Sports
After seeing a steady decrease in overall numbers for years, Vineyard softball is at a critical point for sustaining the sport.
Just 11 players — two more than the minimum needed to field a team — suited up for the varsity high school team this year, with 10 at the jayvee level. Only four freshmen came out for the teams. The once-thriving Babe Ruth softball league, for girls aged 8 to 16, had no teams at all this year and what was once a staple of afterschool life, the junior high program, will no longer be offered as of next spring.
Marking history in the high school tennis program, the Vineyard boys will go to the division three state finals for the second straight year follow
At first they giggled.
Last fall when the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School swim coach introduced yoga meditations to the team’s practice routine, the swimmers exchanged quizzical looks and snickered with one another.
“Yoga?” the students asked.
Yoga.
Some may know how Tai Chi and Chi Gung help create a more balanced approach to life. Upcoming classes at the Tisbury Senior Center add swords and fans into the mix.
Fans add to hand and wrist movement while the sword helps to create a continuous flow of energy. The class leader Daisy Lifton brings 20 years of experience teaching Chi Gung and Kung Fu to students of all ages.
The Vineyard’s top saltwater fly fishermen will pair up with anglers from all over the country to compete in tomorrow night’s 22nd annual Martha’s Vineyard Rod and Gun Club striped bass catch-and-release tournament. It is primarily a night fishing event that begins at 7 p.m., and no fish are taken home.
Cooper A. Gilkes 3rd, who co-organizes the event, said many of the contestants are already here and are out scoping their favorite fishing places. This is a good fishing spring, Mr. Gilkes said. Shorefishermen are doing well all around the Island.
The skies opened in the bottom of the sixth inning of the Martha’s Vineyard Sharks home opener against the Brockton Rox Tuesday night, suspending play with the score tied 2-2. The game will be continued at a later date when the Rox next visit the Vineyard Baseball Park on June 28.