Just in case you were wondering who the top Patriot League girls gymnastics team is, you do not have to look too far.

On Thursday, Jan. 19, the question was answered, and the answer comes from the combined efforts of four towns — the Silver Lake/Pembroke co-op.

In the meet that was held at Hanover High School, the Lakers were sharp. They put up 126.8 points — nearly two points higher than the runner-up, Hanover (124.95). Hingham finished third in the meet with 123.65 points. In all, six teams competed.

Tori Newton had a strong showing for the co-op in the meet.

She finished second in the all-around with 32.05 points, second on bars with 7.9 points, third on beams with 8.25 points and third on floor with 8.1 points.

Bridget Gannon tied for first on vault with 8.4 points; Calliste Brookshire placed second on the floor with 8.2 points and third on vault with 8.25 points. Clara Dalrymple had a second place finish on vault with 8.3 points and Caroline Videtto came in second on beam with 8.3 points.

For the Silver Lake/Pembroke co-op, the win should come as no surprise. They had already won six meets on the year.

The concept of the midseason league meet, admittedly, is unique. In track, for example, teams tend to have their league meet at the end of the regular season. But in girls gymnastics, all of the Patriot League coaches agreed to this unorthodox method.

Perhaps it is beneficial for the teams though as they gain a better understanding of where they are at midseason instead of having to wait for the end of the season to figure it out.

Regardless, the co-op is happy with the way it went.

“It’s great to pull out the victory here and see all of the teams in our league,” head coach Cristy Schimmel said.

“This is just the first step because we still have another half of the season to focus on, but we’re definitely excited about the win.”

The MIAA wants to bring on a little bit of change for next football season.

Divisions are no longer going to be one through six as they had been in the near past of even Divisions, 1-4A as they were just this past season. Still, there will be eight divisions, just as there were last year but they will be aligned a little bit differently now. And Silver Lake is contesting their placement in the divisional realignment.

Last week, the school sent representatives Athletic Director Martha Jamieson and Head Football Coach Chris DiGiacomo to Dedham High School for the MIAA South Sectional realignment hearing, and in doing so, the Lakers formally put in a request to be lowered a division next season and through the 2020 season. Their request is to be put in Division 4, not Division 3 as the MIAA had assigned them.

The reason for the request is simple. Most schools are in their respective divisions because of student population. There are, however, exceptions for comprehensive schools, urban schools and vocational schools. And since the Lakers are a Chapter 74 school that offers vocational programs, they felt they should be placed in the lower division.

Much of the argument for vocational schools being put in lower divisions is that sports are not as big of an interest in these students’ lives. Because about 30 per cent of Silver Lake’s students take part in the vocational side of school, with more emphasis on working than participating in extracurricular activities, the Lakers pool of potential student athletes may be smaller than it appears. Co-ops for those learning a trade could prevent students from playing sports when they are being paid to work after school.

Perhaps part of the issue is with the MIAA’s overall outlook on vocational schools as a whole as 10 of the 16 schools applying for divisional realignment are vocational schools including South Shore Vo-Tech. If Silver Lake is included, it would mean there are 11 vocational schools hoping to change their divisional alignment.

Historically, the Lakers have not had the most successful football program, but they did make the playoffs in 2016 for the first time since 1981. It is also worth noting they have not won a league championship since 1980. There is a final appeal for teams on January 31 in Franklin, Mass. After that, rulings on future division alignments will be final for the next four seasons.

By: James bentley

Express correspondent

The Plympton Public Safety Building Committee held their first meeting of the New Year on Wednesday, January 4, 2017. Plans for a new police station progressed with schematic designs presented at the meeting.

Jeff Shaw, president of Donham and Sweeney, the Boston architectural firm hired by Plympton, presented the plan to the committee. The potential police station would be 8,300 square feet with a 450 square foot storage room.

The schematics included a basement, which was discussed as a potential cost saving strategy at the previous meeting. Last meeting, much of the debate was around whether basement square footage would be more cost efficient than all the square footage being on one floor. Jeff said, “My experience is building a basement is generally more expensive than slat on grid.”

