Monthly Archives: February 2019
Hockey, Girls’ Basketball Teams Move On in Tournament
February 28, 2019
The most exciting time of the year for RHS athletic teams was in full swing this week as the boys’ and girls’ basketball teams and the hockey team began tournament play. Two out of the three teams were able to win their opening games and will play again on Friday night (Hockey) and Saturday afternoon (Girls Basketball).
Tournament games began on Tuesday night as the boys’ basketball team traveled to Old Rochester to open up their Division 3 South tournament bid while the boys’ hockey team stayed home to take on Middleboro/Hull in a preliminary round of the D3 South tournament.
The RHS Boys’ Basketball Team and Old Rochester both had 11-9 records as they entered the seeding, but ORR won the tie-breaker and got the #8 seed, meaning that Rockland would have to travel as the #9 seed. The closeness of their records though hinted at how close the game would be, as ORR with the home court advantage, pulled off a one point win, 54-53, thus ending the boys’ season.
The take-away though is still a plus for the boys’ basketball team that ended the regular season with four straight wins, including an exciting tournament championship in the Shawn P. Cotter tournament in Abington during February vacation. All but one of those late season wins were needed to qualify for tournament, an outcome that seemed all but impossible early on in the season.
About the game, Coach Damon said in the South Coast Today report: “The kids played hard. We didn’t quit. We fell behind by 11 or 12 and we battled back.”
Hunter Wardwell and Tyrae Worrell led the scoring with 13 points apiece.
Seniors Rashaad Jean, Dan Callahan, Peter Kohler, Mike Ebersole, Anthony DeCecco and Worrell ended their careers with the Bulldogs.
The RHS Hockey Team had an even closer game as they opened up tournament play at home. This was a preliminary game as Rockland, seeded 14th with a record of 11-8-1, had a preliminary round, play-in game with #19 Middleboro/Hull. M/H’s record of 9-8-3 included two losses to the Bulldogs during the regular season.
Regular season records though are not important when it comes to tournament and the game’s back and forth play was punctuated by terrific goaltending at both ends. Rockland’s Tom McSweeney had 30 saves and Middleboro’s goalie probably played his best game of the year, turning aside many of Rockland’s scoring chances.
However, senior captain, Evan Gormley led Rockland, scoring two goals, including the overtime winner, and adding an assist.
Coach Flaherty told the Patriot Ledger: “Gormley has been our guy this year. He shows up and does what’s asked of him, and sometimes that means putting the team on his shoulders and he did that tonight. He’s a big leader for us.”
Also contributing for Rockland in addition to McSweeney and Gormley were 8th grader,Joey Salamone with one goal and sophomore Nick Blonde with two assists.
Student fans in black-out clothing were in full force at the Rockland Rink and spectators were three deep and wall-to-wall surrounding the rink.
The hockey team will go for a first round win on Friday at the Canton Ice House at 6:30. They will take on #3 see No. Quincy.
The Girls’ Basketball Team opened its tournament play on Wednesday night at home against Bishop Stang High School. The girls with a record of 14-6 are seeded #5 and Bishop Stang got the #12 seed with a record of 12-8 going in.
The girls got off to a quick start, but then the offense and defense sputtered. This allowing Stang to hang in and the Lady Dogs only took a 2 point lead (19-17) into the locker room at half-time.
The second half was a different story as the defense tightened thanks to great efforts from senior Maddie Blonde and junior Hannah Murphy. The Lady Dogs only allowed Stang two third quarter points and seven 2nd half points in all for a 55-33 win.
Caroline Elie, Ashley Murphy, Hannah Wyllie and Julia Elie took care of the scoring with Caroline Elie leading the way with 16 points. Ashley Murphy, Wyllie and Elie chipped in with double figures as well and the two Elies and Wyllie also recorded double figures in rebounding.
Fans dressed in white-out also provided a spark for the girls in their second half outburst.
Now the girls will play in a quarterfinal round on Saturday at 4 pm in Norwell. Norwell (the #4 seed) and Rockland split their two league games with Norwell taking the first game in early January in Rockland and Rockland countering in Norwell with an exciting one point win.
It should be a great game on Saturday.
Seniors Honored As Teams Wrap Up Regular Seasons
February 21, 2019
Each of the winter sports teams had successful seasons, and three teams are now preparing for their postseason tournaments. Each of the teams honored their seniors on their senior nights and below are links to a page of photos for each of the senior nights.
