Despite the snow and cold, the winter sports season is off to a hot start at the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School with the boys’ basketball and hockey teams posting early big wins.
Meanwhile, the girls’ hockey team has been shaken by the sudden departure of longtime head coach Sam Sherman just two games into the season. Athletic director Sandy Mincone said Mr. Sherman turned in his resignation last Friday; the Vineyarders were 0-2 on the season after opening with losses to Whitman-Hanson last Saturday and Sandwich last Wednesday.
The final game of the season for the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School football team on Saturday offered plenty of excitement for the homecoming crowd, as the Vineyarders rolled over Brighton by a final score of 41-8.
It was a satisfying win for players and coaches — as well as the approximately 500 fans in the stands. For the past 50-plus years the Vineyard has played Nantucket the weekend before Thanksgiving, but this year the opposing players were dressed in Brighton’s red and yellow instead of the Whalers’ customary blue and white.
There was a noticeable feeling of loss around the Vineyard this week.
“I can’t believe we’re not playing Nantucket this weekend,” one man lamented Monday while waiting for a haircut at Bert’s barber shop in Vineyard Haven. “What is the world coming to?”
For the first time in nearly 50 years, Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard will not play the Island Cup football game this weekend, one of the most celebrated and storied traditions for both Islands that was cancelled this year for financial reasons.
After a season fractured by illness that forced the cancellation of several practices and games, the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School field hockey team had to endure even more adversity last week when they drew Nantucket in the opening round of the MIAA Division II south tournament.
The Vineyarders lost 2-1 in a taut, well-played contest over on the sister island, but the final score does not begin to tell the whole story.
Coach Lisa Knight offered a blunt evaluation of the season.
As the fall athletic season heads into the home stretch, the field hockey and boys’ soccer teams this week moved closer to a berth in the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association tournament.
Meanwhile the football team stumbled with a crushing loss to Somerset last Friday, while boys’ and girls’ cross country each posted wins against Bishop Stang and Barnstable as they wrap up another stellar season under coach Joe Schroeder.
Cross Country
It was an overtime thriller for the high school football team this week in its inaugural game in the Eastern Athletic Conference, while the field hockey battled both opponents and illness.
Football
After winning by forfeit last week against Charlestown, the football team was eager to take to the gridiron at home this week against Coyle-Cassidy in what proved to be an exciting contest that went down to the wire on Friday night under the lights.