Nantucket Current Sports

01/13/2025

Sports Roundup: Boys, Girls Swim Win Cape Cod Classic, Girls Hockey Honors Three Seniors

The weather finally cooperated this weekend and several Whaler sports teams were able to return to action following the winter break. The boys & girls swim teams won the Cape Cod Classic in Sandwich, the girls hockey team honored their three seniors, the boys basketball team lost a close game to the top seed in Division 5, the boys & girls indoor track teams had several personal records in an off-island meet, and the boys hockey team lost on the road.

The weather finally cooperated this weekend and several Whaler sports teams were able to return to action following the winter break. The boys & girls…

01/12/2025

Congratulations to the Nantucket boys and girls swim teams for winning the 2025 Cape Cod Classic at Sandwich High School today!

Thank you to Kristen Dussault for sending us this great photo. We will have some scores from this meet in our Monday newsletter 👍

01/11/2025

Despite a loss on Saturday, the Nantucket girls hockey team had an opportunity to play a game this winter - something that was very much in doubt four to six weeks ago. They welcomed the Duxbury Dragons to the island and had a chance to honor and celebrate their three seniors who have shown extraordinary leadership through a challenging winter season - setting the program up for success and a bright future in the years to come. Those seniors were Mayson Lower, Sam Zadroga, and Seren Cristler.

The boys basketball team was unable to close out English High school, the #1 seed in Div. 5, losing 72-65. Nantucket held a 33-27 lead at halftime, but English came out red-hot in the third quarter and outscored Nantucket 32-14 to pull away and earn the victory.

Freshman guard/forward Burke Lombardi continued his strong start to his freshman year for the Whalers with a 24 point effort.

Photos by Nantucket Current Sports Photographer Chris Tran!

12/31/2024

Here are just 20 of the hundreds of memorable sports photos that came out of 2024!

For the first time in over a decade, we had a Whaler sports team win a state championship after the boys lacrosse team beat Sandwich 7-6.

The football team took back the Island Cup in an overtime thriller at Fenway Park - beating Martha’s Vineyard 22-14 following a game-winning touchdown by Arann Hanlon.

The field hockey team advanced to the Round of 16 following one of the best seasons in program history. They finished their year with a 14-4-2 record.

The boys hockey team made it to their third consecutive state quarterfinal, but that was just part of the story. While the MIAA suspended a senior hockey player ahead of the playoffs who had no disciplinary history and failed to provide an explanation for their decision, and subsequently told a 7 year old girl she couldn’t lead the boys onto the ice for their state quarterfinal game despite it being a team tradition, the Whalers went down sticking by their island and their people in the midst of incompetence and buffoonery - capping off the most successful run in program history.

The girls tennis team secured their first ever win over Martha’s Vineyard this spring.

Thank you for following along and we look forward to what is to come in 2025!

12/23/2024

The Whaler boys basketball team welcomed the 2024 Div. 4 state championship runner ups – the Bourne Canalmen – to the island Monday afternoon for an afternoon matchup, and held their own in a 56-40 defeat that has Nantucket head coach Willis Ferreira encouraged by the progress his players are making each game.

“I’m very happy right now,” Ferreira said. “We just need to find some other guys who can come in and not disrupt what we’re trying to do. Those guys (starters) can’t play the whole game. They’re exhausted right? They’re on the defensive end just working. That is something we need to figure out as coaches is who are those guys who are going to come in and give those guys a breather. That’s fine too. We have a lot of young guys working hard. We need to do better coaching. A lot of that is on us.”

Nantucket played Bourne to a 14-14 tie after one quarter of play. Ferreira said it was “by far” the best quarter of basketball his team has played through the season’s first three games. Junior big man Ethan Jarrett led the Whalers with six first quarter points while freshman guard/forward Burke Lombardi had five points in the opening frame.

Full story in nantucketcurrent.com

All photos taken by Nantucket Current Sports Photographer Chris Tran.

12/21/2024

The boys basketball team hosted the Martha’s Vineyard Vineyarders Saturday afternoon and won 64-59 behind 20 points from junior Vallon Jeanty, 16 points from junior Ethan Jarrett, and 11 points from freshman Burke Lombardi. The win improve the Whalers to 1-1 this season.

The girls and boys swim teams also hosted Martha’s Vineyard on Saturday. The girls won handily by a score of 99-57 while the boys narrowly lost 76-69.

More to come in Monday’s newsletter!

12/19/2024

The Nantucket boys hockey team hosted the Monomoy Sharks Wednesday evening and lost 9-3. The Whalers outshot the Sharks 28-20.

Junior captain Jeremy Jenkinson and junior assistant captain Canton Jenkinson scored for the Whalers. Sophomore forward Tommy Schroeder scored his first career varsity goal as well.

