It is always tough to coach a team to a win at the state championship at the high school level. Bishop Hendricken’s Jim Doyle did that three times in 2021, earning him the Warwick Beacon’s Boys Team Coach of the Year.

Doyle led the Hawks to their third straight state championships in both indoor and outdoor track and field. Hendricken has separated itself as the top team in the state in each of those sports, and continued to impress under Doyle’s leadership.

After reaching the top of the podium in cross country for multiple years, the Hawks would hit a rough patch - for Hendricken standards - and fall to rival La Salle in both 2019 and 2020 at the big dance.

Hendricken would turn things around and get the job done in 2021, pulling off the upset win over the Rams to get back on top.

Although Hendricken held its own against the other elite teams in the state this past fall, it would be the first time in awhile that the team did not have a top-5 finisher and someone who was truly in the running to compete for a first-place finish overall.

Doyle and his staff preached the importance of depth and knowing your roll within the unit, and it did just that as it edged out the competition with a lineup lacking a true powerhouse performer.

To add to this team’s legacy further, it would then go on to get a win at regionals just weeks later.

“We didn’t have any guys that were going to be competing for first or second in the state, but we knew that we had a handful of guys that could finish anywhere from fifth the 15th. That is what our main focus was. Hanging in there tight and staying together as a team,” said Doyle.