Miss Rockland 2021

Althea Olsen, Veritas Editor-in-Chief

January 28, 2021

Congratulations to Hannah Makarski for winning Miss Rockland Class of 2021! The ceremony announcing this year’s Miss Rockland was held in the auditorium today and was streamed live at 9:15 am.  Parents attended and students could watch in their classrooms via a Google Meet link.

Below is Hannah’s biography.

Hannah is a three sport athlete who  has participated in soccer, track and basketball.  She is a mentor for the Bulldog Buddy program, a freshman mentor as well as working in our unified gym classes. Hannah also volunteers her time with our Special Ed program and our preschool program. She plans to attend Merrimack College, major in health science and become a Respiratory Therapist.

Congratulations to all of the nominees for Miss Rockland 2021 for your outstanding achievements and recognition! Below are the biographies of the nominees.

Greta Russo is a member of the varsity soccer and lacrosse teams. She is also a student council executive board member as well as the president of the Massachusetts Association of Student Councils. She has partnered volunteer work with the Special Olympics of Massachusetts and is a member of the National Honor Society. Greta plans to attend a four year college majoring in either pre-med or environmental policy.

Hannah Rich is a member of the varsity girls soccer team, serving as captain her senior year as well as the girls varsity lacrosse team, serving as captain her junior and senior years. She volunteers with the Freshman mentoring program and is a member of the National Honor Society. Hannah plans to attend a four year college and obtain her nursing degree and hopes to continue her education with a Masters of Nursing or as a Physicians Assistant. She aspires to become a pediatric nurse.

Miku Yoshioka is a member of the RHS swim and tennis teams and has held the position of class secretary, student council secretary and serves this year as the student council president. She also participated in the drama production of Marcus is Walking. She has participated in SEMASC and MASC through student government and has volunteered with Special Olympics, Walk for Hunger, Old Colony Center for Health and Rehabilitation and the Breast Cancer Walk. She also volunteers her free time at Mathnasium as a center directors assistant.  Miku plans to attend a four year college and major in Neurobiology and intends to become a physician.  

Gianna Gervasi has participated for four years with Rockland High School’s award winning State and New England State Championship Cheerleading team.  She has also been involved with student government and participated in Project Pumpkin as well as Unified Sports.  Gianna is a teacher and volunteer at Fashion Focus teaching young girls proper etiquette and confidence in themselves.  She plans to attend a four year university, major in math and education to pursue her goal as a secondary level Math teacher.

Lauren Draicchio is a four year player of varsity  lacrosse and also serves as the team captain.   She has served as an executive and general  member of the student council, a freshman mentor as well as class president.  Lauren is a youth cheerleading junior coach and a youth basketball referee.  She plans to attend a four year college and major in nursing with hopes of becoming a Beyond Borders nurse, traveling to provide healthcare to less fortunate children and communities.

Nominees and Miss Rockland are voted on by their Class of 2021 peers, based on their activities and contributions to the school and community of Rockland.

Once again, congratulations to all nominees and winner Hannah Makarski. Thank you Ms. White and Dr. Harrison for delivering the ceremony, and thank you Ms. Dunn for coordinating this event, and allowing it to happen.

Photos from today’s event are below.  Thank you Ms. Medeiros!

Dr. Harrison crowns Hannah Makarski as Miss Rockland

Gianna and her parents

Greta with her parents

Lauren with her parents.

Hannah with her Mom and Dad. A fun fact: Hannah’s Mom, Lisa (Armstrong) was crowned Miss Rockland in 1991!

Miku with her Dad.

Hannah and her Mom

Nominees for Ms. Rockland

Here’s the Youtube video of the Miss Rockland ceremony.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uezk8laNKf0

 

 

Winter Sports Update

Rockland’s Derek Williams against Cohasset. photo from Twitter

James Tsiantoulas, Sports Editor 

Winter sports are underway as of now and there have been some bright spots for the teams. Even though COVID is still around we have been slowly getting back to a sense of normalcy surrounding sports. Fans may not be allowed but the teams are learning to play their game without all of the noise. 

The boys varsity basketball team has come out to a hot start on the year, winning their first 4 games of the season, as they had just played Cohasset High School on January 20th. The team was set to start the year off against Cohasset, but COVID tracing at Cohasset High postponed the game and Middleborough was played instead. This did not affect the team as they managed to win their first game and used the momentum to carry them forward. The team was set to play Middleborough once again on Friday January 22nd, but due to close contact tracing in Middleborough High the game was postponed. This team is looking red hot and are willing to go toe to toe with anyone. 

They made it five wins on Jan. 27 with a 65-49 win against Mashpee at home.

In addition, the boys J.V. basketball team has not been able to get any action recently due to COVID. This will not deter them from their season however as they are competitors and are hungry to get back out on the court as soon as possible. 

The girls varsity basketball team played Cohasset on January 20th as well, winning their third game of the year. The team had lost their first game of the year to Norwell and stayed close the second meeting with them. They were hard fought games. The team managed to bounce back and win 2 straight, beating both Notre Dame Academy and East Bridgewater at home. Last Friday they lost to Middleboro to even out their record at 3 wins and 3 losses.

On Tuesday, January 26, the girls traveled to Mashpee and defeated them 43-32 to get their fourth win.  The JV girls also won, their first win of the year, at Mashpee.