Nantucket outshot Monomoy 7-6 in the first period, but trailed 1-0 after the first 15 minutes. The Whalers had a strong first 10 minutes of the second period before the Sharks eventually scored on a power play with 2:04 left in the period. Nantucket earned their first power play of the game with 41 seconds left, but it went south quickly as the Sharks scored a shorthanded goal on a breakaway with one second left in the second to make it 3-0 Monomoy after two periods.

Jeremy Jenkinson got Nantucket on the board less than three minutes into the third to make it 3-1, but Monomoy answered with two quick goals to make it 5-1 with 8:47 to go in the game.

Schroeder scored his goal with 7:39 to go to make it 5-2, but Monomoy answered fast once again to make it 6-2 less than two minutes later.

Canton Jenkinson made it 6-3 just 28 seconds after Monomoy’s sixth goal, but Nantucket ran out of time to claw back into the game.

The Whalers will now have the next week off before traveling to North Quincy for game one of a Christmas tournament. That game is scheduled for Thursday, December 26th at 2 p.m.

Photos by Current Sports Photographer Chris Tran.

12/17/2024

The Nantucket girls basketball team hosted the St. John Paul II Lions Tuesday evening in their home opener, but lost the game 43-17.

Neither team was able to generate much offense in the first quarter thanks to strong defense on both sides. SJP led 8-0 after one quarter and responded nicely in the second quarter with 18 points, which was their most points scored in any quarter throughout the game.

Nantucket trailed 26-9 at half and started to generate more offense, but ultimately the Lions were able to hang on for a comfortable win. The Whalers were led by senior guard Mani Taveras in the scoring department, who finished with 10 of the Whaler’s 17 points.

Nantucket, now 0-2, will try to earn their first win of the season when they travel to Martha’s Vineyard for an afternoon matchup with the Vineyarders on Saturday, December 21st at 2 p.m.

Photos are by Nantucket Current Sports Photographer Chris Tran.

12/14/2024

The Nantucket boys hockey team opened up their season at home against a strong and experienced Martha’s Vineyard team Saturday afternoon and lost 10-0.

“I was talking with the Vineyard coach and like he said, they’re at their peak now,” Nantucket head coach Jack Moran said. “They got a boatload of seniors on their team while we only have one and it’s from Miles (Beaudette) coming back. We knew the game was going to be tough. First game out of the box for a lot of new kids. A lot of new looks for everybody. They did a lot of good stuff too. I don’t want to dwell on the fact that we lost. I’d rather look at the positive points that everyone went out there and tried their hardest. We have things we need to work on in practice and try to sharpen the skills of these kids and make them better.”

Junior goalie Nick Yates not only played his first varsity hockey game, but his first ever game as a hockey goalie on Saturday. He made over 20 saves in the game - including a streak of eight straight in the opening period as the Vineyard peppered him with shots.”

“Give Nick a helluva lot of credit,” Moran said. “He made some saves. The kid was standing on his head the best he could. Considering what he was up against with the Vineyard, he did okay. We can’t be upset with that at all. We are very happy he is doing what he is doing, and he’s going to get better too.”

Moran said Yates has earned the respect of every player on the team.

“Everybody understands what he was up against,” Moran continued. “They feel bad for letting him down and for not protecting him in the front. I think a lot of that is nerves too. We had a lot of new kids on the ice that had never been on the ice in a situation like this. They touch the puck and they got that deer in the headlights looks because they’re not quite sure what to do, but that will disappear as time goes on.”

Moran added he liked seeing his team stay composed. There were no penalties taken in the game by either side.

The Whalers next game is scheduled for Wednesday, December 18th at home against the Monomoy Sharks at 5:15 p.m.

Photos by Current Sports Photographer Chris Tran

12/05/2024

NOT SO FAST! Girls Hockey is back.

After originally being informed that their season was being cancelled, the Nantucket girls hockey team WILL have a season.

Head coach Andrew McNeilly told the Current it is looking like there will be 16 players. He said there were a lot of 7th and 8th grade skaters who stepped up and joined the team.

The season will consist of a game schedule featuring a combination of JV and varsity opponents, however the schedule has not been released yet. First practice is scheduled for Friday.

Great news for the girls and the survival of the program.

11/27/2024

Some photos from today’s parade down Main Street to celebrate last night’s Island Cup victory!

Photos taken by Nantucket Current Sports Contributor Brandon Falconer!

11/27/2024

Here is one for the Islanders! Vito Capizzo was certainly smiling down on this moment.

The one and only Beau Almodobar to the far left, who is one of the great Whaler football players of all time. He was an assistant coach for Capizzo and he also played under Vito (core piece of the 1980 Super Bowl winning team, the first ever Super Bowl for the island). He has credited Capizzo for being a mentor in his life, helping him decide to attend Norwich University, and becoming a dear friend.

