By Mikey Alves
After another eventful fall sports season for the Seekonk & Rehoboth community, teams on both sides of the fence are looking to take off this season, including the Dighton-Rehoboth/Bishop Stang girls co-op ice hockey team.
In the team’s last game, junior defenseman Alexis Pettinato scored a goal and recorded two assists against Marshfield for a 6-2 victory a few weeks ago, while also scoring an overtime winner for her squad to defeat Dennis-Yarmouth 2-1 Monday, December 29th. They all have their eyes on getting right back to the TD Garden for the State Championship this spring after a heartbreaking 5-2 loss to Hingham at the Garden last March.
D-R/Bishop Stang isn’t the region's only co-op hockey team either. Starting in the 2024-25 season, Somerset-Berkley Regional High combined with both Dighton-Rehoboth (former big time conference rival) and Seekonk High’s (DRS) boys ice hockey programs; a huge help for all three communities. All three schools were short on numbers after having many senior players graduating in 2024, directly after the Somerset-Berkley (SB) hockey team made an appearance in the MIAA Final Four in the 2023-24 season.
The SB/DRS co-op team is having a rough start compared to usual in the team’s 2nd year together. They missed the Prenda Cup Tournament Final (annual four team opening season tournament) for the first time since 2006 after suffering a 6-2 loss to the Taunton Tigers in the opening round. Starting the season 2-3, SB/DRS also lost in the opening round to strong Dartmouth High in their first year playing in the Dartmouth Holiday tournament; the “Capiello Cup.”
But Somerset/DRS’s hockey program was with a huge change. The team has a brand new 27- year-old head coach behind the bench now. After serving as an assistant coach since the 2021 season, former Somerset Berkley Raiders ice hockey alumni & team captain Justin Couture took over the reins as head coach after the retirement of longtime coach Kevin Snyder, who was the team’s head coach for more than 22 years.
Somerset/DRS Raiders senior and top 6 center Carter Silvia spoke about how drastically different the team has been this year with the coaching change.
“Coach Couture is a way different coach than Coach Snyder. Couture genuinely wants to make his players better and coach them up,” Silvia said.
“Coach Snyder was old school and really did not develop players to their max potential during his tenure as head coach— that’s the biggest change,” Silvia added.
Silivia also spoke about the challenge of how it’s not easy to build team chemistry, since a big split of the team doesn’t see each other at school everyday with the co-op.
“It's not easy to build chemistry especially when we go to different schools. I still don’t think the team chemistry is what it could be. It’s getting there, but by the end of the year, I think the chemistry can be massively improved,” Silvia said.
Silvia knows he has to continue to step up and lead this team big time as he has seen a lot of flaws out there on the ice.
“There’s a lot to improve on— mostly clearing pucks out of our defensive zone and having better defensive coverage especially in front of our net. There’s also a lot of ‘good’ on the ice, but we need to work on a lot,” Silvia added.
In addition, the D-R Falcons boys basketball team have opened up their season 3-3, defeating Case, Dedham, & Old Rochester but have suffered defeats to Seekonk, New Bedford Voc & Oliver Ames. While the D-R girls basketball team has started 3-2 on the season with decisive victories over Bishop Stang, Case & Westport but losing to New Bedford Voc and Southeastern in a close match.
With the Bristol Aggie/D-R co-op wrestling team, they were hosted by Greater New Bedford Regional Vocational Technical High School (New Bedford Voc) Wednesday morning of New Year’s Eve for their first ever home dual meet. The two teams posed together for a photo before the meet to celebrate the occasion. The D-R/Bristol Aggie co-op wrestling team won the meet 45-26 against New Bedford Voc.
Now, going across the street to the Seekonk side, the boys basketball team has started off 3-3 this season. They’ve impressively had three straight wins against local rival Dighton-Rehoboth as well as Argosy Charter & Case after dropping their first three opening games. On the girls side of the ball, Seekonk girls basketball team is currently 3-2 with victories over Southeastern, Westport, & Case but losses to two tough opponents West Bridgewater & Old Rochester.
Beyond the early winter season results, the fall season produced historic individual achievements…
D-R senior and SCC MVP Reese Jefferson was chosen as the field hockey team's MVP for a third straight season. Jefferson scored 24 of the team's 33 total goals on the season which is nearly 73% of the team’s goal scoring, while she also finished the season with three assists for herself. Jefferson is currently wrapping up her senior year as basketball captain and is also a member of the lacrosse team.
Additionally, Seekonk co-captain golfer Aidan Connell was named a Boston Globe All Scholastic for the fall season after winning a Division 3 MIAA State Title.
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