Lincoln, North Providence softball given 'new life' as co-op formed on first day of season

NORTH PROVIDENCE — Lincoln and North Providence have played plenty of big games against one another at Notte Park over the years, which made seeing the two teams in the same dugout playing as one a little strange.

On Wednesday, they weren’t Lincoln or North Providence. Instead, they were LNP, a co-op that came together on the eve of the softball season out of necessity, not choice, so the players could have a season.

“Lincoln has a very storied program, so does North Providence,” said North Providence coach Michael Tuorto, who serves as co-head coach with Lincoln’s Alyssa McCoart. “We didn’t want to see that happen.”

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It seems preposterous that a co-op situation could happen in these communities.

North Providence was once the capital of Rhode Island softball, with Notte Park serving as the home base. The Cougars won seven state titles, best in Interscholastic League history, and won a Division II title in 2013. The eight championships are more than any program has won in any division.

Lincoln came to prominence in the 2000s, regularly competing for the state championship and winning back-to-back state titles in 2012 and 2013.

Things have changed. Community demographics are different and athletes had been leaving their hometown schools for opportunities at both private schools and pathway programs at other public schools. The addition of multiple spring sports, namely lacrosse, and single-sport athletes also pulled players away.

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Both programs dipped into the Division II ranks, but numbers started to slip after COVID wiped out the 2020 season. Both schools had enough players to field full rosters, but things changed this spring.

At Lincoln, McCoart was nervous about her roster. Some kids hadn't come back and she found herself in a situation in which the Lions would be heading into games with only nine healthy players.

“There were some names I wasn’t even familiar with but I had enough to start a team,” McCoart said. “We went and rolled with it. Once things started dwindling down, girls started leaving, I was like, ‘Oh, crap, we have to do something about this.' "

Over in North Providence, Tuorto had enough players to fill a roster, but most were kids playing competitive softball for the first time. He had some key returners but was worried about the safety of the inexperienced players going up against Division II competition.

McCoart and Lincoln athletic director Greg O’Connor were going over options to ensure the team could play. Tuorto knew his program was in trouble and, having been the wrestling coach at Lincoln, knew what the Lions were trying to do.

O’Connor and North Providence coach Anthony Ficocelli quickly connected and found out both schools could, under Interscholastic League rules, compete as a co-op together based on the number of participants both programs had heading into the season. A proposal was put together and sent in on Saturday, March 30.

On April 1, Opening Day for softball league play, the RIIL heard and voted yes on the proposal to turn Lincoln and North Providence into a single team.

“They were given a new life,” Tuorto said. “They were potentially not going to have a season, we were potentially not going to be in good shape and now we have this breath of fresh air.”

Instead of practicing on April 1, the team scrimmaged one another so the coaches could figure out how to come together. Bad weather the following days forced them inside, but something happened over that time — the two teams started to become one.

Instead of calling themselves the Lincoln/North Providence co-op, a ridiculous combination that seems to be the default for most of the state’s co-ops and doesn’t exactly flow off the tongue, they settled on LNP. The team will play half its home games at Notte Park and wear North Providence uniforms for those games while playing the other half of home games at Lincoln’s Saylesville Elementary School, where they’ll don Lincoln uniforms.

And to avoid the constant switching of the team nickname, the coaches are trying to sell their respective athletic directors on officially becoming the “Wildcats” — a nod to Lincoln being the Lions and North Providence the Cougars.

“There wasn’t a competition about whether it’s North Providence or Lincoln. We’ve been a unit since the start,” McCoart said. “The girls have meshed and clicked and it’s made our jobs easier and now we’re ready to compete.

“We’re going to continue to grind to build our programs.”

There is some concern about the perception of the co-op, especially considering the two teams involved. Two former superpowers combining into one seems like title-chasing at its finest, but that’s not why this happened. This is about survival, something that many sports in many communities are trying to do right now as numbers in female athletics continue to plummet.

“We want to see female participation numbers go up and we don’t want to see where programs are folding,” Tuorto said. “So many co-ops are happening because communities can’t continue to fund teams. A lot of this starts with parents at home getting their kids locked in about learning and developing and us getting rid of this win-at-all-costs notion at the youth level.

“This is about building for the future and if youth leagues can come together and teach the skills and have interests for girls to buy in to playing, whether it’s softball, lacrosse, swim, track, whatever, it will give females a better chance to play.”

LNP took the field on Wednesday as one for the first time against a West Warwick team that’s on the short list of favorites to win the Division II title.

There was a blend of excitement and nerves before the game started and the Wildcats hung tough, right up until West Warwick’s offense exploded for five runs in the fourth in the eventual 10-0 win.

The result didn’t matter. That they played did.

“Winning is great, but just getting them out there to build the team, gain confidence, that’s really all you can ask for,” McCoart said. “I can’t compare this to when I was playing because times are so different, but as far as the program goes, there ere so many positives out there that we were able to reiterate to them.”

“As time goes on, we’ll be a competitive team,” Tuorto said. “We are looking to the future, but we’ll win some games this year.”

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Lincoln, North Providence softball 'given a new life' as a co-op