After Jeff presented the plan, Police Chief Patrick Dillon voiced some support for this design, but he did have some concerns. Police Chief Dillon said, “The evidence area is a possible size concern at 8 feet wide.” The evidence room in the current police station is larger at 10 by 25 feet.

Other suggestions from the Police Chief include a third exit door and more parking spaces. He also thought it was important that there be a reserved space for the sergeant.

Art Morin again voiced concerns of cost. He said, “There are $300,000 out of capital savings to deal with. He told the committee he had also been looking into modular space options to cut down on the cost of the new building.

Many of his concerns stemmed from his belief that people in the town would not be okay with the price.

The bill for this project is due on May 1st and he said that people will not accept their property taxes being raised to provide any additional funds for this project.

Morin said, “People will know…I’m convinced we could lose the whole project if we don’t make some sacrifices.”

The narrative of the board shifted to looking at the concerns that come with using a modular space. The main concern brought up was is the modular plan unrealistic since modular estimates don’t include the cost of a boiler room and other essentials.

Police Chief Patrick Dillon spoke about another Massachusetts town trying to use modular space plans and failing. He said that, “Hamden, MA dropped three different mod plans and came in on budget with a non-mod.”

Other potential plans were discussed as well including one to completely get rid of the basement. Historical Commissioner John Wilhelmsen suggested working on plans while simultaneously getting prices for the building on the plans they currently have.

He said, “Pricing out possibilities while working on other layouts gives options to make an educated decision.”

Pricing will start before the next meeting on Wednesday, January 25, 2017. Some of it should be done by then, but all of it will be done before the meeting scheduled for Wednesday, Feb. 1.

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KINGSTON — After steamrolling its first two opponents — outscoring them 14-1 — Whitman-Hanson/Silver Lake seemed to have met their match in Cohasset/Hanover as WHSL skated to a 2-2 tie against the Skippers Wednesday evening at the Bog.

“Cohasset/Hanover is a very good team,” WHSL head coach Kevin Marani said. “We had a lot of opportunities but we just didn’t capitalize and that’s hockey.”

WHSL (2-0-1, 1-0-1 SEMGHL NE) dominated possession of the puck in the first period of action — outshooting C-H nearly 2-to-1 — senior forward Mel McAleer almost got the Panthers on the board midway through the frame, but her wrist shot dinged off the post and it remained 0-0 at the end of 15 minutes.   

Just 39 ticks into the second, the Skippers (2-0-1, 2-0-1) got on the board via senior captain Alex Martini’s third goal of the winter to make it 1-0. WHSL was in uncharted territory as it found itself trailing for the first time in more than 105 minutes this season. 

“The first goal sort of caught us by surprise,” Marani said. “We were outshooting them and they had a nice goal. We had a lapse in defense and then after that they said we have to bear down a little more on defense.”

The Panthers were flying down the ice with urgency midway through the second as freshman Natalie Nemes had a pair of blistering shots on C-H netminder Sarissa Fazio (32 saves) but nothing to show for it.

With 3:00 to go in the frame, McAleer was finally able to break through—beating Fazio through the 5-hole to knot the score at 1-1.

Less than two minutes later, freshman Alyssa Murphy was rewarded for crashing the net as she poked home her fourth goal of the season — beating the sophomore goalie to her blocker side to give WHSL a 2-1 lead. 

“Alyssa has been great,” Mariani said. “She’ll have many, many, many goals in her career, for sure.”

However, the Skippers would not go easily and with 8:13 left in regulation Maddie Murphy flicked a shot on WHSL goalie Melissa Crone (18 saves) that found its way past her to tie the score at 2-2.

“Melissa played well,” Marani said. “She had one fluke goal on her. That happens, that’s hockey. She could have hung her head, but she didn’t. She came out and made three really big saves in last four minutes of play in the game.”

C-H had its chances down the stretch to snatch a lead, including a power play with 6:58 remaining, but Crone stood strong in net.

Defenseman Katie Johnson turned in an impressive outing with countless breakups in her own zone.   

WHSL recorded 34 shots on net to C-H’s 20 in the draw. 

