NK native takes on coaching role with Rhode Island FC
NORTH KINGSTOWN – If you’re a sports fan in Rhode Island, your teams usually come from either Boston or New York. That fact makes for the whole appeal of the new Rhode Island soccer team (RIFC) that debuted last weekend – it belongs to this state. While players on the team come from all over, one piece of the puzzle comes from South County: Matt DelGreco, a 2014 graduate of North Kingstown High School and 2018 graduate of URI who now serves as Director of Sports Performance for RIFC. DelGreco started the role in January. His job is to oversee the club’s sports performance programs and get players 8-6mentally and physically preandpared for games, as well as infocusing on fatigue recovery. on His path of growing up in seasonRhode Island and having a career in sports while staying in-state is relatively uncommon, outside of working at an educational level. For soccer, mem-especially, there hasn’t been College Camels MarOrlando, Day singles junior Maine Over the past two weeks, three No. 2North Kingstown football seniors Kerachs-made their college commitments twoknown, with another announcing dou-he will take a prep-year before col2. lege.
Brayden Rogers, the Skippers’ a path – you’d have to move away to work with a pro soccer team.
“For myself, growing up, we didn’t have a pro soccer team, and we never saw it coming,” DelGreco said. “If you don’t see it in front of you, and if you’re not playing, it’s hard to see yourself in that setting. So I do feel at least some level of representation for the southern part of this state, to show that there
Four standout NK football seniors make futures known
is a way that you can get yourself into the professional sports world.”
To enter the professional sports world as a coach, for instance, usually requires collegiate or professional playing experience in that sport, which makes it an exclusive club. Trainers and medical personnel, however, don’t have that blockade.
“It’s not just this place that only former professionals senior quarterback this past season, will play another year of high school football at Bridgton Academy in Maine, which competes in the NEPSAC conference. As he presumably looks to raise his stock before committing to play college football, Rogers is taking a similar path to the one that his predecescan go work in,” DelGreco said. “Even though I might not have played at the highest of highest levels, I still have plenty of experience I can draw on from playing at North Kingstown High School and growing up playing for my local clubs.”
DelGreco was a three-sport athlete for the Skippers, competing in indoor track, soccer and tennis, earning honors in the latter to the 2014 Projo All-State boys first team. He attended Roanoke College as well as URI where he graduated from in 2018 with a degree in kinesiology and exercise science. But he had to leave and come back to break through into his field.
He spent three years as a middle school teacher in Oahu, Hawaii, which happened by joining a teaching program aimed at giving education to underprivileged communities. In 2021 he moved to England and spent a year getting his master’s degree in applied strength and conditioning at St. Mary’s University Twickenham. It was during that year that he broke into the professionsor, Eddie Buehler, took. Buehler followed his senior year at NK in 2021-22 by spending a year at Phillips Exeter Academy before joining the University of Maine this coming fall. Rogers threw for 2,321 yards and 19 touchdowns in 11 games this past season and led the Skippers to a Division I Super al sports world, working as a strength and conditioning coach for Charlton Athletic Football Club.
After getting his master’s, he moved back to New England and spent the next year as a Sports Performance Associate for the New England Revolution in Foxborough, Massachusetts, before finding his job at RIFC.
“I was kind of waiting for them to post this sports performance role so I could apply for it,” DelGreco said. “(Charlton Athletic FC) was kind of the first door I had open and it was a really good first step, but it can definitely be challenging as an American going into England and trying to make a name. You’re saying ‘I’m an American but I know this sport just as well.’ They can look a little bit down on us over there, for sure.”
DelGreco now lives in Providence and commutes to Pawtucket where RIFC is headquartered. The team played its first game on Saturday at Bryant University – a 1-1 draw against New Mexico United. The team will
Bowl appearance.
Victor Encarnacion, Artur Porto and Trent Sterner announced their college commitments. Encarnacion, who rushed for over 1,000 yards this season and also excelled at linebacker, will play football at Nichols College in Dudley, Massachusetts. Porto, who anchored the eventually move into its own stadium in Smithfield, which will open in 2025.
RIFC essentially takes the place of the former Pawtucket Red Sox minor league baseball team which used to be Rhode Island’s only team but left the state in 2020.
Since the Pawsox left, there hasn’t been a unanimous team for Rhode Islanders to cheer for. There’s a split of fans between URI and Providence College basketball with a few other colleges mixed in, and there are New York sports fans mixed into the state among the mostly Boston sports fans. RIFC is aiming to fill that void by being specifically for Rhode Islanders.
“I know how much pride each and every citizen has who’s from here,” DelGreco said. “I think it’s huge for us to have something to all go root for, rather than that having that PC-URI split where we’re a little bit divided. We’re a small state but we have a lot of pride, and I think that’s what this team is really showing.” offensive line in front of Encarnacion and Rogers, will play the interior line at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota. Sterner, who led the RIIL in tackles and also racked up just under 1,000 receiving yards, will play football at the United States Merchant Marine Academy.