April showers have brought plenty of challenges to Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School sports teams.
“The bane of my existence right now is the weather,” high school athletic director Mark McCarthy said. “I can’t remember having to schedule or reschedule so many games as we’ve had so far this spring, and it’s getting to the point where we’re going to be running out of days soon.”
Despite the weather, high school sports teams have been working hard.
Girls tennis has won the state championship for the past two years and this season is undefeated with six wins. Coach Nina Bramhall praised the team’s consistently strong performance. “We’ve been winning decisively,” Ms. Bramhall said.
Boys tennis is also doing well, with a 4-1 record. “We have a very balanced team, from the three singles to the two doubles positions. I think we’re a little stronger than last year,” Coach Bill Rigali said. “We’ve got great leadership from Zach Danz, our number one singles player and captain, and he sets the tone at the top of the lineup,” he added.
On Monday, Danz won his match against Sandwich 6-0, 6-1. Nainoa Cooperrider and Chris Ferry also won their singles matches, and the doubles teams of Max Hammond and Owen Favreau and James Kelliher and Spencer Pogue dropped only four games on the way to winning four sets between them.
Coach Rigali was pleased, but noted that they have some tough matches coming up, in particular another match with Barnstable, the team’s only loss. But he relishes the competition. “Hopefully that will get us ready for tournament play.”
The baseball team had a tough start to the season, with four losses in a row, but has made an impressive comeback with six straight wins. On Monday they took on Dennis-Yarmouth, winning the game 5-1. Coach Gary Simmons praised the team’s strong defense, and particularly pitcher Jonas Lukowitz’s work in Monday’s game.
“It all starts with your starting pitcher, and so Jonas was really good,” he said. “He wasn’t striking everybody out, but he was throwing outs, throwing ground balls, and we were picking them up and making outs.”
Lukowitz was strong at the plate too, hitting a three-run home run in the second inning to help clinch the team’s decisive win.
The softball team has a new coach, Sam Burns, and a mixed record for the season. Mr. McCarthy noted that many players encounter the sport for the first time in high school. “Softball struggles because we don’t really have a feeder program to come up through like baseball has Little League,” he said.
But there have been some highlights so far. “They had a very exciting game last week here, a walk off win, and they’ve got a couple wins against some of the Boston schools,” Mr. McCarthy said.
The team has a double header on Friday against Barnstable. “They’re a very young program, so those two games on Friday should be very competitive,” Mr. McCarthy said.
The boys and girls lacrosse teams have mixed records, but Mr. McCarthy said both teams are young. “Given some time both programs are going to start to show the benefit of all the youth we have,” he said.
Girls lacrosse assistant coach Bob Hayman added that the team’s 3-6 record, “doesn’t speak to how well the girls are actually doing.” Three of their losses were within one or two goals.
In their last game, against Bishop Feehan, the team “led the whole way, and with a minute and a half to go we ended up losing, which was too bad,” Mr. Hayman said. Season highlights so far include a victory against Nantucket on April 15. Looking ahead, the team is hopeful about the possibility of playing in post-season tournaments.
The sailing team, which competes through the New England Schools Sailing Association, is also a young team. Coach Andrew Burr reports that the team is 80 to 90 per cent freshmen and sophomores. “As far as the season goes, I’ve been overly impressed,” he said.
The team’s record is 3-10 but the competition is stiff against top-notch prep schools like Tabor Academy and St. George’s School.
Given the team’s abundance of young talent, including freshmen skippers Joe Serpa and Patrick Flaherty, as well as promising seventh and eighth grade prospects, Mr. Burr said he looks forward to the team’s future.
Joe Schroeder, coach of the track and field team, said that his team hasn’t seen much action due to the bad weather. “But we just had a big meet last Sunday, the state relay meet, and we did very well there,” he said.
Mr. McCarthy said the track team faces an additional challenge in that they cannot host meets at home due to the condition of the track. He said the team is competitive and has several prospects for states, including Libby Smith, Ennis Foster, Mackenzie Condon and Andrei Bernier.
After another washout on Tuesday, many events have been rescheduled for Friday, but forecasts currently threaten storms. Weather permitting, fans can catch three home games this weekend. On Friday, May 5 at 3 p.m., girls lacrosse plays Barnstable. Also at 3 p.m. on Friday, girls tennis plays Foxborough. Baseball plays against Bourne on Saturday, May 6 at 4:30 p.m.
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