Schools
By JIM HICKEY
Vineyard football fans can dust off their cowbells and Harpoon the Whalers signs, because the Island Cup game is back.
After a brief one-year hiatus, the fabled football game between the Vineyard and Nantucket will return this year, scheduled to be played on the Vineyard the Saturday before Thanksgiving. School and athletic officials from both Islands have been busy in recent weeks hammering out an agreement to bring back the game, which was canceled last season for the first time in nearly 50 years.
After a string of frustrating seasons, the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School girls’ basketball team has jumped out to an impressive 5-2 record early this season, and could easily be 7-0 if not for a pair of tough overtime losses.
Meanwhile the boys’ basketball team continued to roll this week with an easy win over Minuteman Tech, while the boys’ hockey team lost to perennial powerhouse Framingham on Saturday and Bridgewater-Raynham on Wednesday.
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.
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.
After more than 100 Island high schoolers called in sick on Wednesday — including 10 football players, 10 members of the boys’ soccer team and the cheerleading coach — Saturday’s football game and the season’s final two soccer matches were canceled, beginning a cascade of sports suspensions and other precautions as cases of suspected H1N1 flu spread quickly among Vineyard youths.