The debut of the first Vineyard football team, under the guidance of Coaches John Kelley, Daniel McCar­thy and Stanley Whitman, will take place tomorrow afternoon on the newly laid-out field at the Veterans Memorial Park in Vineyard Haven. For their first game the Island boys are taking on the impressive gridiron group from the Ashland High School, a team that boasts fifteen straight wins.

 

Pigskin enthusiasts are eagerly awaiting the Island’s first step into this sport, almost unknown on the Vineyard, and the local fans realize that the first step will necessarily be a timid one, because tomorrow’s game will be a case of the experi­enced against the inexperienced. While there might be some who hope for a reliving of the David and Go­liath episode, which is a natural at­titude but not prevalent, most people are more concerned with the spirit and with the teamwork of the Island players and with the fact that tomorrow’s game will afford the local boys the most vitally important lesson date in their football education.

 

 

Coach Kelley expressed this view­point when he said yesterday, “Regardless of what happens, I’m sure the boys will make a good account of themselves. I believe they’ll sur­prise quite a few people.”

 

Here are the players and the po­sitions they will play in the game with Ashland:

 

During offensive play the team will line up this way: John Downs, right end; Steve Tilton, right tackle; Martin Davey, right guard; Dick Clark, center; Bill Merry, left guard; Sid Gordon, left tackle; Louis Goodwin, left end; Glen Hearn, quar­terback; John McBride, right half­back; John Morris, left halfback; and Leigh Carroll, fullback.

 

When the Island boys are on the defensive they will shift into these positions: John Downs, right end; Steve Tilton, right tackle; either Mar­tin Davey or Jack Coutinho, right guard; Steve Parker, left guard; Sid Gordon, left tackle; Louis Goodwin, left end; John Morris, Herbert Cormbra and Matthew Perry, line backers; and Charles Downs and Donald Amaral, halfbacks.

 

Other members of the squad who, Coach Kelley said, are sure to see a lot of action in the game are Paul Conroy, John Gillis, Larry Meyer and Bob MacDiarmid.

 

Journeying to the Island with the twenty eight members of the Ash­land team, which it might be men­tioned in passing scored a 33-0 vic­tory over Uxbridge last week, and with Coach Harold Walker, will be two team managers, seven cheer­leaders and the girls’ athletic dir­ector of the school. There is also expected a large delegation of private citizens from Ashland, the number estimated at between fifty and 100. The visiting team will arrive on the Island Friday evening, after making the trip to Woods Hole by bus, and will stay the night, lodging in various Island students’ homes. They will depart immediately after the game on Saturday on the last steamer from Oak Bluffs. The trip to the Island will be the longest an Ashland team has made for many years, the school board having on this one occasion broken its own hard and fast rule which kept all football games scheduled within a small radius of the town. Chester V. Sweatt, superintendent of schools here, formerly held this position in the Ashland schools.

 

An interesting and encouraging example of what a small school can do in building a football team, the Ashland High School has an enrollment of not many more than 150 students. Yet, there are sixty five boys on their football squad, which does not include a separate touch football squad. These facts should be proof of the pudding that a small school can engender an interest in the sport that is comparable to that of larger schools.