Bristol native wins national athletic award

Michael Lunney honored for mentoring athletes, administering interscholastic league

By Manuel C. "Manny" Correira
Posted 8/25/16

Throughout his outstanding career in athletics, Michael P. Lunney has always strived to be the best that he can be. Now, he’s being recognized by his national peers for a job well done.

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Bristol native wins national athletic award

Michael Lunney honored for mentoring athletes, administering interscholastic league

Posted

Throughout his outstanding career in athletics, Michael P. Lunney has always strived to be the best that he can be. Now, he’s being recognized by his national peers for a job well done.

Mr. Lunney, 48, assistant executive director of the Rhode Island Interscholastic League and a man well-known in the East Bay area, is one of only 10 athletic administrators from across the country who will receive the National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association’s Distinguished Service Award.

The award will be presented at the National Athletic Directors Conference as part of the banquet program on Tuesday, Dec. 13, at the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center in Nashville, Tenn.

“This will be the most prestigious award I’ve ever received,” said Mr. Lunney, a native of Bristol, who has lived in Portsmouth the past 11 years. “My wife, Donna, and my daughter Jillian and I, are really looking forward to this great event.”

Mr. Lunney, who has served with the RIIL for five years, will be the second Rhode Islander to win the award, representing the New England, New York and New Jersey region.

“We love having Michael here,” said Gail Lepore, RIIL business manager. “He’s amazing. He’s got this special way about him when he talks with other people. He’s a great communicator.”

In addition to providing resources and support to RIIL member schools with administrative oversight in a number of boys and girls sports, Mr. Lunney was appointed to the National Coaches Education Committee last year, and is president of the Council of New England Secondary School Principals’ Association. He also served on the National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association, and was the first Rhode Islander to serve on the NIAAA Board of Directors.

Before getting involved with the league, Mr. Lunney served as athletic director and director of student activities at Portsmouth High School for 16 years, and coached the boys’ basketball team for nine years. He was heavily involved in the planning and building of a $3.5 million field house, and received the NIAAA State Award of Merit in 2000 and 2007.

Mr. Lunney served in several capacities (including president) with the RI Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association Executive Board, and provided invaluable service to the league as an administrator in a number of key roles.

His boys’ basketball teams won a Division II state title in 2010 and a Class B state basketball championship in 1996. Portsmouth also won a Division II South crown in 2006.

Mr. Lunney was accorded Coach of the Year honors in 1996, 1997 and 2006. His 1997 team were Division II league champions and state runners up.

Former Portsmouth High athletic director and coach, Richard J. Travers, said Mike Lunney has been an asset, no matter where he’s gone.

“As an athlete, Mike was a fierce competitor,” he said. “I know Portsmouth was sad to see him go when he left for his current job with the Interscholastic League. People in Portsmouth loved him as an athletic director and coach. He was always the consummate professional.”

Mike Lunney also had the rare distinction of being the youngest NCAA college basketball head coach in the country in 1992, when he took over the reins of the Roger Williams University men’s team. He had previously served as assistant coach of the Hawks.

Mr. Lunney is a graduate of the former Bristol High School, where he played baseball, basketball and football, and finished his career as the school’s all-time leading basketball scorer. He later went on to the University of New Hampshire, where he lettered for four years on the basketball team and was a member of the 1990 North Atlantic Conference All-Academic team in 1990. 

In 2006, he was inducted into the Bristol High School Athletic Hall of Fame.

Having been a workaholic as an athlete himself, Mike Lunney knows how difficult it is sometimes for youngsters to excel on the field of competition.

“I love giving kids opportunities,” he explained. “I’ll do whatever it takes to help them reach their dreams.”

The son of John “Jack” Lunney and the late Priscilla Lunney, Michael is married to the former Donna Quattrucci of Newport, and is the father of a daughter, Jillian Lunney, a freshman at Portsmouth High School.

Bristol Athletic Hall of Fame, Bristol High School

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