As the weary Vineyard boys basketball team boarded a ferry that had waited half an hour to carry them home on Tuesday night, they looked up to see that the raucous cheering did not end at the doors of the Sandwich gymnasium where they had just suffered an 88-85 point loss to Cardinal Spellman.

Attention fans of the Martha’s Vineyard boys’ varsity basketball team: Watching the team’s state tournament run can cause hypertension, hoarseness of voice and excessive nail-biting; please consult your cardiologist before attending another Vineyarders game.

If coach Michael Joyce’s varsity boys’ basketball team hopes to make any noise in the state tournament in the coming weeks it will likely come down to which team shows up: The one that went into halftime against Norton on Wednesday with their tails between their legs down 38-19, or the second half team whose stifling press and relentless intensity on offense earned them a thrilling 70-61 victory in their last game of the regular season.

It must have been some half-time speech.

Pictures by Peter Simon

everyone in the pool: On Sunday, Feb. 6 the Makos swim team featuring young Vineyard swimmers took on the Marshfield Swim Club at the YMCA. This inaugural race came not long after the high school team baptized the pool with its first meet.

In both cases the Y pool area was packed with swimmers, parents and friends. Still more peered from the windows above the pool, looking out from the fitness room or the communal area at the entrance.

It may have been the coldest day on the Vineyard in five years, but the warmest place to be on Monday afternoon was the pool inside the new YMCA of Martha’s Vineyard in Oak Bluffs. The heated aquatics center was an echo chamber of energy as the Vineyard high school swim team took to the blocks for the first home meet in 40 years.

Many considered it a historic moment as the first swimmers hit the pool for the first event — 25-yard freestyle — against the Blue Hills Technical School from Canton.