With all the hype surrounding tomorrow's Island Cup game between the Vineyard and Nantucket, it's easy to overlook that at its core, it's only a game.
Unlike in previous years, when the contest often determined whether the Vineyarders or the Whalers made the playoffs, the only thing on the line this year is bragging rights until the two teams lock horns again next November.
The students manning the phones at the Hebrew Center on this January night are there to kick off the first night of the 2006 SafeRides season. The student-run program provides a free and confidential ride home to any student of the Martha's Vineyard Regional High School who is not in a condition to drive safely or who wants to avoid being a passenger with an unsafe driver.
They have won prestigious awards in art, journalism and sports and
have played a stronger role in student government than any class before
them, taking the first strides against racial tension in the school.
When the Martha's Vineyard Regional High School class of 2006
graduates on Sunday afternoon at 1:30 p.m. under the shelter of the
Tabernacle on the Camp Ground in Oak Bluffs, 204 young men and women
will leave their school a better place than when they first arrived.
Complicated Rank and Grading System Now Slated for a Possible
Overhaul by Administrators and Students
By RACHEL NAVA ROHR
High school class rankings yield one winner come graduation, and the
competition to become valedictorian requires some strategy at
Martha's Vineyard Regional High School. Taking a class called
Stock Market or Sports Management could push you ahead. Architecture and
Island Cooking don't help or harm, but Journalism or Introduction
to Law could set you back.
For the first time, this year the Martha's Vineyard Regional
High School junior prom will require not just a ticket to enter, but a
green light from a breathalyzer.
After alcohol use caused problems at last year's prom, high
school principal Margaret (Peg) Regan considered cancelling this
year's prom and revisiting the issue the next year, but at the
students' request, Mrs. Regan instead collaborated with juniors to
make prom safer.
It’s been a season of peaks and valleys for the Vineyard football team.
They shot out to a 5-0 record to start the season and earned a top rank in their division by the Boston Globe. And as if that weren’t enough, a news crew from NBC taped two 30-minute segments that will air later this year during a halftime of the network’s NFL Sunday Night Football program. Meanwhile, Sports Illustrated published a story showcasing the Vineyarders.
The couldashouldawoulda’s are a week old now but the fact is the Vineyarders are still in the mix for a league title and a trip to their eighth Super Bowl despite a frustrating 8-6 loss to Blue Hills Regional Vocational Technical High School last Friday night.
Winners for the annual Heritage Trail project were announced at the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School this week. The project involves sophomore history students who go out and trek the African American Heritage Trail of Martha’s Vineyard, and then do a research project which is judged. Projects fall into categories: writing, art, physical projects and electronic projects.
Asked to describe his team's effort in last Friday's crushing 20-16 loss to the Crusaders from Cape Cod Tech/Harwich, no-nonsense Vineyarders football coach Donald Herman doesn't have to think long for an answer.
"Soft," he said roundly of his team's effort in the loss that effectively eliminated the team from going to the postseason. "We were soft and we were flat. I am not happy with what is going on right now."
Just as the first snows arrived on the Island yesterday, other signs of winter were in evidence around the Island this past week.
In addition to Christmas sales and plastic lawn Santas, the young athletes of the Vineyard could be found practicing their jumpers and perfecting their slap shots, as the high school sports scene moved from the autumnal fields of soccer and football inside to the cozy confines of ice rinks and basketball courts.
