Jamal Gomes ’91 will take over as Athletic Director with Paul Alianiello’s retirement in June
For further information, contact: Michele King, Director of Communications, mking@hendricken.com, 401.739.3450, ext. 131
WARWICK, RI (May 15, 2019) – Bishop Hendricken High School announced 1991 alumnus Jamal Gomes as the new Athletic Director of its storied program during a press conference and assembly on Wednesday, May 15, 2019 in Dr. Daniel S. Harrop Theater. Gomes will take over for Paul Alianiello who, after a 45-year career, has announced his retirement effective at the end of the school year.
Gomes burst onto the Hendricken basketball scene in his senior year earning the honor of R.I. Gatorade Basketball Player of the Year, as well as a Converse High School All-American in 1991. He went on to play at Stonehill College where he became a captain and 1,000-point scorer. He followed his college years with a professional basketball career in Ireland.
Gomes began his 21-year Hendricken career as a physical education and health instructor in 1998, and evolved into his current role as a school counselor. In 2000 he was named the school’s varsity head basketball coach and has since become an 11-time Rhode Island state championship head coach with over 350 victories. His other accomplishments include being named a two-time Rhode Island Basketball Coaches Association (RIBCA) Coach of the Year, a six-time RIBCA Championship Coach of the Year, a USA Today Rhode Island Boys Basketball Coach of the Year, and a member of the Bishop Hendricken Athletic Hall of Fame. He has coached countless student-athletes who have gone on to compete at the collegiate and professional levels.
Alianiello began his career at Hendricken in 1975 as an English teacher. A year later he embarked on a successful coaching career in Outdoor Track & Field and Cross Country, until taking over as the school’s Athletic Director in 1984. During his 35-year tenure as a coach and AD, Alianiello amassed an astounding 180 varsity high school state championships, and 303 overall championships when including freshman and JV teams. Alianiello also presided over a number of Hendricken’s athletic facility improvements including Pepin Gymnasium (1999) and the Ron Mosca ’73 Weight Room (2018), an all-weather track, 5 tennis courts, and the construction of the first artificial turf field (2006) and video scoreboard (2018) at a Rhode Island high school. Alianiello was named Rhode Island Athletic Director of the Year in 1992, and is a member of the Rhode Island Sons of Italy Athletic Hall of Fame, the Rhode Island Track Coaches Hall of Fame, and Bishop Hendricken’s Athletic Hall of Fame.
Alianiello took over the Athletic Director reigns from the legendary Ray Pepin who left Hendricken after 17 years as a coach and the school’s A.D. to become the head Men’s Basketball Coach and Director of Athletics at Stonehill College, where he served in the dual role from 1984 until his passing in September 1995. It is noteworthy that Pepin became Jamal Gomes’s basketball coach and mentor during his college years at Stonehill. The two legendary names were recently reunited as the court in Hendricken’s Pepin Gymnasium was dedicated and officially named Jamal Gomes Court in December 2018.
Gomes will be only the third Athletic Director for Bishop Hendricken since 1971.
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