Noel Acciari, a captain on the national champion Providence College men’s hockey team and a Johnston native, took time on Tuesday to speak at St. Rocco School, his alma mater.
He attended St. Rocco from pre-kindergarten through eighth grade, before moving on to Bishop Hendricken, Kent School and finally PC.
St. Rocco Principal Lorraine Moschella invited Acciari to speak as an alumnus who “exemplifies St. Rocco’s ideology of educating students academically and spiritually to use perseverance and faith to find their strengths and bring their potential and dreams to fruition.”
Acciari told a rapt audience of students that his time at St. Rocco School was a “wonderful experience,” right down to the “great time” he always had in class.
“School is the number one thing you should be focused on,” he said. “You need to do well in school to get where you want to go in sports.”
He briefly recounted Providence’s championship win over Boston University, as well as the road to the Frozen Four, before taking questions from the children, who asked him everything from who his inspiration was to where he is headed in the future.
“My older brother played hockey,” Acciari said. “He’s seven years older, so I grew up in rinks, watching him play … and he was an inspiration to me.”
According to Acciari, Providence went into their championship game with a plan to “put pucks on net.” After Boston University goalie Matt O’Connor blundered by knocking the puck into his own net, he said momentum changed and Providence redoubled their efforts. Though it was a “little nerve wracking,” he said the team stuck to the plan.
“Our coach [likened the plan] to a sled race,” he said, “where if one of the dogs in the harness veers off, the whole team is off.”
One of the most difficult games for Acciari was going into North Dakota to play two games. North Dakota had 13,000 fans at each game and every time North Dakota scored, they set off fireworks, which Acciari said was disheartening. North Dakota won the first game, but Providence tied the second.
Teachers at St. Rocco remembered Acciari as a kid who was “very fair” in games with his classmates, said third-grade teacher Maryann Bennett.
“I have never seen anybody as talented in every single sport [as Acciari],” said Gina Hand, physical education teacher at St. Rocco’s. “Even more than his athletic ability, what stands out is how kind he was to all of the other kids in class, none of whom were really as good as he was.”
Acciari was recently named All-New England Best Defensive Forward of the Year; it is only the third time in the last 15 years that a Providence player has been given that honor.
Regarding his future plans, Acciari has not made any concrete decisions beyond attending Boston Bruins Development Camp this summer. He is eligible to play one more year for PC, which is losing four players, three of whom are his roommates.
“I came in with these guys, so it’s a hard decision,” he said. “My family and I are talking it all over.”
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