Season Preview: Experienced Boys Lacrosse Team Preparing For One Last Ride

The Whaler boys lacrosse program has enjoyed lots of success over the years, in particularly these past two springs. After winning the Division 4 state championship in 2024, they made it all the way back to the state semifinal in 2025. This spring, the team returns nearly all of their players from last year – which has head coach Sam Aloisi excited for could be ahead as he prepares to coach his 13th season.

“I think we can sort of hit the ground running with so many guys coming back but the problem for us and our issue will be our depth,” Aloisi said. “There’s just very little depth, especially in the midfield. But the entire team, the starters and seniors in particular, have a lot of experience. They have been playing with each other for a long time, and they know the competition we are playing. It’s a really good group but again, it is a pretty thin team.”

The Whalers will once again have Jeremy Jenkinson in net for his senior season. Jenkinson has proven to be one of the state’s top goalies over the course of his high school career, and his team will need him to produce another strong season if they hope to make a deep playoff run and potentially win another state championship.

The Whalers also return their entire defense – including Nick and Ben Yates, who developed quickly last spring during their first season as starting long poles. Aloisi said the twins have hit the weight room and look excellent in preseason work.

“Our starting defense is back which is huge,” Aloisi said. “Our first middies are really good. Our offense, we lost Miles Beaudette, but we got Jake (Grant) and Nolen (Mosscrop) coming back. Marco (La Chuisa) will probably fit right in there. So I think we are in good shape there.”

Paxton Fitch, and long stick midfielders Canton Jenkinson and Soren Edwardes, also return. Jenkinson was a key contributor on the 2024 championship team and can play anywhere on the field while Edwardes took his hockey abilities and used them to quickly learn the position of being a long stick midfielder last spring in his first year playing high school lacrosse and filling in for Owen Sullivan, who suffered an injury earlier in the year and was unable to play his senior season.

"Soren was huge for us at long stick middie and played probably 80 percent of the reps last year," Aloisi said. "He may have played a little bit in middle school, but hadn't played in two or three years. He picked it right up. He's good, he's quick, he's athletic. He gets the whole spacing, field, you know, from hockey. He's an athlete."

Arann Hanlon will continue to be the centerpiece of this Whaler attack and is entering his senior season. Aloisi raved about Hanlon and Mosscrop’s chemistry and is hoping to see those two linking up regularly on the field after Mosscrop had nagging injuries all spring last year.

"We are really looking for a big year, hopefully a healthy year more than anything, out of Nolen," Aloisi said. "Nolen should stay healthy and that's going to be very big."

Noah Stringer, Andrick Mooney, Tyler Miller, and Kyden Whitfield should also have plenty of opportunities to continue contributing as all four players played key roles on last spring’s team.

Nantucket begins their season on Tuesday, March 31^st at home against the Monomoy Sharks at 4 p.m. You can view the full boys lacrosse schedule here.