiding hand, Tenreiro stressed that such attention from a respected member of the strength & conditioning field is not limited to those who represent MSC in athletic circles.
“It doesn’t matter if you’re a student or a student-athlete. It’s available,” said Tenreiro. “Mike’s the top expert around here. It’s so good to have him.”
“Hockey was obviously the sport that allowed us to come in, but from Day 1, we wanted to make sure that it’s more than just for the hockey players,” said Macchioni. “Alan was intuitive enough to say that something like this has to benefit the entire school system. All of the teams have access to us. We’re there on a daily basis, but they need to schedule times with us. Once that happens, we give each person a physical test to see where they’re at. Then we put together a program and meet with them again to implement and execute it. From there, they are good to go. They can use the weight room just like anyone else.”
A weight room that, mind you, can be found in the basement of the residence hall that houses members of Mount’s elite hockey program. One of the features is a specialty flooring that allows Macchioni to put the athletes through plyometrics – specifically hopping and jumping activities. Another important feature that per Macchioni makes Mount’s setup so unique among peer institutions is a training room.
“Anyone can go work out and have the benefits of the services,” said Macchioni. “It’s a phenomenal setup. We didn’t have everything in place [before COVID-19 resulted in online learning], but the space and flooring … you’re talking about something that rivals professional or Division I spaces. It’s something you don’t see typically see in high schools.”
Removing hockey from the equation, the Mountie programs that took full advantage of Macchioni’s expertise in training, nutrition, and physical therapy were baseball, track & field, and the Sur la Glace figure skaters.
“A lot of [the Mount] athletes play three sports so it’s difficult for them. They don’t have a true offseason. A baseball player might be playing hockey,” said Macchioni. “It’s difficult to put team workouts together. We’re working with individuals who are in the midst of one season but trying to get ready for the next one.”
The training from Macchioni didn’t cease just because the Mounties are no longer on school grounds.
“We have a robust online training platform that’s feeding workouts to every single student in every single sport. This way, they can follow them even if they’re home,” he said. “It could be running sprints in the front yard or working with weights.”
A Warwick resident who laced up the skates at Toll Gate and Merrimack College, Macchioni provided services out of different gyms and fitness centers before everything was brought together in 1997 with the opening of NEST’s main facility in Warwick. Besides Mount, he also works closely with high school students at Lincoln, Toll Gate, Pilgrim, Moses Brown, and St. George’s.
Additionally, one of NEST’s contracts was with Providence College. When Macchioni was a strength coach at PC during the early 2000s, he worked with Friar hockey players Devan Rask and Nolan Schaefer. Today, Rask is the Co-Director of the Mount Saint Charles Hockey Academy & the program’s U16 head coach. Schaefer comes around as the Mounties’ goaltending coach.
“Every time we turned the corner, there was someone who we had a relationship with,” said Macchioni, whose client roster also includes the Providence Bruins and Brown University. “Maybe that’s just
Rhode Island. I don’t know.”
For all his contacts at the college and pro levels, Macchioni felt a sense of duty when it came to tapping a realm that he firmly believes is crying out for assistance. The acronym SMART – Sports Medicine Athletic Rehabilitation & Training – allows him to go into schools like Mount and setup a sports medicine program that’s similar to what’s available at colleges and in the pros.
“Personally, I feel we’re behind the rest of the country when it comes to injury prevention and performance enhancement at the high school level. Not every school in Rhode Island has an athletic trainer. Every civilized place in the rest of the country has athletic trainers on-site for emergency situations that occur with athletics,” said Macchioni. “Everyone thinks it’s the schools who have unlimited income. With the SMART program, it’s about making it feasible for everyone. It doesn’t matter the space, the budget or their equipment.”
Mount just so happens to be the latest school to believe in the importance in the gospel of athletic performance according to Macchioni.
“For the Mount St. Charles Hockey Academy, developing Division I athletes is the goal. For the rest of the school, it’s more of a safety concern. Injuries aren’t the result of falling down in the hallway. It’s from collisions on the lacrosse and soccer fields or the basketball court. We’re not there for the 1 or 2 percent that are going to be D-1 athletes. We’re there for the entire Mount community.”
“They did a big search and I’m glad (Mount St. Charles) came back and said, ‘Let’s go with the local guy.’”
— Mike Macchioni