From Smithfield to Foxborough, a year Rhode Island sports won’t forget

2025: what a sports year! We had a Division III national championship in wrestling, Division I conference champions in college basketball and football, and a runner-up finish in men’s soccer.

The Red Sox surprised us most of the summer and returned to the playoffs. The Patriots are shocking us by the week and are AFC East champs.

The World Series? A 7-game thriller between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Toronto Blue Jays that rivaled the 1975 World Series between the Red Sox and Cincinnati Reds, a classic that still occupies a spot on the high altar of New England sports even after 50 years.

As always, we celebrated high-school champions.

But let’s begin this look back with Johnson & Wales wrestling. The Wildcats hosted and won the NCAA Division III National Championships at the Amica Mutual Pavilion in Providence last March. Seniors Joziah Fry and Hayden Brown won individual titles. Senior Dylan Harr and junior Adolfo Betancur joined them on the All-America podium.

Switching to basketball, if you can believe it, Bryant University’s Smithfield campus was the college hoops capital of Rhode Island last winter. That’s right, Smithfield. Not Providence. Not Kingston.

The Bulldogs really did have a season for the ages. They won 23 games, a school record for Division I. They beat Maine by 20 points in the America East final and qualified for March Madness. Earl Timberlake, the America East Conference and Tournament MVP, was unstoppable. He averaged 15.5 points, 8.5 rebounds, 4.7 assists, 1.8 blocks and 1 steal per game. He was the ECAC player of the year - no surprise on that honor.

Phil Martelli, Jr., was the America East, NABC Mid-Atlantic and ECAC coach of the year. On March 28 he left for a bigger job and more lucrative contract at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond.

Bryant, a 15 seed, lost to second-seeded Michigan State, 87-62, in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. The loss, however disappointing, did not diminish the Bulldogs record-breaking season.

Men’s soccer enjoyed its best season. The Bulldogs were 13-0-2 —they won 13 straight, the longest streak in the nation, after a season-opening tie and ranked second in the nation before dropping a 2-1 heartbreaker at home to undefeated and reigning NCAA champion Vermont on Oct. 25. They lost to the Catamounts again in the America East final, but still received a bid to the NCAA Tournament. They earned a first-round bye, defeated Seton Hall in the second round and lost to Saint Louis in the third round on penalty kicks.

Bryant men’s soccer ranked 10th in the final national coaches poll, and striker Jaime Amaro was named third-team All America.

The University of Rhode Island football team won the Coastal Athletic Association championship and an automatic bid to the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs. The Rams finished 11-3 overall and 8-0 in the conference. Their last undefeated conference season occurred in 1985, when URI was 5-0 in the old Yankee Conference.

URI defeated Central Connecticut in the first round of the FCS tournament, the last game at Meade Stadium until 2027 — the facility is undergoing a $42 million renovation. The Rams fell to UC Davis in the second round.

The Associated Press and Stats Perform named wide receiver Marquis Buchanan from Providence and linebacker A.J. Pena to the All-America first team.

Brown football had a mediocre season. The Bears won the Governor’s Cup with victories over Bryant and URI and secured a 5-5 record with victories over Columbia and Dartmouth.

Nothing has been mediocre about the 2025 New England Patriots. They are 13-3, bound for the playoffs and generating Super Bowl buzz. Second-year quarterback Drake Maye reminds us of the young Tom Brady. He is playing like a legitimate MVP candidate. All the Patriots around him are doing their jobs. The defense is making plays when it counts. Nobody, and I mean nobody, expected this from a team that won eight games combined over the last two seasons.

Clearly, the Patriots have risen from the wreckage of Bill Belichick’s last two years and Jerod Mayo’s stumbles in 2024.

The Red Sox gave us more than we expected. They won 89 games, beat the Yankees in the first game of the Wild Card round of playoffs, but dropped the next two. Left-hander Garrett Crochet was 18-5, a legitimate ace. Aroldis Chapman was superb out of the bullpen. Youngsters played a lot of innings, which should help in 2026.

What more can we say about the World Series other than this Fall Classic was 7 games of must-watch television? Remember Game 3? Eighteen innings. Dodger Freddie Freeman won it with a home run to dead center. Shohei Ohtani went 4-4 with 2 home runs, 3 RBI and 5 walks. Who can forget Game 7? Toronto led 4-2 in the 8th. Dodgers homered in the 8th and 9th and tied the score. Will Smith put LA ahead, 5-4, with a homer in the 11th, and old friend Mookie Betts ended it with a 6-3 double play. Defense? So many diving stops, spectacular throws and outrageous leaping catches against the outfield fence. L.A. pitcher Yoshinobo Yamamoto was brilliant starting and relieving. This World Series had it all. And though it didn’t include the Red Sox, this season-ending thriller still mattered in New England.

High-school highlights included Bishop Hendricken’s seventh state football championship in the last eight seasons and fourth victory over La Salle Academy during that run. Hendricken also won its fifth consecutive boys cross-country state championship. La Salle beat Hendricken and everybody else for the state basketball title.

High-school hockey isn’t what it used to be in the Ocean State. Bishop Hendricken won its 11th state championship since 2006. Mount St. Charles or La Salle won the others.

Bishop Hendricken won its 35th state swimming championship since 1981. La Salle won its 13th consecutive lacrosse title last spring.

On the girls’ side, Moses Brown was undefeated and won its third field hockey title in four years. La Salle won its third-straight softball title and improved its three-year record to 54-4. Omalia Oganesian won the girls’ tennis singles state championship, the first Shea (formerly Pawtucket West) High School player to do so in 61 years.

Those were the happy stories from 2025.

On the flip side, Providence College men’s basketball was a major disappointment. The Friars were 6-14 and tied for eighth in the Big East. They are 7-6 now and will return to action Jan. 3 at St. John’s. UConn comes to town on Jan. 7.

URI was 18-13 and tied for 10th in the A-10 with a 7-11 league record.

The Celtics season ended in the Eastern Conference semifinals when Jayson Tatum ruptured his right Achilles tendon in Game 4 against the Knicks.

Big-time college sports, already a mess thanks to the transfer portal and NIL payments, got messier with the Big Ten and SEC dominating college football and the playoff system, fired coaches walking away with tens of millions in severance, the NCAA approving eligibility for basketball players with pro experience and athletes threatening lawsuits for five years of playing eligibility instead of the current four. Most football bowl games are little more than television programming for ESPN.

President Trump offered his usual shallow thoughts on transgender participation in sports, World Cup soccer, a name change for the Washington Commanders football team back to the Redskins and his name on the new $3.7 billion Commanders stadium.

The Smithfield school department and the Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island didn’t cover themselves with glory after flip-flopping follow-through and allegations of antisemitism in the wake of a locker room hazing incident involving five football players – all seniors – and a freshman who is Jewish. The players involved were suspended for the rest of the season but then reinstated a week later. The Jewish Alliance stood by allegations of antisemitism. Superintendent Dawn Bartz investigated those allegations and found none. Bartz was placed on leave in November and resigned Dec. 12.

In Newport, four Rogers High students were charged with assaulting a special needs student in a locker room before a football game. School officials cancelled the remainder of the season.

Will we ever learn that hazing and bullying are unnecessary and unacceptable? And can the state do more to protect students?

Finally, Brown University athletes will be returning to campus and competition after the Dec. 13 fatal shooting death of two students and injuries to nine others at a review session for an Economics exam. What will the impact be? Only time will tell.

Time will also tell what unfolds in 2026. World Cup soccer in North America. Winter Olympics in Italy. The drama potential is huge.

Happy New Year!