Sports
Drury Joins Hoosac Valley for Football Coop, Adds Volleyball / iBerkshires.com
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Following several months of meetings, the Northern Berkshire high schools have announced collaborative changes to their athletic programs set to take effect in August 2025. The four schools—Mount Greylock, Drury, McCann Tech, and Hoosac Valley—have been discussing the long-term sustainability of their athletic offerings and exploring […]
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Following several months of meetings, the Northern Berkshire high schools have announced collaborative changes to their athletic programs set to take effect in August 2025.
The four schools—Mount Greylock, Drury, McCann Tech, and Hoosac Valley—have been discussing the long-term sustainability of their athletic offerings and exploring ways to ensure healthy program participation moving forward.
A key focus of these discussions was the declining participation in football programs.
Reflecting national trends, schools in the Berkshires and across Western Massachusetts have experienced a decrease in student-athletes playing football. Previously, Drury fielded a cooperative team with Mount Greylock, while Hoosac Valley and McCann Tech operated independent football programs.
After extensive dialogue, the schools have agreed that Hoosac Valley will host a new cooperative football team, combining student-athletes from Drury and Mount Greylock, beginning in the fall of 2025. This decision was guided by several key factors including student-athlete safety, the ability to establish a junior varsity program, and declining enrollment at each school. The cooperative agreement is for two years with the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association.
The team will compete in the newly l realigned Suburban North league.
In 2024, both the Hoosac Valley and the Drury/Mount Greylock cooperative football teams reported fewer than 20 “varsity candidates,” falling below the MIAA’s recommended threshold for cooperative teams.
The MIAA suggests that schools with fewer than 25 “varsity candidates” are eligible for cooperative programs. Projections for 2025 indicate that each of the three schools—Hoosac Valley, Drury, and Mount Greylock—will have fewer than 15 players.
Neither Hoosac Valley nor Drury has fielded a JV team in the past two seasons due to low numbers. The previous cooperative agreement between Drury and Mt. Greylock had expired after the 2024 fall season.
McCann Tech will continue to operate its own football program in 2025 and beyond.
The Hornets remain part of the Tri-County League.
Another significant development from these meetings is the addition of volleyball as a varsity sport. After surveying student interest, Drury has announced it will launch a girls varsity volleyball team in the fall of 2025. This team is expected to be a cooperative program, with Hoosac Valley serving as the guest school.
Additional updates among the four schools include the following:
• McCann Tech will host a cooperative Cross Country team, with Drury and Hoosac Valley as participating schools.
• In collaboration with the Special Olympics, Hoosac Valley will sponsor a cooperative Unified Basketball program starting this fall, with Drury participating as a guest school.
• Golf will remain a cooperative team at Hoosac Valley with athletes from Drury.
• McCann Tech will continue to host a cooperative ice hockey team, including athletes from Drury, Mount Greylock,
and Hoosac Valley.
• Mount Greylock will continue to host a cooperative wrestling team, including athletes from Drury, Hoosac Valley, and McCann Tech.
• Hoosac Valley will continue to host cooperative boys and girls lacrosse teams with athletes from Drury.
• Drury will continue to host a cooperative baseball team with athletes from Hoosac Valley.
• Hoosac Valley will continue to host cooperative track and field teams with athletes from McCann Tech and Drury.
Sports
Long Beach Poly Hangs On Against Harvard-Westlake, Advances To Championship Game – The562.org
The562’s coverage of Long Beach Poly is sponsored by Bryson Financial. There may have been nerves for the Long Beach Poly softball team, but never a doubt. The Jackrabbits fell behind early against Harvard-Westlake in the CIF-SS Division 4 semifinals and had to weather a strong five-run rally by the Wolverines in the seventh inning. But […]
The562’s coverage of Long Beach Poly is sponsored by Bryson Financial.
There may have been nerves for the Long Beach Poly softball team, but never a doubt.
The Jackrabbits fell behind early against Harvard-Westlake in the CIF-SS Division 4 semifinals and had to weather a strong five-run rally by the Wolverines in the seventh inning. But the Jackrabbits never lacked belief through all the adversity, hanging on for a 13-12 victory.
With the win, Poly punches its ticket to the CIF-SS championship game next weekend where they’ll face Warren on either Friday or Saturday. A CIF-SS title would mark the first in program history.
“You saw me burning my tread in the dugout like I usually do but I just knew,” said Poly coach Elizabeth Sanches of the win. “I knew and I trusted them. I forgot who it was, but someone told me in the dugout that they were nervous…I told them that I don’t want to hear that. It’s a game. Trust your experience, get out there and have fun.”
