Nantucket High School is a

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichkei ...

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

Nantucket, Massachusetts Nantucket () is an island about south from Cape Cod. Together with the small islands of Tuckernuck and Muskeget, it constitutes the Town and County of Nantucket, a combined county/town government that is part of the U.S. state of Massachuse ...

, United States. It is the only high school on the island of

Nantucket Nantucket () is an island about south from Cape Cod. Together with the small islands of Tuckernuck and Muskeget, it constitutes the Town and County of Nantucket, a combined county/town government that is part of the U.S. state of Massachuse ...

. The school serves students in grades 9–12 and has an approximate enrollment of 530 students. The school colors are Navy Blue and White, and the mascot is Hank the Harpoon Man, whose name was chosen by the students in 2013.

History

In 1838, Nantucket High School (NHS) was founded with

Cyrus Peirce Cyrus Peirce (1790–1860), American educator and Unitarian minister, was the founding president of the first American public normal school, which evolved into Framingham State University.

as the school's first principal. The school's team's name Whalers is in tribute to the long and storied history of the commercial

whaling Whaling is the process of hunting of whales for their usable products such as meat and blubber, which can be turned into a type of oil that became increasingly important in the Industrial Revolution. It was practiced as an organized industry ...

industry on Nantucket. Nantucket is regarded as one of the most recognizable and synonymous places associated with Whaling in the world. In 2019, NHS graduated its largest class in the school's history with 136 students.

Athletics

The Nantucket High School athletic teams are known as the Whalers. There are currently five boys' teams (soccer, basketball, swimming, lacrosse, and baseball), six girls' teams (softball, basketball, swimming, lacrosse, volleyball, and soccer), and six coed teams (football, field hockey, ice hockey, cheerleading, golf, sailing, and cross country). There is the skeleton of a juvenile

finback whale The fin whale (''Balaenoptera physalus''), also known as finback whale or common rorqual and formerly known as herring whale or razorback whale, is a cetacean belonging to the parvorder of baleen whales. It is the second-longest species of ce ...

hanging in the commons area of Nantucket High School that serves as the team's mascot. The Nantucket girls' athletic teams are known as the Lady Whalers, but now commonly known as just the Whalers.

Football

The Nantucket football team is the schools most successful athletics team and is further regarded as one of the most successful small-school programs in Massachusetts. They have won a total of 4 Massachusetts State Championships. The Whalers won state championships in 1980, 1995, 1996, and 2011. Also, they were State Finalists in 1982, 1983, 1990, 1993, 1994 and 1998. The Nantucket Football team has appeared in the MIAA state Championship game a total of 10 times since 1980. Nantucket's football team was led by legendary coach Vito Capizzo for 45 years, from 1964 to 2009. Capizzo coached the team to 293 wins (3rd most in Massachusetts history), won 3 State Championships, appeared in 9 State Championship games, won 17 League Championships, and was named Coach of the Year numerous times by many publications. In 2011, Nantucket won its first state championship in fifteen years with a 35–0 rout over Latin Academy (Dorchester, Massachusetts). Every year, the Nantucket football team plays against

Martha's Vineyard Martha's Vineyard, often simply called the Vineyard, is an island in the Northeastern United States, located south of Cape Cod in Dukes County, Massachusetts, known for being a popular, affluent summer colony. Martha's Vineyard includes the s ...

for the Island Cup on the weekend before

Thanksgiving Thanksgiving is a national holiday celebrated on various dates in the United States, Canada, Grenada, Saint Lucia, Liberia, and unofficially in countries like Brazil and Philippines. It is also observed in the Netherlander town of Leiden and ...

. The Island Cup is played on Nantucket one year, then on

the next year and alternates back and forth.

Other sports

The Nantucket boys'

lacrosse Lacrosse is a team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game was extensively ...

team appeared in the state championship game consecutively for over a decade from 1999 onward.

''Veritas''

The school newspaper, ''Veritas'', won 14 awards at the 2013 New England Scholastic Press Association ceremony. The paper took the All New England Award for best overall. Traditionally, the ''Veritas'' staff has numbered between 30 and 50 students. Due to coronavirus, ''Veritas'' is currently publishing its articles online at veritasnantucket.com

Alumni

* John D. Whitney

References

External links

Nantucket High School

Nantucket Public Schools

Great Schools Profile
{{authority control Schools in Nantucket, Massachusetts Buildings and structures in Nantucket, Massachusetts Public high schools in Massachusetts