BARNSTABLE – Sometimes you just run into a buzzsaw. That’s what happened to the Nauset High School football team last weekend. The Warriors finally met Cape and Islands League rival Barnstable on Friday night after the two Atlantic Division foes were originally scheduled to meet in Week 1 of the Fall II season, a game that was canceled because both programs were in COVID-19 protocols. While Friday’s contest...

HARWICH – For as long as the sport has been played, football coaches have rattled off clichés about the importance of executing in all three phases of the game: offense, defense and special teams. On Saturday, the Cape Cod Tech football team learned just how critical it is for an offense to play well. Although the Crusaders’ defense was stellar throughout the team’s home opener, turnovers plagued the offense...

Kaleigh Powell is no stranger to the Nauset Regional High School volleyball program. She was the coach for the freshman and junior varsity teams the past three years and served as an assistant for the varsity squad, so she had been on the sidelines for past Warriors victories. But this one was special. Nauset’s varsity volleyball team earned its first win of the Fall II season on March 30, a 3-2 victory at ...

ORLEANS – The Cape Cod Tech-Cape Cod Academy co-op boys hockey team nearly went extinct. After not fielding a team during the 2019-20 season due to a lack of players, the two schools, bonded by their shared mascot, the Crusaders, have returned to the ice during the Fall II season. “I just feel lucky we’re able to have a season this year and lucky to get it in during the March-April window,” said Cape Tech-C...

FALMOUTH – The chips were stacked against the Nauset football team. The Warriors entered their season opener against Cape and Islands League Atlantic Division rival Falmouth on the heels of a short week of practice after a return to COVID-19 protocols that forced the team to cancel its scheduled Week 1 game against Barnstable, which was also in protocol. Although the team ultimately suffered a 20-7 defeat t...

The late Tom Petty said it best when he sang “The waiting is the hardest part.” For high school spring sports players and coaches throughout Massachusetts, that lyric rings especially true after the 2020 spring sports season was canceled due to COVID-19. “I think I speak for all of the coaches — not only at Monomoy but everywhere — when I say that we’re thankful to have a season, especially after last year,...

HARWICH – Even after suffering a lopsided 42-0 defeat Monday, there were reasons for the Monomoy Regional High School football team to be optimistic. For starters, the team was shorthanded and only had a couple days of practice after COVID-19 close contacts forced the team to pause its preseason preparations for two weeks. The rust and lack of conditioning were evident in the season's opener against the...

Cape Tech football coach Chris Leonard remembers when Joe Small joined the team as a freshman and how he immediately sprung into varsity action – a somewhat common occurrence for teams like the Crusaders, who have a limited number of players due to a smaller enrollment than many of their opponents. Leonard’s heart broke for a variety of reasons when the fall football season was canceled due to an uptic...

The start of the high school football season will have to wait. Well, for two Lower Cape teams, anyway. Both Monomoy and Nauset paused their preparation for the Fall II season after contact tracing determined members of each team has been in close contact with the COVID-19 virus. The pauses will have differing impacts for the two teams, however, as Monomoy doesn’t expect to miss any games while Nauset will mis...

HARWICH – A few years ago, Sean Deveau never could have imagined he would solidify his college plans while wearing a facemask and remaining six feet apart from his family, friends, teachers and coaches. While the COVID-19 pandemic altered his senior year experience in many ways, Deveau, a Harwich resident and three-sport athlete at Monomoy Regional High School, still feels grateful about all he’s experienced t...

Eventually somebody clever will come up with a name for that week in March 2020. You know the one, that stretch between Sunday, March 8, and Saturday March 14 — the week COVID-19 took hold of our nation and the world. The week everything changed. Monomoy Regional High School athletic director Karen Guillemette and Nauset Regional High School athletic director John Mattson remember that week well. They were ...

HARWICH – One by one, the players on the Monomoy Regional High School football team filed onto the field. They were carrying their shoulder pads and helmets, as well as gym bags and extra sweatshirts – an article of clothing that has become a necessary piece of equipment to battle the harsh bite of the March cold. Make no mistake about it: There are challenges associated with playing football during a global p...