“I think we deserved to win the game,” Marani said. “You can outplay a team, you can outshoot them by 3-to-1 but you come out with a tie. We’re hanging our heads in there but they’re celebrating like they just won a championship.”

On Thursday, Dec. 8, both the Silver Lake High School track teams, boys’ and girls’, started their seasons against the Duxbury Green Dragons at the Reggie Lewis Center in Boston. Both teams showed encouraging results as the boys Lakers squad edged the Green Dragons, 51-49, and the girls Laker team fell in a close one, 54-40, to the Green Dragons.

Although they won, it might come as a surprise that the boys’ team did not sweep one single event. There was not one event where they finished in the top-3 spots.

In the 55-meter dash, Christian Moran (6.87 seconds) and Max LaFerrara (6.93 seconds) had a first and third place finish respectively.

For mid-distance events, Max Shirikjian (37.75 seconds) won the 300-meter dash and Willi D’Entremont (1:31.50) took first and Tristan Arendt (1:37.82) took third respectively in the 600-meter dash.

Logan Arendt (2:55.54) finished second in the 1000-meter dash, William Felix (4:53.15) came in second in the 1-mile run while Cameron Dwyer (5:09.95) finished third. Felix also took third in the 2-mile run (10:48.89).

John McCarthy (8.90) and Brian Sherry (9.57) had top-2 finishes in the 55-meter hurdles while Gabriel Roy (34 feet and 3 inches) and Jared Dwyer (33-11) came in second and third in shot put.

LaFerrera finished second in the high jump (5-03.00). Shirikjian (21-05 and Kevin Donahue (17-05 ½) took first and third respectively in the long jump.  The Laker boys won the 4×200 Relay (1:37.33).

On the girls’ side, Alison McDonough (7.87) won the 55-meter dash and Grace Gilmore (48.60) came in third in the 300-meter dash.

In long-distance events, Alison Gavigan had a strong performance in the 1-mile run (5:55.03) as she finished first in the event and Alexandra Tonsberg (13:27.40) came in second in the 2-mile run.

Jackie Damery (10.68) won the 55-meter hurdle and Nora Frizzell (11.37) came in third place in the event.

Eleanor Swanson (26-03) had the best shot put throw of the day and her teammate, Allison White, (24-10) came in third. 

The Lakers finished first (McDonough, 4-07) and second (Tonsberg, 4-01) in the high jump. Tess Lally (14-00) and McDonough (13-06) finished second and third respectively in the long jump. The girls’ 4×200 relay team (2:00.44) ousted the Green Dragons’ best run in the event.

This team looks a little different than it did in the past.

But despite losing a handful of players to graduation last year, the Silver Lake girls’ basketball team lives on. And Lakers head coach Bob Morgan notes his team has a little bit of everything this year.
“I think our biggest strength this year will be our speed and our balance throughout the roster,” he said. “We are not big so our ability to up-tempo and play strong defense will be crucial to any success we hope to achieve.”
On the younger side for a varsity team, the Lakers return just four varsity players, two of whom are seniors. Madi Gillen, a senior captain, worked her way into a starting role last season and Morgan said she has worked hard in the offseason. Senior Olivia Macomber missed all of last season with an injury and her return is critical for this young Lakers squad.
Juniors Sydney Kehoe and Alyssa Nelson are also varsity returners. And  Morgan said the two gained valuable experience throughout that year which should serve them well this year.
Senior Emily Critch, who was not on the team the past two seasons returns to the team. And her classmate Nina Whidden, who played well on JV last season, will likely see big minutes for the Lakers this season.
Morgan also said juniors Emily Hapgood, Annabelle Boudreau, Alex Bachelder and Brenna Welch, who are first-year varsity players, worked hard in the offseason to make it onto the team. 

As far as younger players, Stephanie Bennett, a sophomore who had a strong year on JV last year, will be a key asset in the paint. And Morgan said he likes what he sees in freshman Holly Reeder-Morning.

“She comes to us with tremendous amount of potential and we are looking forward to her being a very important part of our growth and success,” he said.

