Kingfish Swimming, based in Duxbury and Kingston, is launching a new recreational arm of its swim team starting this fall. After years of serving as a United States Swimming team, Kingfish has decided to expand its program offerings to account for the growing level of interest in swimming on the South Shore.

Miller was located in the fourth seat of the skull and helped his team qualify for the Olympics in May in Lucerne, Switzerland. The team has to beat out six other countries in the final race to win gold.

Miller’s parents, Bill and Sally Miller, joined him in London last week to cheer on his team. His father was also an Olympic athlete competing in the 1972 Munich Olympics.

The men’s eight team will race in the final on Wednesday, Aug. 1 at 12:30 p.m. (EST). The race may be watched on nbcolympics.com and results may be viewed on Will Miller’s official NBC Olympic page: nbcolympics.com/athletes/athlete=will-miller/index.html.

Duxbury couldn’t be prouder. Go, Will!

(One class starts the Newport to Bermuda race in a swirl of colors.)

Roughly 160 sailboats left Newport on Friday, June 15 bound for Bermuda. There were actually 10 “participants” from Duxbury, but not all of them sailed: nine made the race and one started them all.

Bill Walker’s Med Spirit, a Wellborn 92 skippered by Mike D’Amelio of Marblehead, broke their own boat record by four hours in the Open Division to a mere 44 hours. They were first in class and first to finish in their class and fifth overall out of 159 boats. Their average speed over the course was 14.5 knots, with a top speed registered as 23. With all of this they were not first, Rambler made it in 39 hours, breaking the Newport to Bermuda time record by 14 hours at an average speed of 16 knots. Fourteen boats broke the elapsed time record.

Frederick Weyerhaeuser having emigrated from Germany in 1852, first worked in Erie, Penn. where he met and married Elizabeth Bladel. The young couple moved to Rock Island, Ill. where Frederick worked in a sawmill, eventually becoming foreman and saving his money. When the financial panic came in 1857, he was able to buy the mill in partnership with his brother-in-law. He later acquired interest in several other mills, attributing his success to his “will to work.”

In the 1860s, he began buying tracts of land in Wisconsin, Minnesota and later, in the 1890s Idaho, Washington and Oregon. In 1891, the family moved to St. Paul, Minn. where Frederick was a friend and neighbor of James J. Hill, the president of the great Northern Railway. Hill owned millions of acres of land given to the railroad in return for constructing the transcontinental rail line from Lake Superior to Puget Sound in Seattle. From 1900 to 1903, Frederick and his partners bought land from Hill and others and thus was born the Weyerhaeuser Timber Company.

Inside on Peaked Hill Bar, in 15 to 35 feet of water, there are jumbo size bluefish at 12-plus pounds. Best bet here is to wire-line-jig for these toothy critters. All red or red and black Hotjigs seem to be the best colors.

The southwest corner of Stellwagen Bank is full of mackerel, but only just a few large bluefish. Over at the Race at Provincetown to the Bath House area there are some small pockets holding keeper bass, but striper fishing has been slow. Most of these stripers are also coming on wire line jigging with red or red and black jigs. Across the bay in Plymouth and Duxbury fishing is good for stripers, blues and fluke. Mackerel can be jigged up on Sibiki rigs in the Brewers Ledge area to be used inside Plymouth and Duxbury Bay. Just inside the Gurnet in very shallow water there are some keeper size stripers just waiting for a live mackerel. Try fishing around Browns Bank before the beach crowd gets there. Use live bait and try trolling tube and worms in black or red. Most everywhere inside Plymouth and Duxbury Bays you can find stripers or bluefish – in Plymouth try the Town Pier and the entrance to the Eel River. Inside Duxbury, try Warrens Cove and the Cordage Channel as well as Bug Light and Clark’s Island on an outgoing tide.

Over at Peaked Hill Bar stripers are AWOL but there are jumbo size bluefish at 12-plus pounds. Most of the blues are being caught on wire line jigging. Try black and purple or red and black hotjigs. Up at the Race at Provincetown, fishing for stripers is also slow. Best bet here is also wire line jigging. Across the bay at Duxbury and Plymouth, fishing is better than at most other spots. Live lining for stripers has been paying off for many anglers. Best spots in the Plymouth and Duxbury Bay area are Brown’s Bank, Bug Light, just outside the Gurnet in close to the Rock Pile and the Cordage Channel. Also fluke fishing in Duxbury has really picked up with lots of nice keeper fluke. Try fishing fluke rigs tipped with mackerel or squid. Any of the small channels in Duxbury are holding fluke and the best bet is on an outgoing tide.

There have been lots of bluefish in Duxbury in almost every size – small two to three pounds up to 12 pounds. Top water plugs have been working on schools of blues feeding on top while live mackerel have been the best bait. For the angler looking for live bait the best bet is early morning or just at sunset. There are schools of small blues as well as schools of shad and pogies-all of which are great baits for tuna and stripers. Over the Fourth of July, Duxbury and Plymouth Bays were very crowded with lots of swimmers and large crowds watching fireworks. This weekend fishing should once again pick up.

Riley Crane tossed a one hitter as the Duxbury Junior Legion team beat Pembroke in a District 10 league game on opening day.  Crane struck out 17 as Duxbury won 5-1.  Matt Murphy and Jack Speranzini led the offense with two hits apiece.

