Consider yourself hard-pressed to find someone who understands the nuances of baseball inside the Independent School League (ISL) better than Rick Foresteire. The Thayer Academy head coach has dedicated nearly three decades of his life to the league both as a player and a coach.
In the early 1980s, he was a three-sport athlete at Browne & Nichols before spending 19 seasons as a coach at BB&N, winning more than 200 games and five ISL titles along the way. He also served as BB&N's athletic director for 12 years. In 2016, he made the decision to become AD and baseball coach at Thayer, cutting almost an hour off his drive time from his home. As a coach, Foresteire has never sustained a losing season.
“I look at the ISL, the Central New England Prep Baseball League (CNEPBL) and the Founders League to be the Power 3 conferences in New England overall," said Foresteire. "When I first broke into coaching, I would circle like five games I had a concern with in the ISL. Now, in any given year, it can be as high as 10 teams that have someone who can beat you in a seven-inning game.”
Foresteire, who was inducted into the Massachusetts Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2019, believes he has a squad poised to become a major adversary for a league championship. Last season, the Tigers stayed in the hunt before finishing with a 16-7 overall record and going 10-5 in ISL play.
