For the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic, the Island Cup, the fabled football rivalry between the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School and Nantucket Whalers, has been officially canceled.
The Vineyard coaching staff said they made the difficult decision to forfeit the rivalry matchup and the remainder of the 2025 season due to injuries and off-field infractions severely reducing the Vineyard’s roster. Head Coach Tony Mottola said while the decision unfortunately comes the same week they are scheduled to play Nantucket, if their team had the number of missing players they have now at any other point in the season, the decision of the coaching staff would’ve been the same.
“It’s really just the safety of the kids at this point. We have available for practices right now 15 to 18 players, and of those players, seven to eight of them are freshman. We have currently six positions with no substitutes. If a kid were to go down midgame, we would have to forfeit,” said Mottola in an interview with The Times on Sunday.
Vineyard football players, and especially seniors, are emotional because they won’t have a chance to play for the Island Cup one last time.
“The game getting called off is heartbreaking. From the loss last year, I wanted nothing more than to win this one. I trained all year practically for this game, so it does suck not playing,” said senior captain and quarterback William Nicholson. “On the other hand, I understand the decision the coaching staff made.”
The Vineyard team, which began the season with a full 35-player roster, is now down to 21 active players.
“There were injuries, but there were also six kids who had to be dismissed because of disciplinary things, not doing the right things in school, and all those things kind of add up,” said Mottola.
Seven players on the Vineyard squad are sidelined with short-term injuries expected to last two to three weeks, and many of the upperclassmen are playing at 50 percent capacity due to lingering injuries, which puts them at further risk in a game scenario.
“After meeting as a coaching staff on Friday night and again Saturday morning, we unanimously agreed that — given our current roster numbers, lack of positional depth, and ongoing injury concerns — continuing to play games would pose a significant risk to player safety,” Mottola said in an email shared with Island families.
Mottola said while the decision to cancel the remainder of the season and the Island Cup game was difficult to make, the entire coaching staff was on board.
“I’ve been a football coach for a long time, and I’ve never had to make this decision before. It’s really difficult,” said Mottola. “When it’s all said and done, they aren’t NFL players or D1 scholarship players; they are high schoolers just trying to have a good experience, and we felt their safety was at such high risk at this point that it didn’t make sense, and that’s our job as coaches, to do what’s best for the kids.”
The decision to cancel the remainder of the football season was officially announced in a press release from MVRHS on Monday. The school acknowledged the impact of the cancellation and the Island Cup game on both the Vineyard and Nantucket community.
“This decision was made with a full understanding of its effects on both communities, and it was guided by the priority of player safety and team readiness. We look forward to returning to this beloved rivalry next year with healthy, competitive teams,” said MVRHS Athletic Director Mark McCarthy in the press release.
With the most important game of the season for the Vineyard squad canceled, the team is looking for ways to end the season on a positive note.
“There has been a lot of talk about next season for the younger guys, and I’ve talked about helping them out in the off-season, and possibly training the next quarterback,” said captain Nicholson. “We have had two team dinners together since the news, and there will probably be more to come. And there’s the end-of-the-year banquet coming up. There’s also been talk about going as a team to a college game.”
Thank you for putting the wellbeing of the young Humans on the football team first. I have seen exceptionally wonderful examples of sportsmanship on the field this season. Coaching at its finest.
I also want to commend you for a difficult decision. Keeping the safety of young athletes ahead of the joys of competing and playing the beloved Island Cup is not only a wise decision, it is a great example to set for young people.
Clearly, a very tough decision for the coaching staff and team leaders to make … A strong example of putting the player’s well-being first and foremost.
David Halsey, M.D.
MVRHS Team Physician
Thank you, Island Cup coaching staff! The players are what’s most important.
I take an entirely different view, which I suppose is no surprise. An almost identical but opposite thing happened with Vito’s last game-but he and the Whaler’s showed up. The outcome was as expected, the Whaler’s took a bit of a shellacking-though the only one injured was the Coach himself when he took an inadvertent hit on the sidelines by a Vineyard player. These are life lessons that should never be out of fashion.
“There were injuries but there were also six kids who had to be dismissed because of disciplinary things not doing the right things in school and all those things kind of add up,”
Out of 35 players, 6 had to be removed and no reporting on that not so little detail?
Don’t the public deserve better than this, with the considerable public resources spent on this program?
No, the public does not need to know about the disciplinary issues. It’s a pretty safe, bet that the students involved are under age, therefore any issues are between the students, their parents and the school. The public does not have a right to know. Now, if they were selling tainted, honey….
James,
Student discipline is not for public knowledge. By law you can not disclose this information.
james, this is very important and should be investigated. Reporting only on injuries will not help in the “rebuilding” efforts mentioned by the coach. Also what are the injuries? If it is in true fact that 6 players were removed for behavior issues that is more damaging than the injury report.
Should all school discipline actions be publicly disclosed?
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