The Jackrabbits were with junior Ki’ele Ho-Ching who has been on and off the field while nursing an injury. The Oklahoma commit played as their designated-hitter and went 3-for-3 with a pair of home runs. Ho-Ching also finished the game with three RBIs and three runs of her own.
“I’m so grateful for such a supportive team and coaches who understand my situation,” she said. “I feel like I have such a great support system not just with them but with my family as well. It feels great to be back and help my team come out on top today.”
Ho-Ching’s first home run of the day sparked a response for Poly after they trailed 5-1 through two innings. After an Emoni Lam Sam single to open the third, Ho-Ching’s home run cut the lead to two. Janelle Morris then hit an RBI double before an Alayna Veavealagi sac-bunt. Sunnie Vaafuti hit an RBI single to close out the inning to put the Jackrabbits up 6-5—their first and final lead of the day.
“I started to see a few nerves because we’re not used to being behind in the playoffs, but I just reminded them that in the last three games we scored 26 runs,” said Sanches of her message ahead of the breakout inning. “A four run deficit is nothing. Of course we don’t want a four run deficit, but when it comes to trusting their bats and their ability to execute and do what it takes to score runs I have so much trust in them.”
The Jackrabbits added another pair of runs in the fourth inning when Morris smacked a two-run home run to left field. Harvard-Westlake responded in the inning with a Kale’a Tindal solo home run to cut the lead to two.
Poly found some insurance runs in the fifth when E. Lam Sam hit an RBI double to score Vaafuti. A hit-by-pitch with the bases loaded then scored Lam Sam before a fielder’s choice that allowed both Ho-Ching and Tauala to score. Ho-Ching had her second home run of the day on a solo shot to left field in the seventh inning.
Harvard-Westlake found a run from Tindal in the sixth inning thanks to an error. The Wolverines then put together a monstrous rally in the bottom of the seventh with RBI singles from Tindal and Fischer Hinnen. Emma Tseng scored on a fielder’s choice before a Dylan Fischer RBI double to cut the lead to just one run.
The Poly defense and pitcher Tegan Breaux had their backs against the wall when Harvard-Westlake had the tying run in scoring position and the game-winning run on first base. The sophomore got out of it with a pop-up to Vaafuti for the put-out to seal the win for the Jackrabbits.
“It was nerve-racking,” Breaux said of the final inning. She pitched six innings and had three strikeouts. “I was shaking, but I feel like we’re able to get past things like that. We’ve won games and we’ve lost games so we know that pressure. So we were able to push through that.”
“She thrives off of that intensity, which is great,” said Sanches of Breaux. “She gets in that zone and she is one of the most intense players I’ve ever coached. As a young 15 year old, I don’t know if she realizes what she’s doing. It’s insane. We’re excited to have her for two more years.”
Poly’s championship matchup against Warren will either be on Friday or next Saturday according to the CIF bracket. Warren defeated Dos Pueblos on Saturday to advance.
Sports
Sarah Sjöström Shatters 100m Freestyle World Record in Relay Lead-Off
About World Aquatics Privacy and Cookie Policies We use cookies to provide our services and for analytics and marketing. To find out more about our use of cookies and how you can disable them, please see our Privacy Policy. By continuing to browse our website, you agree to our use of cookies. Click here to […]
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Titans Earn Four All-America Honors In Final Day Of National Championship, Finish Fifth
Story Links GENEVA, Ohio- The UW-Oshkosh men’s track & field team took fifth at the 2025 NCAA Division III Outdoor Championship on Saturday (May 24) by collecting four total All-America honors and a pair of top-eight scoring finishes. UW-La Crosse won the team title with 84 points, followed by […]
GENEVA, Ohio- The UW-Oshkosh men’s track & field team took fifth at the 2025 NCAA Division III Outdoor Championship on Saturday (May 24) by collecting four total All-America honors and a pair of top-eight scoring finishes.
UW-La Crosse won the team title with 84 points, followed by UW-Eau Claire with 56 points, Rowan University (N.J.) with 44.5, and St. John’s University (Minn.) with 39.5.
Zach Zirgibel (Merton/Arrowhead Union) took 14th in the pole vault with a best height of 4.85 meters, earning an All-America Second Team mention for the second time this season after taking 13th during the indoor championship.
Gavin Fritsch (Little Chute/Little Chute) earned his second All-America honor of the meet with a ninth-place, 60.09-meter throw in the hammer throw.
For the second straight outdoor championship, Davian Willems (De Pere/West De Pere) submitted a First Team All-America performance in the 100-meter dash by taking seventh in 10.48 seconds.
Matthew Eiden (Stevens Point/SPASH), Joshua Rivers (Bolingbrook, Ill./Bolingbrook), Daniel Wilson (Sun Prairie/Sun Prairie West), and Tyran Bender (Bourbonnais, Ill./Bradley-Bourbonnais Community) raced to sixth in the 4×400-meter relay in 3:11.60, the final men’s event of this year’s outdoor national championship, to score Oshkosh’s final three points.