In the middle, we have the great Don Herman. A legendary and all-time great coach himself who was the rival of Capizzo for decades as the leader of Martha’s Vineyard’s program. For years, Capizzo would only call his counterpart “The Snake” 😂.

But as the years went by, Herman became a close friend and confidant to Capizzo as the two had a massive amount of respect for one another.

And next to Herman we have Capizzo’s son, Scott, who called the game for 97.7 yesterday and was an honorary captain alongside Almodobar yesterday for Nantucket.

11/27/2024

11/27/2024

Whaler’s freshman quarterback Burke Lombardi holding the Island Cup Trophy and posing for a photo with his father, Nantucket High School Athletic Director Travis Lombardi after the game Tuesday night!

📸: David Creed

11/26/2024

🚨 Island Cup Pregame 🚨

According to Fenway officials, over 4,000 tickets were sold for tonight’s Island Cup game, which is “by far” the most sold for any of the four scheduled games set to take place at Fenway Park so far.

The Whalers will try to win the Island Cup and return it to Nantucket for the first time since 2021.

11/21/2024

Some photos from Wednesday night’s Powderpuff game - which the seniors won 22-8 against the juniors! A fun night.

Photos by Current Sports Photographer Chris Tran

11/20/2024

Anthony Esker has loved mixed martial arts and boxing his whole life, but never did much with that passion for the sport outside of following the sports as a fan. Born and raised on Nantucket, Esker never had a gym that was right for him or that he felt gave him the opportunity to live out his dream of becoming a fighter – until he found the Rocket Boxing & Mixed Martial Arts fitness center based in Orange, Virginia.

Esker began his training in January of this year, which features five to six days per week of up to two and a half hours of rigorous training each day. The training appears to be paying off as Esker earned his first win on October 25th by TKO (technical knockout) against Dakota Whitehill at the RCS (Rocket Combat Sports) 18 event in Woodford, Virginia.

“Growing up on the island there wasn’t much opportunity for MMA or boxing, but I was always interested in fighting,” Esker said. “Growing up I played football and basketball, and I was never really a star player. So I feel like that’s a big reason why I fell in love with fighting because when you are in the cage it’s just you and another man in there trying to hurt each other. There are no teammates to help you.”

Esker, a member of Nantucket High School’s Class of 2022, said his favorite takeaway from his boxing journey so far has been the bonds he’s made with his teammates and coaches. He credited his head coach Chris Rollins, who runs Rocket Combat Sports Production and is a professional MMA fighter with three amateur titles to his name as well as three professional MMA titles/belts, for his success.

“I would not be here if it wasn’t for him,” Esker said. “He pushes me every day to make sure I am working to reach my true potential. He is not just a coach; he is like a brother to me. He has been a professional fighter for over 10 years and he has trained with the Diaz brothers (Nick and Nate, professional fighters) and Matt Brown (former professional MMA fighter), so I am blessed to have a real OG of the game as my coach.”

Full story on nantucketcurrent.com

Photos by Daniel Cork ( )

11/20/2024

"I Wasn't Going To Let That Guy Take Me Out," Anthony Esker Earns First Boxing Win

By David Creed

Anthony Esker has loved mixed martial arts and boxing his whole life, but never did much with that passion for the sport outside of following the sports as a fan. Born and raised on Nantucket, Esker never had a gym that was right for him or that he felt gave him the opportunity to live out his dream of becoming a fighter – until he found the Rocket Boxing & Mixed Martial Arts fitness center based in Orange, Virginia.

Esker began his training in January of this year, which features five to six days per week of up to two and a half hours of rigorous training each day. The training appears to be paying off as Esker earned his first win on October 25th by TKO (technical knockout) against Dakota Whitehill at the RCS (Rocket Combat Sports) 18 event in Woodford, Virginia.

“Growing up on the island there wasn’t much opportunity for MMA or boxing, but I was always interested in fighting,” Esker said. “Growing up I played football and basketball, and I was never really a star player. So I feel like that’s a big reason why I fell in love with fighting because when you are in the cage it’s just you and another man in there trying to hurt each other. There are no teammates to help you.”

Esker, a member of Nantucket High School’s Class of 2022, said his favorite takeaway from his boxing journey so far has been the bonds he’s made with his teammates and coaches. He credited his head coach Chris Rollins, who runs Rocket Combat Sports Production and is a professional MMA fighter with three amateur titles to his name as well as three professional MMA titles/belts, for his success.

“I would not be here if it wasn’t for him,” Esker said. “He pushes me every day to make sure I am working to reach my true potential. He is not just a coach; he is like a brother to me. He has been a professional fighter for over 10 years and he has trained with the Diaz brothers (Nick and Nate, professional fighters) and Matt Brown (former professional MMA fighter), so I am blessed to have a real OG of the game as my coach.”

Link to the full story below. All photos by Daniel Cork.

https://nantucketcurrent.com/sports/anthony-esker-living-out-passion-for-fighting