Regional high school senior Alec Tattersall is one of six amateur athletes featured in the Dec. 10 issue of Sports Illustrated in the magazine’s popular Faces in the Crowd column. Tattersall is the first currently-enrolled Vineyard student to appear in the column. Field hockey alumna Liane Dixon appeared in Faces in the Crowd as a college player at Northeastern.

Tattersall, the quarterback for the varsity football team, led the Vineyarders to a 27-26 come-from-behind victory in the 34th Island Cup game against Nantucket on Nov. 17. He threw two touchdowns in the final four minutes of the game, completing a seven-yard pass with 20 seconds left in the game to secure the Vineyard win. In doing so, he also broke the single-season passing record for the team, finishing with 1,333 yards. He was named the MVP of the game by the Great American Rivalry Series.

Faces in the Crowd can be nominated by the athletes themselves or members of their community, but Sports Illustrated’s Ali Fenwick put Tattersall in the running herself, head coach Donald Herman told the Gazette. Ms. Fenwick had read Island Cup, James Sullivan’s book on the longstanding football rivalry between the two Islands, and marked the date of this year’s game in anticipation of a showdown. After reading coverage of the game, she decided to feature Tattersall in the column.

“We were all very excited that our little community here has somebody in a world[wide]-read publication,” Coach Herman said.