With the fall sports season finished, Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School athletes are preparing to transition from wind swept, sunny fields, to ice rinks, in-door swimming pools, wrestling mats, and basketball courts.
For the Vineyard boys hockey team, head coach Matt Mincone is optimistic about the upcoming season.
The Vineyard hockey team is preparing for their season opening showdown against Nantucket on Saturday at Nantucket.
This season, the top offensive line is made up of senior captain Hunter Johnson (No. 7), playing center, senior captain Nate Averill (No. 4) on the wing, and senior Sol Donnelly (No. 19) on the opposite wing. Johnson and Averill, who have played on the same line since freshman year, have developed some chemistry. Both of the senior leaders are poised to surpass the 100-career-point mark, each currently hovering around 80 total.
With 12 returning senior players, the Vineyard team’s depth has also been bolstered by five talented incoming freshman players such as second line forward Ryan Heidt (No. 9), and his linemate Donnie Gregory (No. 12), as well as forward Jason Alton (No. 24), defenseman Rory Lakis (No. 27), and defenseman Angus Cummings (No. 28).
“Last year, our top line did a lot of our scoring, but we didn’t have the supplemental scoring when teams shut down our top line,” said Mincone. “This year I think that’s going to be a little different… at any given time, any one of them could step in and have an impact,” said coach Mincone.
“My only expectation is that they work hard,” said coach Mincone. “The only thing they can control is their effort.”
The hockey team played three scrimmages this past weekend, testing themselves against strong opponents like Arlington Catholic High School, Oyster River High School, and Lexington High School.
The Vineyard hockey team took on Arlington Catholic on Friday night, who is currently estimated to be the seventh strongest team in the state, said Mincone.
“Arlington is a wagon,” he said. “For the first six or seven minutes we went toe-to-toe with them. They took it to us a bit, but things leveled out. We are a competitive team.”
On Saturday morning the Vineyard hockey team faced Oyster River, the winners of last year’s state championship who also managed to retain the majority of their roster. Despite the vineyard team resting their top lines, from Mincone’s perspective, the Island team came out on top.
The final matchup of the weekend was against Lexington, where top Vineyard lines, put on a dominating performance.