Duxbury Jr. Legion bats erupt – Duxbury bats got hot as the team beat Hanover on June 18 in a District 10 game 14-1.  Riley Crane led the team with four hits, Chris Moretti had three, while Kevin O’Rourke and Colin McGillvray had two apiece.  Jake Foote, Chris O’Connor and Matt Murphy shared the pitching duties.

July 4 reminds me that life in the country, both the nation and the rural kind of country, swings around in circles through the year. When you read this, our Independence Day celebration will be wrapping up, with our parade marshaled by members of the Duxbury Rural and Historical Society. I hope that some of you readers took the plunge and found a way to get you, your kids or your group involved this year. Here’s another way to build memories and put down roots that reach back for generations. Come Aug. 17 – 26, the 145th annual Marshfield Fair opens for the area’s (and the year’s) most intensive gathering of agricultural, horticultural, educational and historical fun. I think of it as Duxbury’s County Fair, and with good reason. It’s a Marshfield event, of course, but you’ll see your neighbors richly represented in exhibits from the 4-H barns to the Country Arts and Crafts and the Agricultural Hall (the flowers and such).

(Front row l to r: Katie Hargrave, Liz Wong, Francesca Amodio, Kylie Stevens, Gabby Dorsett, Christina Kates, Heron Stames, Marisa Saia and Nina Fassnacht. Back row l to r: Head Coach Bob Jordan, Emma Gill, Celia Borghesani, Alex White, Lily Venturelli, Caroline Drinkwater, Marykate Elliot, Ali Garrett, Asst. Coach Ian Wylie and Asst. Coach Mark Drinkwater.  Missing are Molly Tobin and KC Williams.)

The Duxbury Youth Soccer Girls U14 Division 1 team completed a strong spring season last weekend at the Massachusetts Tournament of Champions (MTOC) in Lancaster.

The team was invited to MTOC after winning their Coastal League championship the previous week by beating Norwell 5-0 in the semi-finals and finishing off Marshfield 2-0 in the championship game.  MTOC matches up the championship teams from the top leagues in the state playing in a World Cup-type format. 

(Photo by Jim Tarbox)

ESPN is reporting that Duxbury High School senior Max Randall was named ESPNBoston.com’s “Mr. Lacrosse” this year. The second annual recipient of this award, Randall was a defender for DHS’ Boys’ Lacrosse team this season and won the state championship title with his team.

Randall was chosen by ESPNBoston.com staff, correspondents and coaches from across the state, who recognized Randall for his deft and subtle ability to take out opposing players during games.

Randall also won two state titles for DHS football and three lacrosse titles, as well as numerous other sports awards, all while maintaining a high GPA.

In the fall, Randall will attend Dartmouth College where he will continue to play lacrosse. He will receive his “Mr. Lacrosse” award later this year.

ESPN is reporting that Duxbury High School senior Max Randall was named ESPNBoston.com’s “Mr. Lacrosse” this year. The second annual recipient of this award, Randall was a defender for DHS’ Boys’ Lacrosse team this season and won the state championship title with his team.

Randall was chosen by ESPNBoston.com staff, correspondents and coaches from across the state, who recognized Randall for his deft and subtle ability to take out opposing players during games.

Randall also won two state titles for DHS football and three lacrosse titles, as well as numerous other sports awards, all while maintaining a high GPA.

In the fall, Randall will attend Dartmouth College where he will continue to play lacrosse. He will receive his “Mr. Lacrosse” award later this year.

DHS announces new boys’ soccer coach Duxbury HS Athletic Director Thom Holdgate announced that Brian Johnson has accepted the position as the new head boys’ soccer coach. Johnson was an All-American and state champion player at Marshfield HS and went on to play four years at Rutgers University. After a few years playing minor league soccer, he returned to the area to begin his coaching career at Wheaton College as an assistant coach. Most recently, he has been a member of the coaching staff at the Crusaders United Soccer Club, as well as a sports performance coach.

Bay Players, Duxbury’s Community Theater Troupe, uncorked Tom Smith’s “Drinking Habits,” a hilarious sequel (in a way) to their last production, “Nunsense.” It’s not really a sequel – different author, and so on – but it works the same delightful set-up of quirky nuns and priests gone charmingly naughty.  Don’t worry your beads about the overlap. Where “Nunsense” works deeply into puns, “Drinking Habits” bounces back with out-and-out farce, a Bay Players specialty. Director Theresa Chaisson and her cast worked the split-second triple-door timing to a T, never rushed and never late. Even on the compact stage at the First Parish Church, suspending our disbelief and relishing the sightline gags was as easy as falling off the wagon.

(Steven and Kevin Heath with their catches for second place in the Duncan Frazee Memorial Striper Tournament.)

COASTAL REPORT:  Striper fishing remains good to excellent – tuna fishing is just getting started. With this hot weather (thank you Mr. or Ms. Weatherperson) fishing should turn on now. Around the Cape Cod back beaches at Peaked Hill Bar stripers are heading north and fishing remains really good here. Out in deeper water off Peaked Hill Bar tuna fishing is mostly slow, but soon the action will be red hot. Best baits here for stripers are live mackerel or wire line jigging.

It was certainly the way Duxbury’s 18 seniors wanted to end their high school lacrosse careers. After cruising through three play-off games with an average victory by 12 goals, the Dragons had to hold on in the fourth quarter and defuse a late Needham comeback bid to win its ninth State title in the last 11 years with a hard-earned 10-8 win over No. 6 seeded Needham HS on Wednesday night at Harvard Stadium.