Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School girls’ and boys’ cross-country teams capped off another strong season last weekend at the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association division III finals.

The girls finished 14th overall at the division meet held at Franklin Park in Boston, while the boys finished 15th. Only the top five teams advance to the all-state meet held tomorrow, also at Franklin Park.

It was a cold day for Nantucket in more ways then one Saturday, as the surging Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School football team easily defeated the once mighty Whalers by a score of 43-22 in a game not nearly as close as the final score indicated to take the Island Cup for the sixth year in a row.

Vineyarders coach Donald Herman emptied his bench at the start of the second half and the Whalers got two touchdown passes late from quarterback Chris Welch to make the score respectable, but the outcome of the game was never in doubt.

After years of going without a conference affiliation, all but a handful of the athletic teams of the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High school finally found a home this week when the Eastern Athletic Conference voted unanimously to accept the Vineyard into its ranks.

The principals and athletic directors of the Eastern Athletic Conference voted without dissent on Wednesday to accept the Vineyard as the newest member of the four-school athletic conference. The vote took place at the conference’s regular meeting held at Somerset High School.

It was a triumphant return to form for the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School football team in 2008.

After a run of successful but ultimately frustrating seasons, the Island team dominated its Mayflower League Large opponents and went undefeated in the conference, earning a berth in the Division 3A Eastern Massachusetts playoffs for the first time in five years.

Just as high school athletics season kicks off comes the potentially good news that the Eastern Athletic Conference — a sports league made up of predominantly parochial schools from the south shore — has invited the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School to join its ranks.

Several Vineyard sports teams have been without a conference since the principals of the South Coast Conference unexpectedly voted in December of 2006 not to allow the regional high school to remain in the league.

The Vineyard football team may be on the field for two and a half hours of game time tomorrow, but it takes days, weeks and a year of effort by another team to get them there. The Martha’s Vineyard Touchdown Club, a nonprofit organization, works to get those players onto the field for each of the 10 or more games they play each season. At least 100 students benefit directly from the club, including 72 football players and 28 cheerleaders.

The Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School football team got off to a solid start of the season Friday with a convincing, no-nonsense 14-0 win over familiar rival Old Rochester on a rainy night in Mattapoisett.

The Vineyarders ran the option play to perfection all night, and senior Mike McCarthy scored both touchdowns on short runs in the first half to put the game away. A steady rain fell throughout the game making for soggy field conditions, but the Vineyarders’ defense was still able to clamp down and shut down the Bulldogs’ attack.

Just about every game this season for the boys’ high school basketball team has gone right down to the wire, which has provided last-minute thrills for some fans but conversely has caused something like an ulcer for coach Mike Joyce.

“All these games seemingly are decided by a single shot in the final seconds,” Mr. Joyce said following the Vineyarders’ 86-85 loss to Wareham on Tuesday. “It may be great for the fans, but it’s not easy on the coach. I think they’re trying to give me a heart attack.”

When students show up at the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School next September, some will go to sea.

For the first time, the school is offering maritime courses. Students will be able to enroll in elective classes that teach boat handling, navigation and even knot-tying.

The newly created maritime studies program at the high school is a collaborative effort between a number of different organizations.

Even though the high school boys’ hockey team punched their ticket into the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association tournament this week with an impressive shutout win over Bourne on Saturday, coach Matt Mincone still feels his team has yet to play its best hockey this season.