ROCHESTER — Old Colony Regional Vocational Technical High School athletes are celebrating the school’s new status as the winningest Division 2 vocational school in Massachusetts.

The school was recently named 2018 winner of The Boston Globe’s Walter J. Markham Award. Part of the newspaper’s scholastic awards program, the award is presented annually to the vocational school with the best win-loss record in all athletic competitions.

Across all three sports seasons, Old Colony racked up a nearly 59 winning percentage in the 2017-2018 school year -- 58.63 percent to be exact. Teams won championships in state or vocational tournaments in football, boys and girls basketball, boys soccer, baseball, softball and volleyball.

Established in 1997, the Markham Award is named after Walter Markham, a Lowell native who initiated the state’s regional vocational and technical high school programs and went on to serve as president and treasurer of the American Vocational Association.

This is the first year that the prize has gone to Old Colony.

“It is nice to be recognized among all vocational schools,” said football and softball coach Brendon Mendez.

Athletic Director Matthew Trahan pointed out that all the student athletes contributed to the achievement: Every victory by any team counted toward the number of wins. Coaches, too, had words of praise for all the athletes.

“Winning is fun, but winning isn’t everything, and development is important for the athletes,” said boys soccer coach Sergio Pedrosa.

Craig Lincoln, coach of baseball and girls basketball, talked of his athletes’ great work ethic and how much fun they are to coach.

Golf coach Kathy Peterson noted: “They worked extremely hard, and they worked as a team.”

”I’ve been coaching for about 20 years so, as you can imagine, I am so excited and proud of everyone involved in Old Colony athletics,” said 2017-2018 girls soccer coach Paul Sleight. Although his team probably had the “worst record” of all the Old Colony teams, their wins still contributed to the award.