Through the first week of the season, Morgan has been happy with his team’s attitude and work ethic.
“To this point nothing has surprised me more than these girls’ willingness to do whatever it takes for each other and for the team to be successful,” he said. “Their energy and enthusiasm has been top notch in trying to prepare for the season.“
There are really no games in our schedule that are more important than others,” Morgan said.  “Being such a young team We will do our best to try and get off to a good start and hopefully gain some confidence as we go along.”

The Lakers open their season at home on Friday, Dec. 9, against Plymouth South at 5 p.m..

The Silver Lake High School football team had a chance to finish their season 8-3. They took advantage of that situation.

At home on Thanksgiving this year against their annual rival, the Pembroke Titans, the Lakers prevailed again this year with a 40-20 win. As a result, they finished the year 8-3.

It took awhile for the Lakers to get going. But once they did, their offensive attack was potent.

In the first quarter, they would not score. But midway through the second quarter, they struck. Driving downfield, Alec Snell took it in himself for a two-yard score. The two-point conversion attempt was no good.

As the first half expired, Snell connected with Drew Neal for a 14-yard touchdown pass. It put the Lakers up, 12-0, headed into the locker room as they continued playing stout defense. And then, it broke open in the second half.

Max LaFerrera started the third quarter just about as well as anyone could have hoped. He ran for a 65-yard touchdown to put the Lakers up, 18-0. But the Titans quickly countered and took their kick return to the end zone for a touchdown.

A few minutes later, the Lakers pieced together a quality drive. It ended with a 13-yard touchdown pass from Snell to Laferrera.

With 4:20 left in the third, the Titans scored again, on a quarterback run. Their extra point try was good, which put them within 11 — the closest they would come to a comeback. 

Snell had another touchdown pass to Neal late in the third quarter to give the Lakers some breathing room. The 29-yard TD pass along with a successful LaFerrera two-point conversion bumped the Lakers lead back up to 19 points.

With that kind of a deficit headed into the fourth quarter, the Titans were not able to orchestrate any sort of a comeback.

Last year, the Lakers came out with a 50-6 win over the Titans on Thanksgiving. But since it was a closer game this year and the Lakers are stronger this year than they were in the past, it implies the Titans have also grown.

This marks the third straight time the Lakers have topped the Titans on Thanksgiving. In the all-time series, the Lakers hold the edge, 8-3.

The 2016 football season also holds significance to the Lakers because it was the first time they had won a playoff game since 1980 — which was 36 years ago. They did so in the first round of the playoffs against Scituate, 28-26, on Oct. 28.

Gas prices in Massachusetts drifted further downward ahead of what’s expected to be the busiest Thanksgiving travel period in a decade. AAA Northeast on Monday reported that the average price of a gallon of self-serve, unleaded gasoline is $2.08, down 4 cents a gallon from last week. The group’s survey on Monday found prices ranged from $1.95 to $2.19 per gallon of self-serve regular unleaded. AAA estimated last week that close to 950,000 people from Massachusetts are expected to drive to Thanksgiving destinations, up 5.1 percent over 2015. – Michael Norton/ State House News Service

WHITMAN — Sometimes a muse finds their writer — and won’t let go until their story is told.

For retired Falmouth nurse Terri Arthur, British nurse Edith Cavell was one of these muses.

“Edith who?” one might ask.

Cavell’s work, dedication to humanity and determination to save the lives of about 200 British soldiers in German-occupied Belgium during World War I, led to her Oct. 12, 1915 execution by firing squad when the Germans caught up with her. The only woman so executed by the enemy during that war, Cavell’s death became an emotional recruiting tool for the British Army and launched a letter-writing campaign by American women’s groups to President Woodrow Wilson that is now recognized as a first step toward American involvement in WWI.

“Her death was [headlines] in every country all over the world,” Arthur said. “When they saw the headlines on Edith Cavell … [women’s groups] took her on as a cause celebré and they inundated Wilson with letters.”

In a way, Cavell’s stated life’s goal may have foreshadowed the circumstances of her death.

