DeMeo up for America’s best coach award

There are local legends, staples in certain communities for decades, and there are fresh faces cranking out state titles on an annual basis.

But who is America’s best high school boys basketball coach?

USA TODAY High School Sports is asking the fans to decide. It selected six active high school basketball coaches in each state and Washington, D.C. after more than a month of conversations with local media and other state and school officials with expertise. Johnston head coach Steve DeMeo is one of Rhode Island’s six nominees. He joins North Kingstown’s Aaron Thomas, Cranston West’s Jim Moretti, Classical’s John Kavanagh, Westerly’s Mike Gleason and West Warwick’s Richard Grenier.

Fans can vote online at http://contest.usatodayhss.com/vote/bball-coach-2014/round-1/ri.

The fan vote will decide which boys basketball coaches will emerge from a list of 306. There are three rounds of voting: the state round from Jan. 14-21 with the winners and top two wildcards nationally advancing to regionals. The regional round runs from Jan. 22-30, with again the winners and top two wildcards moving onto the final round. The final national round begins Jan. 31 and ends Feb. 7.

The “Best Of” contest series launched in November 2012 with the first best high school football rivalry competition, won by Brookfield vs. Marceline in Missouri. The teams celebrated their national title rivalry on Sept. 13 in Brookfield.

In January, Hartford (Vt.) was crowned as the People’s Champion high school football team. The monster of them all – the top high school mascot last spring – was won by the Centralia (Ill.) Orphans after 80 million total votes were cast during the competition.

Earlier this fall, the best high school football coach competition crowned Philip Haywood of Belfry (Ky.) as its champion. And the most recent contest, the second annual best high school football rivalry, went to the North Carolina small-town matchup of Bunn vs. Louisburg when voting wrapped up in December.