ORLEANS – One of the crown jewels of the Lower Cape will now shine even brighter. On Monday, Orleans Firebirds president Bob O’Donnell presented Orleans Select Board Chair Kevin Galligan and Department of Public Works Facilities Manager Ron Collins with a $40,000 check to offset the town’s costs to fully recondition the lights at Eldredge Park, the Cape Cod Baseball League’s oldest field. The Firebird...

Winter sports have gotten the green light at Monomoy and Nauset Regional High Schools, though Monomoy's season will see a bit of a delay due to the school's recent closure in the wake of new cases of COVID-19 among students. Originally, winter sports were supposed to start with tryouts and practices on Dec. 14, but two positive cases at MRHS necessitated the closure of the school until after the holiday break....

As I sit before my screen, fingers hovering above the keys, myriad song lyrics ping-pong through my mind. One from Eminem about having one shot, one opportunity. One from “Hamilton” about not throwing away my shot. Even one from Sinatra about doing it my way. But the truth is, while I'm excited about my next chapter, turning the page is also bittersweet. A little more than five years ago, I arrived on the Lowe...

CAPE COD RAIL TRAIL – What do you do if you've been training all year for the Honolulu Marathon and it gets canceled? If you're Meaghan Murphy, you bring the run home to Cape Cod and hit the trail. That's exactly what Murphy, whose family has a home in Orleans, did on Dec. 12. With the Cape shrouded in a blanket of fog, Murphy and her friends and family gathered at a parking area near a Yarmouth entrance to th...

HARWICH — When Monomoy senior Caitlin Bouvier was in seventh grade, longtime area field hockey coach Cheryl Poore held an informational meeting about joining her Reach Field Hockey Camp. Bouvier was intrigued and told her parents she wanted to give the sport a try. Fast forward a few years, and Bouvier has signed on to play for the St. Joseph's College Monks in the fall. Bouvier's love of the sport began not l...

HARWICH - Bill O'Connell doesn't mind doing double duty. Though already head football coach at St. John Paul II High School in Hyannis, he recently signed on to become the new head basketball coach for Monomoy girls varsity basketball and is looking forward to leading the Sharks into a strong future. “It's a great school,” he said of Monomoy. “I've seen them play, having coached on the Cape. Some of the people...

HARWICH – The modifications are many, but not enough to stop winter sports from happening, which comes as great news to student-athletes across the state and at the local level who are looking forward to starting their seasons on Dec. 14. In a roughly two-hour meeting on Nov. 20, the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association (MIAA) held discussions and votes on the guidelines set forth by the Executiv...

SOUTH YARMOUTH – The Monomoy boys clawed their way back from a 1-0 deficit to a 2-1 lead in the Cape and Islands Lighthouse League finals against Sturgis East on Monday night, and then, with the Sharks just seconds away from their first-ever championship win, the lights above the pitch at Townhouse Field in Yarmouth went out, casting the field in darkness. The glitch was just one more oddity in a season of str...

HARWICH – It was a strange season for the Monomoy girls varsity field hockey team, but the Sharks weathered the changes and their opponents in the Cape and Islands Lighthouse League to earn the championship with a commanding 11-1 victory against Sturgis West on Nov. 14. To make the sport safer to play during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, games were restructured so that play featured 7-on-7 instead of the trad...

HARWICH – Adulting, even under the best circumstances, can be challenging, especially when it comes to trying to find a balance between the personal and professional. It is a challenge Pete Richer knows well as he recently had to step down from his position as head coach of Monomoy girls basketball to attend to his landscaping business. Richer emphasized that the decision to resign did not come easy. “It's ...

The Chatham Turkey Trot is a Thanksgiving morning tradition and the organizers and originators of the event are looking forward to keeping the 2020 event running, albeit with a new format that turns the run/walk into a DIY event. Costumes are still encouraged, as are donations to the Lower Cape Outreach Council. The event first kicked off in 2005, started by Mary Parsons and Linda Redding, who drew inspiration...

HARWICH – It was a high intensity game from start to finish when the Monomoy boys varsity soccer team hosted Rising Tide in their final regular season match of 2020 on Nov. 5. But it was ultimately the Tide that rolled over the Sharks with a 1-0 victory in Cape and Islands League action. On an afternoon that seemed made for a soccer game given the unseasonably warm weather, the Sharks kicked off their battle a...