As the high school spring sports season enters the homestretch, the girls’ lacrosse team remains undefeated in their conference and appears to be a lock for the state tournament, while the fates of several others still hang in the balance. The track and field team is flying high again — literally and figuratively — with one athlete setting a new school record in the high jump this week.
Vineyard football fans can dust off their cowbells and Harpoon the Whalers signs, because the Island Cup game is back.
After a brief one-year hiatus, the fabled football game between the Vineyard and Nantucket will return this year, scheduled to be played on the Vineyard the Saturday before Thanksgiving. School and athletic officials from both Islands have been busy in recent weeks hammering out an agreement to bring back the game, which was canceled last season for the first time in nearly 50 years.
The boys’ basketball team continued to roll this week, improving its record to 10-1 — the team’s best start ever under head coach Mike Joyce.
The team now stands atop the Eastern Athletic Conference with a record of 3-0, and already has clinched a berth in the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association tournament, with roughly half a season yet to play.
The girls’ hockey team continues to improve and the boys’ hockey team staged a turnaround to the delight of team coach Matt Mincone.
Sandy Mincone, athletic director for the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School, announced this week she will step down at the end of the current school year.
Ms. Mincone, who was appointed athletic director in August for a one-year period, is leaving the position to move off-Island. She said her decision came after much thought and consideration.
“I will miss the job and the people I have had the pleasure to work with,” she said. “I wish I could pick the school up and take it with me, but of course I can’t.”
The Vineyard boys’ basketball team lost 75-62 to conference rival Bishop Feehan on Tuesday, ending an 11-game winning streak.
Earlier this month, the Vineyarders hit a three-point shot to beat Bishop Feehan in the closing seconds. But this week it was the Shamrocks turn for dramatics; they overcame a 10-point deficit in the first quarter and forced the Vineyard into 24 turnovers.
With its strong history of winning records and qualifying for the state tournament nearly every year, the boys’ tennis team is a perenniel standout.
And this year the team under longtime coach Ned Fennessey is having perhaps its strongest season ever, winning the league title in their first year in the Eastern Athletic Conference with a remarkable record of 12-2 overall and a perfect 7-0 in their league.
Vineyard sports fans had their fill of home team action on Saturday, with all four varsity winter sports teams playing and a fifth game played by the junior varsity girls’ basketball team for good measure. But there was little joy on a blustery winter day; three of the varsity teams lost and one played to a tie.
The bright spot was the girls’ JV squad, which defeated Duxbury 40-24.
Both the boys’ and girls’ lacrosse teams defeated their inter-Island rivals from Nantucket this week, as the girls rolled over the Whalers by a final of 18-5 and the boys won by a comfortable margin of 10-5. In recent years the teams have engaged in epic battles on both sides of the Sound, as both schools have featured strong lacrosse programs.
In their second year in the league, the Martha’s Vineyard boys’ basketball team this week earned a share of the Eastern Athletic Conference regular season championship, with a thrilling and hard-fought 59-55 win against foe Bishop Stang on Tuesday before the largest home crowd of the season.
The team will share the conference title with cochampions Bishop Feehan.
It was hard to say what was more threatening Tuesday, the gray and imposing skies hanging over the athletic field at the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School, or the boys’ and girls’ lacrosse teams, who both rolled over their opponents in back-to-back games during the first round of the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic tournament.