Sports
NCAA Outdoor Championships Recap – North Park University Athletics
Story Links GENEVA, Ohio — North Park Track & Field officially wrapped their season at the 2025 NCAA Outdoor Championships at Spire Institute, representing the Blue & Gold in three different events. Multis standout Thea Ring was the first Viking to compete on the biggest stage in Division III Track & Field, […]
GENEVA, Ohio — North Park Track & Field officially wrapped their season at the 2025 NCAA Outdoor Championships at Spire Institute, representing the Blue & Gold in three different events.
Multis standout Thea Ring was the first Viking to compete on the biggest stage in Division III Track & Field, showing a fantastic opening day in the Heptathlon. She opened the day with a third-place mark in the 200m with a time of 25.04, just .05 seconds off Emma Burr’s (Thomas College) top mark in the event. Ring also placed third in the 800m with a time of 2:20.93 and she was third in the 100m with a time of 14.59.
Ring also boasted a season high 1.54m bound in the High Jump. After day one, Ring was in the second position in the event. The North Park Female Athlete of the Year ended up placing 11th in the event with a point total of 4800, cracking the top 10 in five of the seven categories.
The NPU Women’s 4x100m team also competed on day one. The team made up of Mariana Costa, Riana Hayes, Meja Lindberg, and Ring placed 12th in the prelims, three spots away from qualifying for the Finals.
NPU Male Athlete of the Year Jereme Ombogo was the final representative for the Vikings, competing in the 200m. Ombogo ran a qualifying time of 21.26 in the Prelims, positioning himself for Saturday’s Final race. On the big stage, the junior finished as Division III’s fifth-fastest runner in the 200, crossing the line at 21.32 to conclude a sensational 2024-25 season.
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MSHSAA Class 1, 2 and 3 track and field champions crowned in Jefferson City | Prep Sports
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Why Monaco GP's exclusive trophy trunk is now standard in F1… and League of Legends
The Athletic has live coverage from the 2025 Monaco Grand Prix. What do the Olympic flame, Ballon d’Or and Monaco Grand Prix winner’s trophy have in common with multiplayer battle arena game League of Legends? It’s the cases these trophies are delivered in. And, these days, they’re very visible. Since the start of 2025, the […]
The Athletic has live coverage from the 2025 Monaco Grand Prix.
What do the Olympic flame, Ballon d’Or and Monaco Grand Prix winner’s trophy have in common with multiplayer battle arena game League of Legends? It’s the cases these trophies are delivered in. And, these days, they’re very visible.
Since the start of 2025, the winning trophy for each Formula One event has been displayed on the grid ahead of the race start, white-gloved attendees at the ready. This is the first year of the partnership between F1 and LVMH, the luxury goods powerhouse that owns brands including Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior and TAG Heuer. But the trophy trunks, which have a deep history dating back to the 1800s, aren’t actually new for the Monaco Grand Prix. Louis Vuitton previously had a race-specific deal with the Automobile Club de Monaco from 2021-2024.
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These trunks are also seen in similar presentation ceremonies across sport. From soccer (with the Ballon d’Or and FIFA World Cup trophies), the rugby union World Cup, tennis (with the Roland Garros and Davis Cup winners’ trophies), and basketball (the NBA’s Larry O’Brien Trophy).
The trophy trunks are handmade at Louis Vuitton’s atelier in Asnières, France, located just outside of Paris. Louis Vuitton, the designer, founded this atelier – an artist’s workshop – in 1859, five years after creating his House and long after he pioneered his now-famous trunk luggage design. The Frenchman spent 17 years perfecting the concept of a flat-topped rectangular trunk, the first of its kind, from which the trophy trunks take their cues. The original design proved easier to stack on ships or trains compared to the domed luggage pieces that were otherwise common in the 1800s. The flat-topped trunks and the distinctive canvas, a resistant and lightweight material to wrap the trunks, were created in 1854.
As rival fashion companies began replicating Vuitton’s idea in their own forms, the House needed to expand the trunk over the years — with a red-stripped canvas coming in the 1870s, a chequered Damier canvas in 1888, and the now iconic monogram in 1896. This was a concept that came a few years after Vuitton’s death. The monogram was designed by his son, Georges Vuitton. In addition to his father’s initials, “abstract floral shapes” are etched on the materials. According to the House, the trunks as we know them today are “virtually identical” to those being produced as early as 1906.
