In more than a decade of sports reporting, I've definitely had the opportunity to meet my fair share of coaches. Each has been memorable for different reasons, and that includes Roy Porter, who passed away recently after a battle with cancer. I knew Coach Porter not from this job, but a past position when he was first head coach at Cape Cod Academy, and then Sturgis East. In a sea of stern-faced leaders shouti...

HARWICH ─ In the family that is Cape Cod basketball, Jordan Fisher was not only well known, but also beloved, not only for his love of the game, but for his infectious grin and a friendly personality that won him much respect. This weekend, Fisher, who tragically lost his life in a car accident in October, will be honored in the first Jordan Fisher Memorial Basketball Tournament, happening Saturday at the commu...

HARWICH ─ Field hockey has been a lifelong passion for Monomoy senior Marina Small, who proved a formidable player for the Sharks during her tenure at the high school. Now, after formally signing her letter of intent, Small is taking her talents to Westfield State, where she's looking forward to joining the Owls in some fierce competition. Small first picked up a hockey stick when she was in kindergarten, ap...

The end of the year is an excellent time to reflect, recharge, and especially remember, and in the local sports world, whether it was expanded teams, coaching changes, tournament runs, or athletes making names for themselves, 2016 offered much to look back on. See a gallery of 2016 sports photos here .

ORLEANS ─ The 2016-17 season is officially under way for the Furies girls varsity ice hockey team, and so far head coach Scott Rebello is pleased with their performances, which include an opening 9-2 victory against Stoughton, tough losses to Falmouth and Pembroke, and a hard-fought 1-1 tie against Bishop Fenwick. Most recently the Furies, a team comprised of players from Monomoy, Cape Cod Tech, and Nauset h...

HARWICH ─ The Monomoy boys varsity basketball team might have suffered two tough losses in their first week of the 2016-17 season, but a buzzer-beating win is serving as a reminder that the season is just getting started, and as senior captain Chris Mazulis said, “We already have a better record than we did last year.” That's the attitude the Sharks are trying to hang on to after weathering a 50-36 loss to S...

Perhaps my all time favorite line from Dr. Seuss's beloved holiday classic “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” is this: “How could it be so? It came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes, or bags.” This news sets the Grinch puzzling and puzzling until, well, his poor puzzler was sore. It certainly is something to think about, especially given our consumer-driven materialistic appr...

HARWICH ─ In the nearly 50 years since Cheryl Poore began coaching field hockey in Harwich, she has become something of a legend in the sport. That era came to an end this week when Poore officially resigned from her head coaching post at Monomoy Regional High School. “When I first started coaching it was a very different time,” Poore said regarding her reason for stepping down. “Today, the roles of teachers...

HARWICH ─ While other teams were still practicing, the Monomoy girls varsity squad hosted Cape Tech in one of the earliest games of the 2016-2017 season, playing to a 39-11 victory in the Shark Tank Dec. 8. Though pleased with his team's win, Monomoy head coach Pete Richer acknowledged that his players were still shaking off some rust. “It was a very early season game, so we haven't had a lot of time to p...

HARWICH ─ When a softball soared over the fence at Mashpee High last year unbeknownst to the field umpire who thought it bounced first, Monomoy players Hannah Potter and Karley Marchese knew they had to say something. Little did they know that their honesty would result in the program's winning the MIAA Sportsmanship Moment of the Year for 2016. Available members of the team were feted at Gillette Stadium du...

HARWICH ─ When part-time Harwich resident Denise McClung won a pickleball tournament this fall, it wasn't the win that made the event such fun. It was the women from the local pickleball group that elevated the day from special to sublime. “It's the people,” said McClung, who divides her time between Harwich and West Virginia. “I love sports and I love to be competitive, but the bigger drive for me is the pe...

HARWICH ─ There are a lot of amazing memories wrapped up in Paul “Spanky” Demanche's 19 years as head coach of Barnstable Football. Super Bowl championships, snow on Thanksgiving, and scores of amazing athletes. On Nov. 26, Demanche added one more memory when he was inducted into the school's Athletic Hall of Fame as their winningest coach of all time. Demanche said he learned of the induction early this fal...