For the first time in the history of high school sports on the Vineyard, all four of the high school’s winter sports teams—girls’ and boys’ hockey and basketball—have won enough games to qualify for post-season playoff tournaments.

With the exception of girls’ hockey, which plays in the competitive Southeastern Massachusetts Girls Hockey League, all the 2011-2012 teams have achieved this distinction playing in the Eastern Athletic Conference, a challenging league featuring schools that have larger student bodies to draw from. Nevertheless, the Vineyard teams have more than held their own against the likes of Bishop Feehan, Bishop Stang, Coyle-Cassidy and Somerset high schools.

Each of the varsity teams has its own success story: Boys’ basketball has lost only two games the entire season; girls’ basketball qualified for the tournament thanks to a clutch, late-season victory at Nantucket last weekend; and the boys’ hockey team bounced back from a losing season last year to a strong winning record with one regular season game to play. But the most exciting story this year centers on the girls’ hockey squad, which qualified for the state tournament for the first time in the program’s history with a nailbiter win over Marshfield on Saturday. Begun as a club team in 1996, the program was granted varsity status in 1999, but this was the year that it bloomed into a contender — and now a post-season contender.

The regional high school has distinguished itself on many fronts — most importantly in academics. Sports are not for everyone, and fortunately the school offers an extraordinary range of imaginative extracurricular programs that enrich the high school experience and help prepare students for what life may bring in college and beyond. We are constantly impressed by the range and caliber of teenage talent on this tiny Island.

That said, sitting in the bleachers with school superintendent Jim Weiss as the girls’ hockey team beat the odds to clinch a berth in the States, it’s impossible not to feel like you’ve witnessed something special. There’s a certain magic in seeing the drudgery of drills and practice turn into teamwork that ultimately translates into victory. In successfully pursuing something they love, our student athletes not only bring pride and pleasure to themselves, but offer the gift of team spirit to fellow students, parents, coaches, teachers, administrators, fans – really anyone hungry to believe that hard work and collaboration can pay off.

Congratulations to the teams. You’ve made history. Have fun in the playoffs.