What Opportunities Do We Want For Nantucket Students?

To the editor: Every afternoon across Nantucket, students step onto fields, courts and a track where education continues in a different form; it unfolds through teamwork, accountability, resilience and belonging.

As our community prepares to vote on the Vito Capizzo Stadium renovations, Article 12, we would like to ask a fundamental question:

What opportunities do we want available to our island’s children?

We are writing to you as the group of adults privileged to engage with the island’s students during their most pivotal and sensitive years. However, we are not their teachers. We are their coaches.

On the field, the learning is not about content and information. Our job is to equip athletes with the ability to face adversity, communicate their needs, work collaboratively, take accountability, and stand by commitments they have made to others.

When provided with the opportunity to learn these skills, our student-athletes rise to the occasion.

This is what allows us to have a front-row seat to one of the most incredible experiences this life has to offer: watching a child grow into a confident and independent young adult. This experience is why we coach.

Countless stories can be told of students who struggled to find their place in school for different reasons. But what gave them a reason to show up and persevere? Their coaches. Their teammates. Their sport.

Legendary coach Pat Summitt measured success not simply in wins, but in a 100 percent graduation rate. She understood that school athletics provide young people a place to belong, receive support, be challenged, and succeed not only as athletes, but as students.

That is the power of playing for your school team.

That is the true purpose of interscholastic athletics.

And to be clear, it has never been about creating elite athletes. It is about creating equity and access to experiences where children of different backgrounds learn the skills they need to even the playing field for themselves in the long run.

It is about giving them the confidence and resilience to face an uncertain world with courage rather than hesitation.

It is about developing engaged citizens that will return home to give back to the community that gave so much to them.

We know that participation in interscholastic athletics gives students opportunities to develop the habits necessary to thrive far beyond our school district. By investing in facilities that support athletic programming, you are investing in a child’s access to these learning opportunities.

Article 12 ultimately asks our community to decide whether these opportunities will continue to be available to the young people growing up on Nantucket today.

Town Meeting decisions reflect only those who are present in the room, which makes every individual voice essential. We encourage our neighbors to come to the Annual Town Meeting on May 4 and vote in favor of Article 12.

We leave our community with this question:

What opportunities do we want available to our island’s children?

Elizabeth Baraldi Weber
Varsity Field Hockey

Daniel Weber
Varsity Field Hockey & JV Baseball

Sam Herrick
Varsity Golf

Katie Sullivan
Field Hockey
Girls Lacrosse

Morgan Perry
Football

Matt Raab
Football

Fervon Phillips
Football

RJ Moore
Football

Matt Phipps
Varsity Boys & Girls Cross Country,
Varsity Boys & Girls Indoor Track,
Varsity Boys & Girls Outdoor Track

Gary Allen
Boys & Girls Cross Country, 
Boys & Girls Outdoor Track

Katie Manchester
CPS Cross Country

Bridgette Hynes
CPS Cross
Country

Sierra O’Mahony
CPS Cross
Country

Shanna-Kay Smith
Volleyball,
Boy & Girls Indoor Track
Boys & Girls Outdoor Track

Rich Brannigan II
Varsity Boys Soccer

Caleb Gomes
JV Boys Soccer

Caio Gomes
JV Boys Soccer

Doug LeBrecht
Varsity Girls Soccer

Mary Ard
Assistant, Varsity Girls Soccer

Kate Garrett
JV Girls Soccer

Nichole Marks
Assistant, JV Girls Soccer

Missy Perry
Fall & Winter Cheerleading

Jazmine Kazperzyk
Fall & Winter Cheerleading

Christopher “Willis” Ferreira
Varsity Boys Basketball

Andrew Benson
JV Boys Basketball

Matt Bulmer
9th & 10th Boys Basketball
JV Boys Lacrosse

Angela Paterson
Varsity Girls Basketball

Bill Steadman
JV Girls Basketball

Anna Steadman
JV Girls Basketball

Jack Moran Sr.
Varsity Boys Ice Hockey

Andrew McNeilly
Varsity Girls Ice Hockey

Max Perkins
Girls Ice Hockey

Jillian Fey
Girls Ice Hockey

Jack Pearson
Varsity Baseball

Stefan Mandle
Baseball

Devin Perras
Baseball

Eric Lurwick
JV Baseball

Sean Sullivan
JV Baseball

Ryan Briard
CPS Baseball

Kelly Mayette
Varsity Softball

Sam Aloisi
Varsity Boys Lacrosse

Cory Gammill
Boys Lacrosse

Kelly Brown
Varsity Girls Lacrosse

Meghan Bernazanni
JV Girls Lacrosse

Brian Bernazanni
JV Girls Lacrosse

Jim Meehan
Sailing

Paige Noland
CPS Softball

Dalton Frazier
CPS Recreational Tennis