Young Whaler Golf Team Begins Season On Thursday

The Nantucket varsity golf team enjoyed tremendous success last fall under the tutelage of head coach Sam Herrick and his staff of assistants including former head coach Nate Roberts, Hal Herrick, Danno Lynch, and JV head coach David Webb. They placed fourth in the Div. 3 state championship but return none of their top six golfers this year.

"It's a new era, and there are a lot of kids that are working really hard, which is awesome," Herrick said. "I've seen a lot of these guys over the summer putting in a lot of time and a lot of effort. It goes to show, I've been watching these guys the last week of practice and they're playing great. They're hitting the ball great. All the coaches are really excited.”

The varsity roster features plenty of new names who will need to prove they belong at the varsity level, but Herrick is optimistic about their potential. They will be led by their lone senior Gabby Fee, a group of six juniors (TQ Scarlett, Ben Freeman, David Boulter, David Foley, Colby Lucas, and Baer O’Banion), as well as five sophomore golfers including Hunter Bistany, Alex Horton, Emil Ivanov, Eddie Taveras, and Paxton Fitch.

“We have zero varsity experience," Herrick said. "I think last year we actually moved David Boulter up for one match, so that's the most varsity experience we have coming in. But there's a lot of guys that have been putting in a lot of work like David Foley. He's been caddying out at Nantucket Golf Club. He was competitive with Nico (Tedeschi) last year in the JV level and played in the JV Cup the last two years. TQ Scarlett has been working at Nantucket Golf Club as well. He has been around it and loves the sport. Eddie Tavares is new to us. He didn't play last year, but he's a sophomore this year and is a caddy over at Sankaty, so he's been around the sport and been reading putts all summer.”

"It's good to have the guys that are working within the golf industry and kind of getting that experience over the summer so they can come into it and start playing their own ball,” Herrick added.

Herrick said since he took the job three years ago, more student athletes have been trying out for the team. He said they had to make cuts last year, but this year are creating a club team that will be led by Devin Durand.

“Coach Durand is going to spearhead that, but it's going to be the same thing where guys are going to meet twice or three times per week,” Herrick said. “They're going to get course play at Skinners and kind of work on their game and elevate it that way and see if we can move people up that are playing well. That way we don't have to make any cuts and people can keep gaining experience. We're really excited about that program.”

Herrick said he has learned that developing relationships with his golfers is an important step in helping them grow their games, not just honing in on the technical aspects of each golfer's game. He referenced the close bond he had with last year’s senior class and how he felt like it helped the program enjoy the success they achieved against some of the best teams in the state.

"I developed great relationships with those guys the last two years from Paddy Carroll to Braden Knapp to Henry Kathawala and all of those guys,” Herrick said. “I think once they bought into it and realized that we could have a lot of fun and have a lot of success, they started playing really well. Case in point last year coming in fourth in the state. This core group I think we have that with these guys too. There's definitely a lot of talent and there's a lot of potential. We have to work on a lot of things, especially when we get the competitive matches. Cape Cod Academy is going to be really good this year. They were playing seventh and eighth graders against us last year. St. John Paul's always good.”

Nantucket will travel to the Cape to face St. John Paul II on Thursday, September 5 at 3:30 p.m. You can view the golf team’s schedule here.