Rocco Baldelli, Dan Wheeler and Will Blackmon are all products of the RIIL who have gone on to unpredicted success in pro sports.

So why would you go watch a Rhode Island high school sports event if you don’t have a kid playing in the game?

Dan Wheeler, Rocco Baldelli and Will Blackmon are why.

Eight years ago, Baldelli was playing outfield and hitting .510 for the Hendricken baseball team. Thirteen years ago Wheeler was pitching for the Pilgrim baseball team. Now they are teammates trying to help the Tampa Bay Rays craft one of the best sports stories of the year.

Only seven years ago this fall, Blackmon was the Rhode Island Gatorade High School Football Player of the Year while playing for Hendricken. Today he is a Green Bay Packer and one of the best punt-returners in the NFL. Going into Sunday’s games, he had the second-highest total of punt-return yards in the league with 115 yards on nine returns and his 12.8 yards per return was the second-best average among players with two or more returns.

Week to remember for Joe Charest

Let’s see –– accept a college scholarship offer, quarterback your football team to victory in a big game before a SRO crowd and be named your school’s Homecoming King –– not a bad week for La Salle’s Joe Charest.

Charest, the Rams’ senior football quarterback and baseball pitcher, accepted a baseball scholarship offer from Fordham University early last week. Then last Friday night, he quarterbacked the Rams’ football team to a 35-28 victory over Portsmouth in a showdown of undefeated Division I teams.

Also on Friday night, Charest took time out from his team’s halftime break to go back on the field and be crowned the La Salle homecoming king, as voted by his classmates.

As a junior last spring, Charest, a right-handed pitcher, helped the La Salle baseball team reach the title round of the Division I state tournament by striking out 41 batters in 40 innings and posting a 2.10 ERA.

Charest was joined on the field for the coronation ceremony Friday night by homecoming queen Jenna Venditto, who is a member of the La Salle girls basketball team.

Standout victory for Barrington

While La Salle was improved its overall record to 4-0 and its Division I mark to 3-0 Friday night, Barrington, the only other undefeated Division I team, was giving a boost to Rhode Island’s high school football reputation as the Eagles beat Feehan, 28-0, in an interstate nonleague contest at Barrington.

Feehan had come into the game with a 3-0 record and ranked 14th in last week’s Boston Globe’s Top 20 Massachusetts high school football rankings. Barrington is 4-0 overall.

La Salle will face Canadians

It will not have any effect on the Division I title race, but La Salle will play what should be an interesting game for local football fans on Oct. 17 when the Rams host Medicine Hat High of Alberta, Canada.

Maybe I missed it, but I can’t remember a Rhode Island high school football team ever playing a game against a team from another country.

A new era for Hope football?

A victory over an intracity rival is always exciting, but you can’t help but think Hope’s 22-8 Division IV football triumph over Classical on Saturday was something special for the Blue Wave. Hope football teams have not won a lot of games over the past few years while Classical played in the 2006 and 2007 Division IV Super Bowls. Hope is 2-0.

State tennis title action upcoming

The first state champions of the 2008 fall sports season should be crowned this weekend with the title matches in the girls’ tennis singles and doubles tournaments Sunday at Slater Park in Pawtucket.

Alex Geremia, the South Kingstown High junior who hasn’t lost a set against Division I competition this season, would have to be considered the favorite in the 32-player singles tourney. Both the singles and doubles tournaments begin Friday and continue with the quarterfinals and semifinals Saturday before Sunday’s championship matches.

Fine performance by La Salle girls

The La Salle girls soccer team may have lost a game on Saturday, but probably won some admirers around the New England high school soccer scene when they dropped a 1-0 decision to Acton-Boxboro (Mass.) High. Acton-Boxboro, the second-ranked team in the National Soccer Coaches Association girls high school rankings, had come into the game having outscored the opposition, 45-1, en route to a 10-0 record.

jgillool@projo.com