The Five Best Co-Op Team Names in the Rhode Island Interscholastic League

Posted on by Vaseline

I hate co-ops in the Rhode Island Interscholastic League.

It’s not the schools. It’s not the players. It’s not what it represents — communities that can’t fill teams on their own, so they’re forced to band together to play as one.

It’s the names.

If I leave the Journal and run the RIIL, the first thing I’m going to do is ban the multi-school, no-nickname teams. It’s annoying. People I talk to say they can’t find a solution or make a decision on what to call themselves.

If you can decide that you need to join forces with another school, you can choose an obvious solution: find a regional and unique nickname. That’s it.

Why? Marketing 101. You can build a brand, generate interest, and get people excited to play. You mean to tell me that kids would rather play for the Times2/St. Patrick/Paul Cuffee girls basketball team than the Providence River Cats? (That was the first thing that came to mind. I’m sure the kids in the program could do better. Let them — you’ve created interest.)

Some schools – we call them ‘the smart ones’ – have realised this.

Hopefully enough administrators, coaches and players will read this and realize that it is foolish to play under a name that belongs to multiple schools.

And my list of the top five RIIL co-op names shows why.

5. Cranston East/Johnston Thundercats, boys lacrosse

You had me at Thundercats.

They didn’t win a single Division IV game this season, but they deserve a spot on this list because I grew up watching the cartoon and it was awesome. I don’t know if they’ve gone full Thundercats and used the old school logos, but the possibilities are endless. If they can find a way to turn Cranston East/Johnston into some sort of regional name, they’ll be #1 next summer.

4. Blackstone Valley Knights, boys hockey

Two co-ops came together to form one and they saved everyone a mouthful by embracing the region and coming up with a new nickname instead of using Johnston/North Providence/North Smithfield/Providence Country Day/St. Raphael Whatevers. Not many good minds.

It’s Johnston, North Providence, North Smithfield, St. Raphael and Providence Country Day and while they’re not all in the Blackstone Valley, who cares. The name works, the nickname works and if this game was based on uniforms, they’d be in the top three.

3. South County Storm, girls hockey

In 2011, Narragansett, North Kingstown, and South Kingstown started a girls hockey program. I was working at a local newspaper in South Kingstown at the time and was panicking about how I was going to get that into a headline.

South Kingstown athletic director Terry Lynch solved the problem. I wish I could say he did it for the local media, but he too was not a fan of how it looks with three schools in one name and no one knowing what to call them.

The program enjoyed early success, finishing second in 2014 and 2015, before winning the state title in 2017.

But that’s not why they’re here. As far as names go, this is perfect. Regional location name — when you say South County, you know the communities. A nickname that makes sense and is connected to the area. Uniforms that are as sharp as everyone else’s in the state.

They are the example that every cooperative should follow.

2. Pawtucket Bucket, girls basketball

When Shea and Tolman started co-ops in various sports, they started adopting the name “Sholman,” which was a great move — combining the names of the schools in a way that rolled off the tongue. What they didn’t do was adopt a universal nickname.

The baseball team chose to use “Pawtucket” instead of “Sholman,” which makes much more sense. Other teams followed suit in an attempt to unify the two schools in the city.

There has been an underground effort to adopt “Bucket” as a nickname. It’s a youth movement to turn a word that has a negative connotation of the city into something positive. The older community leaders are against it, but it seems like something that could be used to restore the city’s reputation.

The girls basketball team proved that. In their run to the Division II title, players wore warm-up jerseys with “Bucket” emblazoned on the front.

At some point the schools come together and they no longer have to look for a nickname.

Long live the Pawtucket Bucket!

1. Nariho Gulls, boys hockey

Narragansett and Chariho joined forces in 2015 and did the whole “Narragansett/Chariho” thing for a few years. They even created an interlocking logo that didn’t look all that bad.

But what they have now is the best there is.

I couldn’t give an exact date, but at some point the unofficial title “Nariho” stuck and the nickname Gulls soon followed.

Nariho works brilliantly. Chariho’s school name is a combination of the three towns in the region: Charlestown, Richmond and Hopkinton. By putting Narragansett’s N on the front, everyone is invited to the party.

Gulls is a great nickname. It works with Narragansett and Charlestown as beach communities and no other team in the state (at least at the high school and college level) has it.

To top it off, the Gulls have the best jerseys in Rhode Island. There is no debate, no argument to make for someone else. The interlocking N/C green jerseys are strong, but the white jerseys with the angry Gulls logo are the best the state has ever seen.

If someone wanted to send some XXL Gulls gifts to 75 Fountain Street, I wouldn’t be mad about it.

HONORABLE MENTION

RMT Hurricanes, boys hockey

They’ve already won a championship, but titles don’t get you into my top five. A weather-based nickname for a coastal area is fine, but like their tennis brethren, this program should have embraced a regional location instead of the initials of its three cities — Rogers, Middletown, Tiverton. I love this one and wanted to put it in the top five, but RMT doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue.

LNP Wildcats, Softball

Lincoln and North Providence had already signed on a week before the season started and I loved their approach, especially since the idea of ​​writing “the Lincoln/North Providence softball team” gave me nightmares.

Initials for the two cities was probably the easiest. Although they weren’t formally approved, Wildcats became the unofficial — but to me, official — nickname. They represented both programs, wearing NP uniforms when they played games at Notte Park and Lincoln uniforms for games in Lincoln.

If this co-op wants to survive, they need two quick fixes: a regional nickname and official Wildcats uniforms.

RM Tides, Boys Tennis

Unique nicknames certainly stand out and this new co-op between Rogers and Middletown did. My only complaint is that the initials of the cities are used instead of a regional name. I am completely unfamiliar with the area but surely there is a road or location that the two cities share that could have been used instead? Give me RM Tides over Rogers/Middletown Tides any day of the week.

St. Ponaganset, boys tennis

Okay, so no one has called them that but me, but it makes perfect sense for this co-op that just wrapped up its first — and maybe only — year of DI tennis. Tough to regionalize a St. Raphael and Ponaganset co-op, so St. Ponaganset works.

As for a nickname? I’m stuck. But there has to be something they can come up with for next spring.

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