At the conclusion at each and every school year, the Silver Lake High varsity sports teams lose a number of talented athletes to graduation and as a result, they need younger players to step up and fill the voids.

Even though the star senior athletes careers at Silver Lake are over, a handful of them end up using their athletic ability at the next level, playing a college sport. Recognizing this, Silver Lake High School held their own celebratory signing day on Thursday, May 2, recognizing the achievements of these senior star athletes who have already committed to playing a sport in college next year. Here is a look at who was honored.

Patrick McMahon — The Patriot League MVP soccer player will be playing for Bentley College (Division 2) this fall.

Colleen Foley — The captain of the Silver Lake girls’ lacrosse team will continue her career at Western Connecticut (Div. 3) next spring.

Anna Chapman — Also a captain of the Silver Lake girls’ lacrosse team, Chapman will play the sport at the University of New England (Div. 3) next spring.

Alex Lloyd — The forward for the boys’ soccer team will keep his soccer career going, playing for Fitchburg State (Div. 3) this upcoming fall.

Jenna Hurlburt — The midfielder for the girls’ soccer team will continue her career at Westfield State (Div. 3) this fall.

Hannah Mitchell — The captain, who plays first base for the Lakers softball team, will be a member of Union College’s (Div. 3) softball team next spring.

Katherine Morrisey — The girls’ swim team captain, who competed at the state meet this past winter, will compete at the University of Vermont (Div. 1)

Cam Danahy — The captain and linebacker of the Lakers football team will be a member of the Westfield State (Div. 3) football team this upcoming fall.

The Silver Lake High boys’ lacrosse team continues to do what they do best: win.

The Lakers had no issue taking care of the Plymouth North Eagles last Thursday, Apr. 25 at home. The Lakers shined not only on the attack, but defensively as well. They came up with a 19-3 win to improve to 5-2 for the season.

From the start, the Lakers proved themselves to be the dominant team. In the first quarter alone, they went up 5-0, getting all the goals they needed to win the game. Dhruva Nugent was a major part of the team’s early success, notching a hat trick (three goals) in the first quarter.

The team’s dominance would not subside from there. Although they allowed a goal in the second quarter, they also put up six more to go up 11-1 at halftime.

During the second half, the Lakers held onto their lead, and expanded it. They had a spread out scoring effort, the defense got the job done and Mike Masterpolo was excellent in net.

In the win, one Lakers player had a milestone achievement in his career. Freshman Tommy Condon got in on the scoring action, netting his first career varsity goal.

Through seven games this season, the Lakers actually had a better record this season than last year when they were 4-3 at the same point. However, the Lakers did drop their road contest against Hingham on Tuesday, Apr. 30 15-5, dropping their record to 5-3 on the season.

So far this season, the Lakers have scored 94 goals and allowed 65 in eight games, meaning they have scored 11.75 goals on average while allowing 8.125.

The Lakers next contest is this Friday, May 3 on the road against the Whitman-Hanson Panthers. The Panthers are 6-5 so far this season, according to MaxPreps.

The Silver Lake High boys’ lacrosse team met one of the toughest challenges they will face this season in their second game.

The Lakers went up against Duxbury, a perennial powerhouse on the South Shore, and were unable to get much going. Ultimately, the Lakers dropped the contest 15-3 on the road to fall to 1-1 on the season.

Early on in the game, the Lakers stayed competitive, trailing 4-2 after the first quarter. They made it 4-3 in the second quarter with another goal but from there, Duxbury was the dominant team. Duxbury scored three unanswered goals to go up 7-3 at the half. And in the second half, Duxbury shutout the Lakers and continued scoring at about the same clip they did in the first half. Their offense exploded for five straight goals in the third quarter and slowed down a bit in the fourth and final one.

Brendan Dean shined for the Lakers in the loss, scoring a pair of goals; Sean Daly scored the Lakers other goal of the game. In net, Michael Masterpolo made a number of stops for the Lakers.

If the Lakers first contest of the season, their 13-5 victory over Barnstable two days prior, is any indication, their offense should be strong this season.  In that one, Matthew Dole, Brendan Dean and Gregory Wolff led the way, scoring three goals apiece. Dole also had two assists, putting his point total on the day at five. Plus, Jake LaFerrera netted a pair of goals while Sean Daly and Dhruva Nugent each added one more. Masterpolo also picked up the win in net and received the team’s Hard Hat Award for his performance.

The Lakers next contest is on Tuesday, Apr. 16. They will host North Attleboro in a game slated to start at noontime.

The Town of Halifax is in the process of updating its Housing Production Plan (HPP) with technical assistance provided by the Old Colony Planning Council, the Regional Planning Agency for this area. 

