Portsmouth’s Mike Lunney will be among the award recipients who will be honored next month by the R.I. Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association.

PORTSMOUTH — Mike Lunney, who has been connected to the Rhode Island Interscholastic League for four decades, will be inducted into the R.I. Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association’s (RIIAAA) Hall of Fame during its annual banquet at the Crowne Plaza in Warwick on Monday, April 4.

Since his days as a student-athlete at the former Bristol High School, the Portsmouth resident he has enjoyed successful stints as a basketball coach and an athletic administrator before joining the RIIL staff and ascending to his current position as executive director of the league.

Lunney began his service to interscholastic athletics in 1995 when he was appointed director of athletics and student activities, as well as head basketball coach at Portsmouth High School. He was the school’s athletic director for 16 years and coached the basketball team for eight seasons (1995-98, 2006-11). 

Named the R.I. Basketball Coaches Association Coach of the Year three times, Lunney guided Portsmouth to two RIIL Championships (the Class B title in 1996 and the Division II title in 2010), three league championships (1997, 2006 and 2010) and two Providence Journal Dick Reynolds Sportsmanship Awards (1996 and 2009).

His 16-year term as the Patriots’ athletic director included organizing an athletic program that featured 14 sports and 33 teams. Lunney was influential in the development of a $3.5 million gymnasium at the school, and from 1998 to 2011, he was a member of the RIIAAA, serving as its president from 2006 to 2008.

While working as an athletic director, Lunney served stints as RIIL Sport Director for golf and baseball and sat on numerous other RIIL committees. A two-time recipient of the National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association’s State Award of Merit, as well as a 2016 Distinguished Service Award winner, he was the first Rhode Islander to serve on the NIAAA Board of Directors and was a member of the NIAAA’s third Strategic Planning Committee.

From his position at Portsmouth, Lunney became assistant executive director of the RIIL in 2011. His many responsibilities included overseeing 16 sports and the RIIL’s Unified programs. He has served on the Officials Advisory Committee and Coaches Education Committee for the National Federation of State High School Associations and has also served as president of the Council of New England Secondary School Principals’ Association, assisting with the coordination of the annual New England Championships in eight sports and activities.

After nine years as assistant executive director, Lunney succeeded Tom Mezzanotte as the RIIL’s executive director on Aug. 1, 2020. Taking the helm during the COVID-19 Pandemic, he has worked closely with state officials, the R.I. Department of Health, the NFHS and the league’s member schools to ensure that the RIIL has been able to continue to provide valuable education-based athletic opportunities to our state’s 36,000 high school student-athletes during this extremely challenging time in our nation’s history.

A 1986 graduate of Bristol High and a 2006 inductee into the Bristol High School Athletic Hall of Fame, Lunney was a three-sport athlete for the Colts, earning All-Division and All-League honors in football, basketball, and baseball. He went on to play basketball at the University of New Hampshire, where he was a four-year varsity

letterman and was selected to the North Atlantic Conference All-Academic Team.

Just months after graduating from UNH, Lunney launched his coaching career in 1990, when he was appointed assistant men’s basketball coach at Roger Williams University. Two years later, he became the NCAA’s youngest head basketball coach when the 23-year-old was appointed to the top position at Roger Williams.

Lunney’s honors also included the 2016 Men Who Make a Difference Award, presented by the Women’s Resource Center of Newport.

Lunney, 54, lives in Portsmouth with his wife Donna and daughter Jill, who competed in volleyball, basketball and track at Portsmouth High School and is now a sophomore enrolled in the Nursing Program at the University of Rhode Island.

Ticket information

The banquet will be at the Crowne Plaza in Warwick on Monday, April 4, social hour starting at 5:45pm, dinner and awards starting at 7pm.  Tickets are $35 PP, 12 yr old or younger may order the children's meal of chicken tenders, fries, salad & dessert for $20 per person. There is a vegetarian option, please note that with your ticket submission. Deadline for ticket requests is Tuesday March 29th. Checks should be made payable to RIIAAA.  Checks can be dropped off at PHS main office or mailed to Portsmouth High School, ATTN Shaun Horgan, 120 Education Lane, Portsmouth RI, 02871.  Email horgans@portsmouthschooslri.org with any questions.

Trezvant recognized

Lunney is one of several people who will be honored at the banquet next month. Another local to be recognized is Stephen Trezvant, athletic director at Portsmouth High School, for his 10 years of service.