Baseball Instructors

Coach Gagne was a former shortstop for the Minnesota Twins, Los Angeles Dodgers and Kansas City Royals. He helped the Twins to their first World Championship. In general, Gagne's glove did more talking than his bat as Gagne's steady work in the field was a key to Minnesota's six-year run from 1987 through 1992 which saw the club claim two World Championships (the second coming in 1991) and win at least 90 games in two others seasons. His departure via free agency after the 1992 season coincided with the start of a rapid slide into perennial ineptitude for the franchise.

After his tenure with the Twins, Gagne spent three seasons with Kansas City. He put together his best season for the Royals in 1993, setting career-best with a .280 batting average and 57 RBIs while leading the league with a .986 fielding percentage. He signed another free-agent deal with the Dodgers in November 1995, and finished his career with two seasons in Los Angeles.

Coach Payne is the Head Baseball Scout for New England and Canada for the Florida Marlins Major League Baseball Club. Steve was also a scout with the Montreal Expos and the Colorado Rockies. Steve spent his early baseball career as an assistant coach with Texas Tech and University of Tampa.

Coach Field has been an assistant baseball coach at Rhode Island College for the last two years. For three seasons, Field was an assistant at Bryant University during a tremendous run for the program. With Field in the Bryant dugout, the Bulldogs won a school-record 40 games. Bryant’s run that season went well into late May, when they made their first-ever trip to the Div. II College World Series and finished with the No. 6 overall national ranking. Field spent an additional two seasons working at the collegiate level at Rollins College in Florida from 2006-2008.

Since returning to the area, Field has been active in American Legion baseball, serving as head coach of South Attleboro’s Post 312 for two years. He spent last season as the head coach at nearby Attleboro High School. Field has worked extensively as an instructor at various baseball camps, clinics and academies.

Coach Grenier is currently the Hitting Coach for the Chatham Anglers of the Cape Cod Baseball League. Previously Jay was the Head Baseball Coach at RIC and the Community College of Rhode Island. During his tenure as the Head Coach at CCRI, the Knights were a consistent regional power. He was named the NJCAA Coach of the Year in both 1994 and 1996. He was the Louisville Slugger Region 21 Coach of the Year in 1993, 1994 and 1996.

Prior to taking the job at CCRI, Grenier was an assistant coach for the Knights from 1985-93. He began his coaching career as an assistant coach at Rhode Island College in 1981, a position he held through the 1985 season. He has also served the Head Coach of the Rhode Island Reds, a New England Collegiate Baseball League team. Grenier has also worked as an envoy coach to Jamaica with Major League Baseball International.

Coach Bergeron has been an assistant baseball coach at Rhode Island College for the last four year. During his time he has worked with the catchers, hitters and most recently, the pitching staff. From the time he took over the catchers, he helped increase caught stealing rate from 12% to 30% through rigorious work on throwing mechanics and footwork. During the 2011 season, he entered his first year as pitching coach and helped lower the team ERA by 1.95 points in one year. With an emphasis on getting ahead, the pitching staff finished 8th nationally in walks per nine innings (1.82) and a three to one strikeout to walk ratio. With a successfull pitching staff, the Anchormen won the 2011 Little East Championship and captured their first NCAA regional victory in 31 years. Coach Bergeron also coached in the Pawtucket RBI program, Cumberland American Legion and the Collette Post 79 Legion program.

Coach Stefanik has been coaching the American Legion Post 312 of South Attleboro, MA for 10 years, a team that won the Massachusetts State Championship in 1999. He also coached the American Legion Post 14 of Cumberland RI for 5 years and won the Rhode Island State Championship in 2003. Stefanik has coached the Cumberland High Freshman team, the North Smithfield Middle School team and played MSBL Amateur Baseball. John currently coaches in the Upper Deck American Legion program.

Coach Briggs was a 4 year pitcher at Rhode Island College. He was consistently in the top of the rotation during his time. Wade was able to lead his team to the Little East Conference championship in 2005. Upon the completion of his playing career he coached the highly successful 15u New England Lightinging team to a 32- 10 record. Wade provides a structured program for the the high school pitcher looking to take his game to the next level.

Coach Cardoso has been coaching the Upper Deck American Legion program for the last 3 year. He has been instrumental in the development of our Junior Legion program. Over the last 3 years, 18 of his players have successfully transitioned to the Senior Legion level. With his focus on fundamentals, Jared has allowed the youth of Cumberland to become successful in their baseball endeavors. Coach Cardoso also coaches the North Cumberland Middle School program. He has worked with the program since 2008 taking the program to the state semifinals.

A former Cumberland High School player, Erik was named 1st Team All-Division his senior season. Erik played for Upper Deck's American Legion program and also played college baseball in Connecticut. In addition to assisting Upper Deck's Junior Legion team, Erik is also the head baseball coach of McCourt Middle School and the RI Red Sox 13U AAU team.

Coach Wall played high school baseball at Coginchaug Regional High School, in Durham, CT, and was an all-state pitcher in 1993 and 1994. After graduating Coach Wall was a four-year letterman at Providence College and part of 3 Big East Conference championship teams. He is currently a teacher at Lincoln Middle School and a firefighter in Douglas, MA.