Residents can help participate by completing the following survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/BD7Z3QZ

A Housing Production Plan is a proactive strategy for planning and developing affordable housing.  

The State’s regional planning statute, Chapter 40B, is a law that seeks to ensure that all 351 of the Commonwealth’s cities and towns provide for the creation of new homes for individuals, families and older adults, across a range of incomes. 

The goal of the statute is for every city and town to have 10% of their year round housing units qualify as affordable to households making up to 80% of the area median income.   The statute helps communities meet the Commonwealth’s housing needs, by providing a flexible zoning approval process (comprehensive permit) for developments that include 25% affordable units.  At the same time, Chapter 40B provides opportunities for municipalities to control their own housing growth.  

The law enables agencies like MassHousing to deny 40B project eligibility to projects that are inconsistent with local planning priorities in localities that have demonstrated commitment to planning and delivering housing growth.  That is why it is important to have an up to date Housing Production Plan and have it approved by The Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD).  

HPP’s give communities that are under the 10% threshold of Chapter 40B, but are making steady progress in producing affordable housing on an annual basis, more control over comprehensive permit applications for a specified period of time. Communities that demonstrate planning and production for affordable housing may also be eligible to receive priority scoring for Commonwealth Grant Programs as well as access to capital grant programs and technical assistance.  

Community input is a key part of the planning process and this survey will help provide a better understanding of the needs of Halifax residents. It is important to understand who currently lives in the community, demographic trends affecting future growth, existing housing stock, and future housing needs.   

By engaging the community in discussions about the need for affordable housing and taking a proactive approach in updating its Housing Production Plan, Halifax is more likely to achieve its long range housing and community planning goals, allowing for more diverse housing opportunities for residents of all income levels.  

With the amount of talent that exists in the league, it has become a tradition for players from several different schools to come together to compete in the Patriot League All-Star basketball games.

The games, that take place on an annual basis after the teams wrap up their regular season, feature the best competition the league has to offer with Patriot League Keenan Division teams taking on those of the Fisher Division. Both games took place on Friday, Mar. 8, at Whitman-Hanson Regional High School and the Lakers had representation in both of them.

On the girls side, Holly Reeder-Morning got the nod for Silver Lake. She was one of nine players on the Keenan team this time around. The team featured three players from Plymouth North, another three from Duxbury and two from Whitman-Hanson. The Hingham girls did not have any representatives there, however, as they were still competing in the Division 2 South playoffs.

Ultimately, the Keenan ended up winning that contest over the Fisher, 71-70.

Lily Gustafson represented the Lakers well in the three-point contest as well prior to the game. She exemplified her ability from beyond the arc and lasted three rounds into the contest.

The Silver Lake boys had three participants in their respective All-Star game: Danny Duggan, Josh Gilbert and Josh Murphy. Murphy was also the team’s participant in the three-point shootout, and he made seven of them.

Since none of the boys’ teams were still in the playoffs, all of the teams competed in the All-Star game, and the Fisher Division boys beat the Keenan Division 110-90.

This past season, the Silver Lake boys’ team finished the year at 13-9 and beat Stoughton in the preliminary round of the Div. 2 South playoffs before falling to Tech Boston in the first round. The girls’ squad was on the younger side and finished the year at 4-17.

Facing tough competition early in the season, the Silver Lake High girls’ basketball team had a hard time picking up wins at the beginning of their season. However, they continued to grow as a unit as the year progressed and ended up enjoying more success in the second half of the year.

Six of the first seven teams the Lakers faced at the start of the season ended up being tournament teams: Bridgewater-Raynham, East Bridgewater, Duxbury, Pembroke, Plymouth North and Falmouth. While they started the year off by losing their first five games, the team coached by Olly deMacedo did pick up wins against New Mission, North Quincy and Quincy in the final month of the season to finish the year at 4-17.

Once Holly Reeder-Morning come back to the team from her ACL injury midway through the season, they saw an uptick in their offensive production and their overall success. A junior this season, she will be back again next season for her fourth year on varsity.

This season, the Lakers had a healthy mix of veterans and younger players, so experience should not be a big issue for them next season. This time around, they had five seniors on their roster: Izzy Ruprecht, Jessica Stas, Brianna Villanova and Stephanie Bennett.

On the other hand, they will have plenty of players coming back next season, who are varsity contributors. These include players such as Molly Turbush, Riley Dunphy, Erin Demacedo, Lily Gustafson, Lilly Noonan, Kiley O’Brien and Natalie Bouchard, as well as Reeder-Morning.

That said, the Lakers have the foundation set so that they can keep working hard in hopes of enjoying more success in the future–and it is certainly attainable. After all, the team won 16 games and made it to the tournament in the 2017-2018 season.