Veritas photographer Ashley Murphy took photos of the seniors on the wrestling and hockey teams.
Girls Basketball photos were taken by Janet Guenet and Chris Burnieika and Mr. Graziano provided Boys Basketball and Swimming photos.
Congratulations to all the seniors who participated in RHS Winter Sports!
Click on any of the group photos to go to the individual photo gallery.
Seniors on the Rockland-Abington team this year were honored on Senior Night. They are from left: Mike Broomstein (A), Antonio Gilstrap, Sean Morrissey, Liam Sullivan (A), Mike Norris and Tommy Tashjian (A). Left is AD Gary Graziano, Coach Tim Brown and right is Coach Peter Harrison. photo by Ashley Murphy
Hockey seniors honored at senior night: Brian Goode, Nick LaBollita, Jake Johnson, George Selados, Matt Dalton, CJ Armstrong and Evan Gormley. photo by Ashley Murphy
Nicole Blonde, Ashley Murphy and Maddie Blonde on senior night. Photo courtesy of Janet Guenet.
Seniors 2019: Rashaad Jean, Dan Callahan, Peter Kohler, Mike Ebersole, Anthony DeCecco and Tyrae Worrell. Photo courtesy of Chris Burnieika
Swimming Seniors 2019
Coach Julie Margolis and senior captains, John Ellard III, Aleigha Williams, Angelina Vuong, Rebecca Mullen, and Tyler Beatrice. Veritas photo
Cheerleading captain and senior Bella Burns.
Musical “Annie” in rehearsal, will premiere in April
Some cast members at a recent rehearsal for Annie: From left back: Ngan Nyuyen, Kerin Dalton, Julia Yeadon and Leah Leonard. In front from left: Rose Ripley, Cailin Sullivan, Terell Wright, Jordan Cunningham, Olivia Janis, Neleh Dunn, Bonnie Gasdia, Callie Gillen and Kayla Mantell. Veritas photo
Megan Diver & Ariana Boostrom, Veritas Staff
The Music Department is presenting the hit musical Annie written by Thomas Meehan, Charles Strouse and Martin Charnin this spring.
Annie is the story of a little orphan girl who believes her parents left her behind by mistake, and are still coming back for her. Unexpectedly, Annie (Mikayla Andres) ends up in the lap of luxury with depression-era billionaire Oliver Warbucks (Jordan Cunningham) who decides to have an orphan live with him to promote his image.
After a while, Warbucks decides he wants to adopt her. Instead, Annie asks him to help her find her real parents and he agrees. So, Warbucks announces a whopping reward to anyone who helps to locate her parents.
This attracts the attention of many con artists like Rooster (Neleh Dunn), Lily (Olivia Janis), and Miss Hannigan (Emily Gaboriault), the “caretaker” of the girls in the orphanage Annie is from. They all hatch a plot to kidnap the little girl and take Warbucks’ $50,000 reward.
You are in for a real treat because you may or may not notice that a scene is missing seeing how this is the musical and it’s not on Broadway. However, don’t fret; this classic family musical has a happy ending for Annie and Daddy Warbucks and the whole gang.
Victoria McComb, middle school and high school chorus teacher, and Michelle Booth, elementary school music teacher, are the directors of the musical.
Ms. McComb said they chose Annie because “it is well known and well loved; the music is great and we have a good group of students to portray the roles well.”
The production is set to be performed on Friday, April 5 at 7 p.m. and Saturday, April 6 at 1 p.m. in the RMS/RHS auditorium.
February Vacation Starts Today: Got Plans?
No snow days yet this year make this a much needed February Vacation! Veritas file photo
2/15/19
Students at Rockland High School will be enjoying a nice, long, well-deserved vacation starting today! After all, in an unusual winter, no snow days have been called and students have had no real rest since the holidays!
Most students will be far away from the high school, many getting much needed rest, many working extra hours to try to save money for their savings accounts, and many actually doing some school work without worrying about next-day deadlines! Some will be heading south on family vacations to Disney or other tropical locations; some will be going north to snowboard, ski or do some tubing, especially since our area has had no real snow this year (so far).
A large group of students will be playing in vacation tournaments, including the boys and girls basketball teams who will both be participating in a combined tournament hosted by Abington. For the boys they will still be in the hunt to wrap up a tournament spot, while the girls will be polishing their record to earn a home game and the highest seed possible in the postseason tournament that starts after vacation. Those games are on Monday and Wednesday. Check our website Events calendar for specific times.
