Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School teams continue to roll through their fall season, with three undefeated squads competing at press time. Look for several home games during the coming week.
Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School teams continue to roll through their fall season, with three undefeated squads competing at press time. Look for several home games during the coming week.
On Saturday, after two years of frustration and delay, Nantucket finally came back across the Muskeget Channel and down the placard-lined mean streets of Oak Bluffs to rekindle a rivalry that, simply by geography, is unlike any other in sports. It was worth the wait.
The Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School football team remains undefeated after a rainy, windy and sometimes sloppy Friday night home opener against South Shore Vocational Tech.
Senior standout Randall Jette followed his 192-yard, five-touchdown rushing performance against Coyle-Cassidy with his first passing touchdown of the season, a 19-yard laser to T.J. Vangervan to help seal the 20-6 victory. Strong rushing performances by Brian Montambault and Chris Costello put the game away on a night in which both teams struggled against the elements.
The scouting reports are in and Whaler Pride is back. The last Nantucket team the Vineyard faced finished the season 0-10, capped by an embarrassing 43-22 Island Cup thrashing that saw Vineyard coach Don Herman pull most of his starters by halftime.
Field hockey turned in an impressive performance last week, pushing their season record to 6-2-2 with wins against league opponent Somerset on Thursday and Notre Dame-Hingham on Saturday.
Field hockey turned in an impressive performance last week, pushing their season record to 6-2-2 with wins against league opponent Somerset on Thursday and Notre Dame-Hingham on Saturday. Angela DeBettencourt and Megan McHugh scored for the Vineyard in their 2-1 Somerset win, with Maggie Johnson assisting on both goals. Johnson turned in a goal of her own in the 3-1 Saturday victory, as did McHugh and Genevieve Hammond. The team plays Barnstable in an away match today, and takes on Nauset next Tuesday.
Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School football coach Don Herman expected his 200th win to be a private accomplishment. “I never mentioned anything to my players,” he said in an interview in his office at the high school on Wednesday. But last Thursday as the coach walked off the practice field he was amused to hear the team break from its huddle. “Two hundred!” they shouted.
Seating arrangements at school lunch tables often seem right out of the movies. Students have their designated tables, their designated tablemates; it may seem peculiar to outsiders but it is a constant in the students’ day. Just as some adults feel off when they don’t have their cup of coffee in the morning, students feel off if they’re not sitting in their regular desk in a classroom or with their regular group for lunch.
The game is back. Every fall on the Island the leaves turn red and fall to the ground, scallopers take to Island ponds, and the V’s and W’s line up across from each other on the gridiron the week before Thanksgiving to add a new chapter to The Rivalry. Then, all of a sudden last year, they didn’t. The dead leaves might as well have clung to their branches. After the ensuing round of finger-pointing and resentment subsided the Game is back on the schedule.
It’s still too early for the leaves of fall to be rustling, but other sounds of the season are already in the air: the impatient tweets of a whistle, garbled voices speaking through mouthguards, and the soft smack of a pigskin landing perfectly between two outstretched hands.
By IVY ASHE
It’s still too early for the leaves of fall to be rustling, but other sounds of the season are already in the air: the impatient tweets of a whistle, garbled voices speaking through mouthguards, and the soft smack of a pigskin landing perfectly between two outstretched hands.
Football season is back at the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School.
