Boys' basketball hopes to up its game again this year. The girls squad has a new coach. And the swim team is in the pool. High school winter sports season gets under way.

In preseason scrimmages both home and away, the boys' and girls' hockey squads have been skating well. The puck drops for the boys' first home game on Saturday. The girls will not play at home until January.

They are called guinea pigs, seven promising middle school students in Edgartown who are testing the proposition that learning algebra early will let them reach greater math heights in high school. Now educators in other Island schools are mulling ways to bring their own students up to speed.

The Island Cup rivalry between Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket includes blowout wins and hard-fought losses. On Saturday the Vineyarders made history by defeating Nantucket 14-0 on Whaler home turf at the Island Cup.

It’s all green this weekend as the West Tisbury School hosts a fundraiser at the Middletown Nursery on State Road in West Tisbury.