“Someday, somehow, I’m going to do something useful, something for people,” Cavell once wrote. “They are, most of them, so helpless, so hurt and so unhappy.”

But who was Edith Cavell?

That question took Arthur on a journey of coincidental events that led her to write “Fatal Destiny: Edith Cavell, World War I Nurse,” [2015, $19.95, HenschelHAUS Publishing], a book so well received in Britain that she was asked to adjust spelling and syntax for a British edition.

Arthur’s visit to the Whitman Public Library’s Local Author Series on Monday, Nov. 10 traced both Cavell’s story and how she came to write it. The Friends of the Whitman Public Library fund the series.

“It’s time to resurrect Edith,” Arthur said. “She has a message for us today. She showed courage and strength at a time when it was very difficult to do.”

Arthur began her talk with an anecdote of how DNA left in bloody fingerprints by ancient native peoples who constructed New Mexico’s Chaco Canyon settlements helped answer some questions about possible connections to other Anasazi dwellings in the region.

“The person I’m going to talk about today also left her fingerprints in history, but she’s been basically forgotten, like those builders were forgotten,” Arthur said. “It’s time to bring Edith back.”

The centennial of Cavell’s execution was observed last year and the centennial of WWI is ongoing through Nov. 11, 2018.

For Arthur, the journey began with one of those nursing-related gifts many nurses receive and are never sure what to do with: a book titled “Postcards of Nursing” by Michael Zwerdling. She finally leafed through it on a stormy night and ran across postcards depicting Edith Cavell, some of which depicted her death and images of the Grim Reaper. She read an outline about Cavell in the back of the book and was “blown away.”

“How is it that I, as a nurse, had never heard about this nurse?” she said.

It launched her on a search for information, which led her to others whose response was “Edith who?” Even during a trip to the UK, where she made a special trip to the memorial statue to Cavell in Trafalgar Square, Arthur was unable to find anyone staffing tourist gift shops nearby who had heard of Cavell, either.

Arthur then made a side trip to Cavell’s burial site in  Norwich where, as fate would have it, the city’s cathedral was holding a 90th anniversary service for Cavell the next day — Oct. 12, 2005.

A BBC reporter caught the sound of Arthur’s American accent and asked what brought her to the event.

“I said, ‘Well, I’m a nurse and I believe that what Edith Cavell did really represents nurses in every country,’” Arthur said, adding the next thing she new, she was being interviewed for BBC-TV news.

Arthur was hooked.

“I don’t know who got who first,” Arthur said. “I don’t know if I got Edith Cavell first or if she got me first, but after that, I was hooked.”

Arthur’s research took her from the Imperial War Museum, where she was able to purchase copies of Cavell’s letters, to Belgium, the Royal London and the Brussels Hospital named in honor of Cavell as well as the Tir National Prison where Cavell was executed.

Before she began writing, however, Arthur also had take classes in creative writing techniques such as finding the voice of a narrative and setting the pace.

The eldest daughter of an Anglican minister, Cavell studied nursing at the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel about the time of the Jack the Ripper murders, because that section of London was where she felt she was needed. She worked there until she was asked to begin a nursing school in Brussels in 1907. She had worked in Belgium before as a governess.

When WWI broke out in August 1914, Cavell was visiting her family in England but felt it was her duty to return to Belgium. The Germans occupied Belgium, reaching Brussels by Aug. 20, 1915. Since September 1914, Cavell had been helping smuggle British soldiers into the Netherlands after initially caring for two wounded British soldiers who had sought her out. She took them in despite signs posted by the Germans all over Belgium warning of the fatal consequences of helping allied soldiers escape.

She was arrested with 33 others on Oct. 5, 1915 after a German spy had infiltrated the underground, was tried for treason by a German court martial on Oct. 7 and executed on Oct. 12, 1915.

After the war, she was exhumed by the British and returned to England for a state funeral in Westminster Abbey [a rare film clip of which may be viewed at iwm.org.uk] and reburied at Norwich Cathedral. Her pallbearers included soldiers she had saved.

Since writing her book, Arthur has been the only American invited to participate in anniversary ceremonies for Cavell in both Norwich and London.