The hockey team is also doing well with a record of 3-3-0.  Their game on Saturday night, Jan. 23 was a 3-0 win against Cardinal Spellman, their second win against the Cardinals.  

On Tuesday Jan. 27 the team had a rematch with Norwell and even though this was a home game the result was the same, their second loss to the Clippers.  That evened their record at 3 wins and 3 losses.

Although COVID has made this year somewhat difficult, it has not deterred the athletes whatsoever. The boys and girls teams are out to great starts and are looking to finish out their years even stronger.

Basketball home games can be seen on WRPS live and hockey at the Rockland link is on Facebook live. Away games are also available.  Check Twitter for streaming links and updated schedules.

 

 

 

Winter Sports Teams Start Their Seasons

January 12, 2021

updated January 13, 2021

The winter sports season finally got underway on Friday, Jan. 8 when the girls basketball team and the boys basketball team played their opening games.

The girls traveled to Norwell for their first contest. Norwell came away with the win as the young Rockland team struggled to score. After only being down by 2 points with 4 minutes left, Norwell went on to capitalize on Rockland’s turnovers and came away with a 47-34 victory. The Lady Dogs will look for revenge on Friday, Jan. 15 when Norwell will travel to Rockland.

Junior captain Julia Elie

Meanwhile the girls got their first win of the season on Monday night over Notre Dame Academy by a score of 50-34. Rockland was led by junior captain, Julia Elie who had 29 points and 13 rebounds. Elie had 21 of those 29 points in the second half as the Lady Dogs pulled away in a game in which they led by 3 at halftime. Emma Cameron, Maggie Elie, Charlie Kelliher, Carol Lage, Sydney Blaney and Maddie Hermaneau played well for the girls.

The girls had another home game against East Bridgewater on Tuesday, January 12. Led by Charlie Kelleher’s 4 3 pointers in the first half, the girls went on to defeat EB 44 to 27. Julia Elie led with 13 pts, followed by Kelleher’s 12.

Patrick Moriarty, Senior captain

The boys basketball team also opened up their season on January 8 beating Middleboro 49-39. Leading the way was senior Patrick Moriarty who had 18 points.

This article appeared in the Enterprise.

On Tuesday, January 12, the boys got their second SSL win defeating EB 48 to 34. Senior Derek Williams had 15 pts followed by Patrick Moriarty with 14 pts. Their next scheduled game will be Friday night at Norwell.

Dogs’ hockey team

The hockey team began their season on Sunday night at the Rockland Rink by defeating East Bridgewater 6-3. They were led by sophomore Joey Salamone’s 3 goals and 1 assist, and sophomore Logan Murphy’s 2 goals. Sophomore Sean Geary had 1 goal and 1 assist and senior Nick Blonde had 2 assists. Senior Thomas McSweeney had 15 saves for the Dogs.

Check this article about the team.

 

Games and schedules often change so go to Twitter or Facebook to see updates for the hockey team and for the basketball teams. Basketball home games will be live streamed on WRPS.  Links for away game live streams will be announced and usually published on Twitter as well.

 

Spirit Week will continue on Jan. 4 for Cohort B

Spirit Week for Cohort B will be this coming week: Jan. 4-8.

Greta Willis, Veritas Staff

Spirit Week is one of the many fun traditions students look forward to each year. But, as the already complicated school year continued in December, it fell under the “postponed” category. 

Originally,  this event was supposed to be split into two separate weeks for each cohort. Cohort A’s Spirit Week was able to happen last week.  Unfortunately for Cohort B, their week was the same week the high school had to switch back to full remote.

Now that the school has announced going back to hybrid mode, Cohort B will be back in school on Jan. 4 and will be able to participate in Spirit Week in the coming week.

Miku Yoshioka, a senior and member of SGC, shared her experience in bringing Spirit Week to life during this unprecedented time.

“Just like any other year, Spirit Week has always been hectic, from what days we wanted, to the participation of our student body.”

She added, “This year it was hard, due to the council having to be flexible with the pandemic. We made it so both cohorts are able to show their school spirit.”

Freshman Joey Gallagher commented on the freshmen class’ first high school experience. “I liked the groutfit day because it was nice to wear something comfortable. In the future I would like to see a sports or jersey day.”

Seniors from left to right: Gianna Gervasi, Meghan Hoblitzelle, Jaelyn Glavin, and Katelyn Fitzgerald showed their class colors during Cohort A’s Spirit Week. photo by Lauren Draicchio

Despite the setbacks, junior Gabriella Gambon was excited to show her spirit amidst the chaos. “I overall liked the Spirit Week days this year even though I didn’t participate in all of them. I feel that a lot of people enjoyed comfy day including myself. My favorite day of the week had to definitely be decades day. I don’t think a lot of people participated, but I personally liked it.”

She also said, “Character day was my least favorite day because I just didn’t want to dress up as a character. That’s just not my thing. I really wanted to do camouflage day, but sadly I don’t own any camouflage patterned clothing.” 

She concluded, “Class color day is always a classic and I love to see everyone with their class shirts, having school spirit!”

It has been difficult when every day is almost unpredictable, but the students at RHS have been working hard while maintaining a positive attitude through it all. 

Below are some photos courtesy of Lauren Draicchio and Twitter photos from Cohort A.