In the six minutes before every game, the Williston Northampton girls varsity hockey team sits in darkness. Upstairs, the Zamboni circles the ice. Downstairs, the team is listening to words. The same words every time.

“The inches we need are everywhere around us. They’re in every break of the game. Every minute. Every second. On this team, we fight for that inch. On this team, we tear ourselves and everyone around us to pieces for that inch.”

It’s Al Pacino speaking—and he’s speaking to a roomful of male football players in “Any Given Sunday”—but his words resonate: words of strength, grit, and most of all, unity.

The last point in particular is one the hockey players have taken to heart, and one that’s helped propel them to a record 20 wins, one loss, and four ties over the course of the last season.

On Friday evening, the team came together to celebrate another victory when a trio of players—forward Delaney Belinskas ’16, defender Rachel Rockwell ’16, and goalie Morgan Fischer ’16—signed national letters of intent to play with Boston College, Providence College, and the University of Connecticut,  respectively.

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When the special visitor walked into Matt Spearing’s AP Environmental Sciences classroom on Friday, she had to pause for a moment. The room, with its lab tables, late afternoon light filtering through the windows, and fish swimming in a small tank, felt very familiar.

This was the same Scott Hall room was where Melissa Dore ’86—who now works at the Halmos College of Natural Sciences and Oceanography in Florida—first began her journey into biology.

“Thirty-four years ago, this is where I sat,” said Ms. Dore, the director of academic support and administration at Nova Southeastern University’s Halmos College. “I did my first shark dissection in that classroom. And a lamprey eel.”

On Friday, Ms. Dore returned to Scott to talk to AP Environmental Sciences class about sea turtles. She then headed over to Elizabeth Kay’s biology class for a marine animal version of “what am I?”

Along the way, Ms. Dore shared quick facts about turtle eggs (oil will kill them), sting rays (can’t see what they eat), the gulf stream (it’s fast), and sharks (you have a better chance of being squished by a soda machine than eaten by one).

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