One last hurrah for Pawtucket legend Ribeiro
After 29 seasons, Ribeiro ends career coaching youngest son
“I had four boys and coached all of them. It’s the end of a long road. If I can go out with a big win, it would be huge,”
— Frank Ribeiro
PAWTUCKET — Frank Ribeiro has been a fixture when it comes to coaching youth baseball within the city.
As he embarks on his 29th and likely final season as coach, Ribeiro does so with a pedal-to-the-metal mentality as the primary decision maker of the R.I. North Coyotes. His youngest son Brandon – a 2020 graduate of Shea High – will be aging out upon the conclusion of the upcoming season for the Autumn Baseball League High School Division. To have one last hurrah as “Dad” and “Coach Frank” holds extra meaning.
“I had four boys and coached all of them. It’s the end of a long road. If I can go out with a big win, it would be huge,” said the elder Ribeiro, who founded this particular program in 2018 as a Babe Ruth Senior Division team in response to Little League Baseball changing the birthday cutoff regarding participation.
“My son [Brandon, who answered to “Bam” during his Shea baseball career] is born in May and would have been going into his last year of Senior League [in 2018]. I thought that would have been my last year coaching him,” said Ribeiro.
Fortunately, “Coach Frank” didn’t reach the dead end. He put together a 16-18-year-old program that tacked on a couple of additional years for the father to coach his son.
The talent assembled by Ribeiro features names who should be familiar to local baseball fans. In fact, the majority of the North Coyotes roster joined forces as teammates as recently as this past summer with the Howard Rogers entry that competed in the 19-20 R.I. Elite Baseball League.
Besides the younger Ribeiro, the player list for the North Coyotes includes Jacob Faria, Lonnie Santiago, Eddie Mulligan, Jaden Pappas, Andrew Rodriguez, Aexis Catalan, Ian Montinez, Nathaniel Gonzalez, Chase Joubert, Jeffrey LaRose, Nick Rossi, Manny Ortiz, Trey Thibeault,
James Coleman, Dominic Garner, and Ethan Leary.
“I consider my team an extension of [Howard Rogers],” said Ribeiro.
The makeup of the 2020 North Coyotes squad includes 11 returning players from last year’s 5-7 season and six newcomers. The Autumn Baseball League is broken up into two divisions of seven teams each. The North Coyotes reside in the division that features clubs from Rhode Island and Connecticut. The other division is comprised of teams strictly from Massachusetts.
The first day of the 2020 season is this coming Saturday, Sept. 12 with the North Coyotes hosting Chariho in a 10 a.m. doubleheader at Max Read Field. It’s one of five twin bills the Pawtucket-based club will participate in before the first round of the playoffs on Oct. 24. Last year, the top three teams from each division qualified for the postseason. The winners of the divisional format advanced to the league’s version of the World Series.
The North Coyotes will play all of their homes games at Max Read Field.