Former BHS coach ‘was loved by everyone’

Eddie Anelundi led Barrington girls tennis to three state titles

By Josh Bickford and Mike Rego
Posted 2/11/21

The Rhode Island tennis world lost a legend late last month.

On Jan. 31, lifelong East Providence resident and former Barrington High School girls tennis coach Eddie Anelundi passed away. He was …

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Former BHS coach ‘was loved by everyone’

Eddie Anelundi led Barrington girls tennis to three state titles

Posted

The Rhode Island tennis world lost a legend late last month.

On Jan. 31, lifelong East Providence resident and former Barrington High School girls tennis coach Eddie Anelundi passed away. He was 93 years old.

Mr. Anelundi was well-known throughout the tennis community in Rhode Island, serving as a coach for high school teams and longtime private instructor. He also owned The Indoor Court in East Providence — one of the longest-running indoor tennis courts in the region. He was inducted into the Tennis Coaches Hall of Fame and East Providence High School Hall of Fame.

Mr. Anelundi was head coach of the Barrington High School girls tennis team for many years and led the Eagles to three state championships. His work with the team helped maintain the program’s elite status, consistently ranked among the top high school programs in Rhode Island.

Current Barrington High School tennis coach Betsy Brenner said it was Mr. Anelundi who recruited her to join the team as an assistant coach years ago. Coach Brenner said she first met Eddie in 2007, when her oldest daughter was a freshman at Barrington High School and made the varsity tennis team. She said Mr. Anelundi approached her and asked if she was interested in helping coach. She joined the team as a volunteer assistant coach and focused her work with the singles players, while Mr. Anelundi worked with the doubles teams.

“That was his speciality,” Coach Brenner said. “Eddie focused on the doubles, I focused on the singles … we really worked very well together. You could just tell his love for the game, love for coaching, love for teaching tennis.”

Coach Brenner said Mr. Anelundi was kind man, but even in his 80s was known to push hard to get the best from his teams. She added, however, “He cared very, very much about his players.”

She said she can still remember the team dinners — she said Mr. Anelundi would attend the team dinners, dressed up and always presenting the host family with flowers. She said Mr. Anelundi built relationships with his players as well as their parents and siblings.

In 2019, years after Mr. Anelundi had retired from coaching at Barrington, Coach Brenner saw him during the girls state championship finals at Slater Park. He was a volunteer with the LaSalle tennis team, which Barrington was playing against. Coach Brenner said Mr. Anelundi came over to her to say hello and also visited with her twins, who were still very young when Coach Brenner was working as an assistant at BHS.

“He still knew my twins by name,” Coach Brenner said.

“He was loved by everyone.”

Barrington High School’s Director of Athletics and Student Activities, George Finn, said he was sad to hear the recent news of Mr. Anelundi’s passing. Mr. Finn said the former BHS tennis coach played a key role in the success of so many Barrington teams, but his involvement went beyond sports.

“What I can tell you is that Eddie meant a lot to our program in the community. He touched so many peoples lives during his tenure as our girls varsity head tennis coach. I know he will be missed by many,” Mr. Finn said.

East Providence resident Tom Brun was one of Mr. Anelundi’s many acquaintances through the game of tennis. Mr. Brun said though there was a significant age difference between them, he knew of Mr. Anelundi through neighborhood connections early in life, before the two became friendly when the latter owned The Indoor Court in the 1980s. Mr. Brun and his late brother, Stephen, eventually purchased the court from Mr. Anelundi 1990.

The two recently shared what ultimately proved a final visit together following Stephen Brun’s passing in January of this year.

“I stopped by to see Eddie only two weeks ago. It was the day after my brother's funeral. It was always fun to visit with Eddie, he laughed a lot and smiled a lot,” Mr. Brun recollected. “Eddie said more than once that he had a great life and that he wouldn't have changed a thing. He really meant it. I could see he was very thin and the cancer was now getting the better of him, but it was still a nice visit. We both knew it, but neither of us said a word about it. I think we both knew it would be the last time we would see each other.”

Mr. Brun continued, “Eddie loved tennis and everyone loved him. He did say that he enjoyed owning The Indoor Court much more than being a fireman. He touched a lot of lives. Eddie's spirit was so strong, he'll always be around the people that knew him.”

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Mike Rego has worked at East Bay Newspapers since 2001, helping the company launch The Westport Shorelines. He soon after became a Sports Editor, spending the next 10-plus years in that role before taking over as editor of The East Providence Post in February of 2012. To contact Mike about The Post or to submit information, suggest story ideas or photo opportunities, etc. in East Providence, email mrego@eastbaymediagroup.com.