By Allison Goldsmith
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Photo by Jim Powers
The Nantucket High School boys lacrosse team readies for the season during practice on Monday. |
I&M Sports Editor
With a core of experienced defenders and speed on the attack, the boys lacrosse team hit the field Monday afternoon to gear up for the spring season.
“This is one of the most athletic groups we have ever had. Physically we are big and we are fast. The problem is we lack lacrosse experience in a lot of key positions, most notably goal. I think the attack and the defensive positions on this team could be one of our strongest ever, but there are a lot of questions in the midfield,” head coach Rick Blair said.
The Whalers will take the field for a scrimmage at Hanover Saturday before opening their regular season schedule at Falmouth a week later.
“We don’t have the luxury to work on conditioning for weeks. We will try incorporate a lot of conditioning into drills and also work on our stick skills and simulating game situations. We will probably scrimmage a little bit every day and by mid-next week we will have a real good idea of who our varsity group is going to be for the Falmouth game on March 31,” Blair said.
Fifty-two athletes signed up for boys lacrosse this season. As many as 30 players might dress for home varsity games and 23 for road games, said Blair, who will be joined by assistant coach Marsh Chambers on the sidelines this season. Kevin Martin Jr. will return as the head coach of the junior varsity team.
A number of Whalers kept up their rhythm over the off-season by participating in weekly games through the Top Gun indoor lacrosse league at the Hingham Sports Complex. Players suited up for a 40-minute game of seven-on-seven every Sunday.
This spring the Whalers will be looking to improve on last year’s 16-6 campaign, when they earned a second straight Maritime Conference championship and a trip to the Division III South playoffs. Nantucket earned the fifth seed in the tournament and after a 20-2 win over Archbishop Williams, lost to third seed and eventual division champion Cohasset in the second round. The Whalers lost a number of key seniors from last year’s squad including All-Cape and Islands goalie Tucker Harvey, defenseman Eric Santos and team leading scorer Ethan Farrell along with Ry Murphy and Robert Anderson.
“We have to pretty much rebuild. The good news is we have returned probably the deepest and most athletic defensive group we have ever had,” Blair said.
The Whalers defensive core will be led by seniors John O’Mara, Eric Rogers, Elias Ammerman, Hunter Burnham and Jordan Beans.
“With these guys and a talented group of freshmen and sophomores, we have a really deep bench and that should allow us to play multiple looks on defense which we haven’t been able to do in the past,” Blair said.
Look for sophomore James McIntosh, Garry Pillion, Delroy Lawrence and freshman Teddy Fales to also see some time on defense to add to the depth for the Whalers this season.
The deep defense will be key with the departure of Harvey in goal. In between the posts this season, the Whalers return sophomore goalie Joe Bopp following an impressive season at the junior varsity level last year. Also in the running to spend the season in the net are Beans, junior transfer Keith Clements and freshman David Loveberry.
All-league midfielder Mark Dwyer returns to anchor the midfield this season and will be joined by sophomore Henry Farrell who will handle most of the face-off duties. Seniors Josh Stone and Josh Holdgate, sophomore Hunter Day and freshman Taylor Thayer will also play midfield.
“Midfield is probably the most unsettled position we have,” Blair said. “We are going to be a pretty attack-oriented offense. As we always do, we will invert our middies a lot to take advantage of Dwyer’s dodging abilities.”
Up front, sophomore Hakeem Lecky, junior Will Martin, sophomores Gaven Norton and Ray DeCosta alongside senior Matt Dunham will lead the Whalers on the attack.
“All of those guys are strong accurate shooters. I think that Martin and Lecky are probably going to carry the ball from X (behind the goal), and Dunham and Norton are the sharp-shooters and will play in the crease more,” Blair said.
The Division III Whalers will face a challenging schedule again this season including the season opener against Division II powerhouse Falmouth, followed by the Division III state champion Cohasset. Dennis-Yarmouth and Maritime Conference newcomer and Division I Barnstable will also be tough match-ups for Nantucket this season.
The Whalers will clash with Maritime Conference opponents Barnstable, Martha’s Vineyard and Bourne twice each in a home and away series, while playing one conference game against Bishop Stang and Dartmouth at home and New Bedford and Bishop Connolly on the road.
Among non-league games this season the Whalers packed their schedule with tough games against Weston, Marshfield and Scituate.
Reach Allison Goldsmith at sports@inkym.com
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