High School Girls' Team Is Family Affair

By BRETT FERRY

"The amazing thing about Mary MacDonald is how she's
adopted basketball as her family," says Rory Moreis, assistant
boys' basketball coach. "It's amazing. She lives it.
She eats it."

With both of Coach MacDonald's daughters on her varsity squad
of eight girls, it seems more like basketball adopted her family.

This year the coach and her eight players are rolling on a 9-3
season, but there is little talk yet of a state title. Individual
obstacles are what the girls are staring down right now.

"We need to focus on each game like it's the only game
in town and take care of business," says Coach MacDonald.

"To beat Fontbonne and Westwood," says senior captain
Kelsey MacDonald: "Westwood has been undefeated for three
years."

In 1981, the last girls' basketball state championship season,
legendary coach Robert Nute said, "When a girl walks into the gym
she just has to look up and see the banners and look in the trophy case,
and she knows that we've had years and years of very successful
people. The girls know there are expectations."

Even after more than two decades, the sense of tradition is still
there.

"It's a good thing to come into," says freshman
Taylor MacDonald. "At first I was intimidated by coming into a
winning team. Then after the first few practices with the other girls, I
loosened up.

"In eighth grade it's just something to do after school.
Here practices are more intense. Everybody's more into it."

With her mom as the coach, Taylor says, "I needed to work
harder than everyone to prove to them that's not why I'm on
the team."

Mary MacDonald's thread of involvement in the Vineyard
basketball program weaves back through three decades to Coach
Nute's first year leading the girls' high school team. The
year was 1970 and Mary MacDonald was a freshman at the high school.
After four years of playing hoops under the direction of Coach Nute, she
went on to play both field hockey and basketball at Southeastern
Massachusetts University. Excelling in both sports, she returned to the
university to coach while earning her graduate degree at Bridgewater
State College. Her coaching career was launched.

During that time, Coach Nute had led the Vineyard girls to two state
titles, in 1979 and 1981. Mrs. MacDonald's younger sister,
Patricia McCarthy, played on both of those championship teams.

After holding several coaching positions, Mrs. MacDonald returned to
the Island in 1993 to take a position as a guidance counselor at the
high school. She and David Morris started a youth basketball program for
children in third through eighth grades. In its first year, 90
youngsters joined to play in the co-ed league. Among those 90 were four
eight-year-old girls - Jen Knight, Kelsey MacDonald, Alexis
Russillo, and Krystle Rose - all of them now seniors on the
varsity squad. Some 350 children are playing this year in the
boys' and girls' youth leagues.

"As a coach you have to have patience. It takes a long time to
build a program," says Mrs. MacDonald, who was hired as head coach
of the girls' varsity team in 1996.

In the past few years, Coach MacDonald has begun tasting the fruits
of her labor. In 2000 and 2001, her teams were Cape and Islands League
champions. Last year, when the state did away with the Cape and Islands
League and the team became independent, the girls advanced to the South
Section semi-finals, the farthest the team has gone since 1981.

Coach MacDonald attributes the team's success to the depth of
the feeder program.

"Girls coming off the bench are really performing," she
says. "You can't teach heart and hustle. They want to
win."

The girls attribute their success this year to team chemistry.

"We're all friends. We love coming to practice,"
says Kelsey MacDonald.

"Everyone on the team right now is my best friend," says
senior Jen Knight. "I call them on the weekends, after practice.
We went away to Connecticut together to play a game and had so much
fun."

"It's great to be on the winning side, but to be a part
of a team is what helps the girls in the future," says Coach
MacDonald. "Job, relationships, whatever. Helping these girls with
these skills outside the sport has helped me a lot through the years.
That's what I took away. That's what life is all
about."

"[Coach MacDonald] is tough on us. She knows when to joke
around, and she definitely knows when to be serious," says Miss
Knight. She scared me when I was a freshman, but now that I am a senior
she is the best coach I've ever had. She's taught me a lot,
about everything."

"I don't know really any other way. She or my dad has
been my coach basically my whole life," says Kelsey MacDonald.

"It's a learning experience for both me and my two
daughters," says Coach MacDonald. "Kelsey, as the team
captain, does not hesitate to tell me if I am being too tough on another
player."

"I'm a little better at leaving it on the court than my
husband is," she says with a smirk.

Coach MacDonald feels lucky to be surrounded by so much dedication
and support in the program.

"The girls are good athletes who play fall sports, so they are
in good shape when coming in," she says. "They are good
students who have discipline. They play in the off-season with the boys
down in Oak Bluffs.

"[Assistant coach Mike Joyce] and I are on the same page as
far as intensity and what we want to do. He was a great find."

As a coach and a parent of three, Mrs. MacDonald is aware of the
sacrifices that families of players make toward the success of the team.

When asked if this year's girls' team, with their 9-3
record, could hang with the 1-11 boys' team, Coach MacDonald
doesn't hesitate. "They'd beat us. Just because
they're stronger and can jump higher. Just because they're
boys," she says. "It's like comparing apples and
oranges. But, I'm sure [boys' coach Asil Cash] would not
mind having a couple of my players on his bench."

The girls' varsity team plays its next game at home this
afternoon, meeting Harwich at 4:30 p.m. on the high school court.