The hockey team will also be involved in games over the holiday and they too will be looking to come out of the regular season ready to do well in the postseason tournament.
Two other groups will be participating in school-related activities.
The Service Learning trip to Guatemala starts on Saturday, Feb. 16. Fifteen students and three chaperones will be traveling to Guatemala and working for the week to help provide needed services and supplies to villagers near Panajachel where they will be staying. See our Veritas story on the trip here.
Another group will be heading to Boston to participate in the Harvard Model Congress program. This will be a four day conference held at the Boston Sheraton hotel conference rooms, involving multiple schools. The purpose is to foster familiarity with the government process. The Harvard Model Congress is the largest congressional simulation conference in the world, providing high school students from across the country and abroad, an opportunity to experience American government firsthand. This years’ HMC participants from RHS consists of Jordan Cunningham, Terika Crooks, Paige Donnelly, Michaela Sugrue, and Nicolle G. Winter. Ms. Adrienne Donovan is the Club Advisor. The Veritas will be reporting on the students’ experience when they get back in a week.
Whatever it is that you do, enjoy your vacation, Bulldogs, and be safe and rested, and ready for the final months of the school year!
Students Achieve High Honors for Terms 1 and 2
Principal Harrison and Asst. Principal Paulding hand out certificates at the luncheon on Tuesday, Feb. 12 for those students who achieved High Honors during the first or second or both terms this year.
Students were treated to a special luncheon on Tuesday, Feb. 12 right before their early release due to the impending snow storm.
Congratulations to the following students who achieved high honors for one or both terms so far this year. Achieving high honors means that students have gotten grades of 90 or better in all of their academic classes.
Terms 1 and 2
Kathryn Buckley
John Ellard
Kevin Matos
Ngan Nguyen
Cullen Rogers
Julia Yeadon
Term 1
Jared Allen
Monalisa Almeida
Taylor Anzivino
Jad Bendarkawi
Isabella Burns
Kerin Dalton
Tyler Gambon
Callie Gillan
Lara Glennon
Frank Hawe
Olivia Jones
Sarah MacDonald
Alyssa Patten
Ramzey Youssef
Term 2
Brett Armstrong
Kaileigh Fulton
Olivia Golemme
Robert Ivill III
Tyler Johnson
Russell Jones
Leah Leonard
Shannon Murphy
Michelle Ramoska
Madison Smith
Hannah Wyllie
Congratulations Bulldog Scholars!!
Students show support for the Patriot’s Super Bowl victory
Super Bowl MVP Julian Edelman at the parade on Monday, Feb. 5, 2019. Boston Globe photo by Barry Chin.
Jasmin Morse, Veritas Editor-in-Chief and Web Editor
2-6-19
With last Sunday’s New England Patriots victory against the LA Rams by a whopping score of 13-3 at Super Bowl LIII, yesterday, Tues. Feb. 5, called for a Boston tradition: a Super Bowl Victory Parade.
This occurrence almost seems to become annual: the parade takes place in Boston and people from all over New England come to celebrate the Super Bowl victory of their beloved hometown football team, the Patriots. The last parade was actually two years ago, in 2017,
Tom Brady holds the Lombardi trophy as he rides a duck boat through the crowds lined up for the Patriots Victory Parade on Feb. 5, 2019. USA Today photo
Yesterday, people crammed onto the streets of Boston and Boston Common to celebrate their favorite players, coaches, staff, and cheerleaders as they rolled down the streets in duck boats and were welcomed home with the Lombardi trophy as their souvenir from Atlanta.
This year was one of the highest attendances ever for a Boston sports parade. The MBTA noted that they saw the highest total of riders on the trains ever. Furthermore, the Boston police estimated about 1.5 million people to have attended the parade. (boston globe.com)
As for Rockland, many teachers planned for their class attendances to be lower than normal on the day of the parade as many students noted that they would not be coming to school. In total, RHS noted nearly 200 students to have been absent on parade day. Whether these absences were parade-related or due to it being flu season is not specified.
All in all, with unseasonably warm weather, the crowds flocked to Boston to show their love and support for Tom Brady, Julian Edelman and all the New England Patriots. People young and old celebrated their outstanding year and all the accomplishments the team had as a whole. Whether seeing Brady was your favorite part of the day, going out into the balmy spring-like weather, or simply absorbing Patriot pride, everyone who went to Boston yesterday is sure to have had an unforgettable day.
THE VERITAS 