Louis Vuitton’s trophy boxes have been used for multiple events recently (via LVMH)
Some Louis Vuitton’s luggage trunks cost north of $50,000 today. And in 1983, the brand took its iconic concept into the sporting world for the first time — creating a trophy case that looks like a luggage trunk for the America’s Cup in sailing.
This partnership is still going in 2025. Louis Vuitton expanded from there, to even create an E-sports trophy for the League of Legends 2019 World Championships. A year later, it became the NBA’s official trophy travel case provider, housing the Larry O’Brien Trophy given to the winner of the NBA Finals each year. That trunk features details special to the NBA, such as the interior being the league’s dark blue.
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Louis Vuitton created trunks for the 2010, 2014, 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cup trophies, and the House is poised to have a similar consistency in F1 with LVMH’s 10-year deal. Louis Vuitton’s automotive ties actually date back to 1897, when the House began creating luggage trunks for such travel. In the 1990s, Louis Vuitton also organised its own rally — the Louis Vuitton Classic Run.
Why this matters for F1
First, this is another example the fashion industry’s growing involvement in F1 and how luxury brands are finding ways to invest in the sport’s expanded and more diverse fanbase. H. Moser & Cie is a partner of Alpine, after executives cold-emailed the watch company with the idea of teaming up — according to The Hollywood Reporter. Richard Mille is involved with McLaren and Ferrari, and beauty companies such has Charlotte Tilbury and Elemis have begun investing in F1 Academy and Aston Martin, respectively.
For Louis Vuitton, use of the trophy trunks takes its involvement with F1 beyond simple branding around different parts of the track, as is the case for many of the championship’s other partners. These trunks have become symbolic parts of the pre- and post-race festivities, as individuals don white gloves to carry the trophy case into position at the front of the grid and near where the drivers stand for the host country’s national anthem. It’s a reminder to the drivers — if they really need it — of what’s at stake.
Simply put, this is a visual representation of how F1 has changed under Liberty Media. The LVMH deal meant Rolex stopped being the championship’s official timekeeper at the end of last year — with a TAG Heuer clock now installed at the end of every pitlane instead.
But, in the constant strive for sales, such deals cut both ways. Companies such as Louis Vuitton are now using F1’s reach to find new customers. A report in the New York Times last year stated that “the sports-sponsorship market is expected to grow from $63.1 billion in 2021 to $109.1 billion by 2030 as a host of new sponsors — such as sports betting and streaming giants — buy in.”
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“Exclusivity is the central reputation pillar of all luxury brands,” states a report from London-based media analytics company Commetric. “The illusion of scarcity and rarity is what drives consumer demand towards luxury goods, even more than quality.
“But analysing (conversations on social media platform X), we found that in this case, exclusivity was the least visible LVMH reputation pillar. Instead, the discussions around things like Louis Vuitton medal trays.”
Louis Vuitton’s logo is very visible around F1 this season (Santanu Banik/Speed Media/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
The report added that “by being everywhere at such a mass-appeal event, LVMH and its brands conveyed a message that goes against every luxury comms strategy – ‘our products are as accessible as beer and sneakers’. It seems like LVMH is becoming part of a larger strategic push into mass sports by the world’s top luxury companies.
“With the luxury industry in trouble, they realised that a growing share of their business depends on aspirational consumers they can reach through hugely popular events that ditch old-school exclusivity—some 60 per cent of global luxury sales today come from people who spend less than €2,000 a year on luxury goods.”
This is all a far cry from back in 2014, when former F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone claimed he limited sponsorship signings to those targeted at older customers. He went as far as saying, in a typically combative interview with Campaign Asia-Pacific magazine that “young kids will see the Rolex brand, but are they going to go and buy one? They can’t afford it. Or our other sponsor, UBS – these kids don’t care about banking. They haven’t got enough money to put in the bloody banks anyway. That’s what I think.”
Now, F1’s current custodian, Liberty Media, has greatly expanded its sponsorship portfolio. These days, F1 even has official chocolate and pasta partners — in an effort similar to LVMH to try and reach a new consumer base amid turbulent market pressures.
This explains why longstanding F1 traditions such as the Rolex clock shot at the start of every on-track session have changed. And the championship’s TV cameras are now trained on the race trophy and its case before lights out.
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“This year kicks off our first participation at the Monaco Grand Prix within the Formula One partnership, unveiling, for the first time, our new creative signature along Monte-Carlo’s legendary track, while also celebrating the fifth appearance of our emblematic Trophy Trunk,” said Pietro Beccari, Chairman and CEO of Louis Vuitton, in a written statement to The Athletic.
“We are proud to carry history forward, reaffirming our enduring tradition of accompanying champions, as we did for prestigious sport events, such as the Australian Open, the Ballon d’Or, and the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.”
(Top photo: Song Haiyuan/MB Media/Getty Images)
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