Students and a coach press Nantucket School Committee on football program conduct and pay practices

A Nantucket high-school junior and a former JV coach used the public-comment period on Jan. 21 to tell the School Committee they had concerns about the football program's culture, player safety and how coaching positions were paid this season.

"We, as a team, were constantly singled out and belittled," Brock Beamish, who identified himself as a junior and an athlete on football, hockey and baseball teams, told the committee. He said he sustained a season-ending injury at football practice and will miss other sports while he recovers. Beamish asked the committee to consider a workshop or public forum to address the physical and mental health of student-athletes.

Jeff Beamish, who said he served as the JV head football coach for three years, said the JV staff "is no longer, to my knowledge, representing Nantucket Football because of said head coach and his hard coaching." Jeff Beamish said the JV coaching staff had been excluded from coaching communications and a coaching-run system the program used for coordinating the offense. He also alleged problems "with how the coaches got paid," saying the head coach managed payments and that he was told the head coach misrepresented positions; Beamish said he emailed administrators about the issue and did not receive a reply.

Committee members acknowledged the complaints during the public-comment period and did not announce any immediate administrative action in the meeting record. One committee member asked that the concerns be brought to the administration so they can be investigated; the public commenters expressed a desire to raise awareness and prompt a formal review.

The comments were delivered during the meeting's public-comment portion and therefore do not represent committee findings. The committee did not take a formal vote on the public-comment remarks during the meeting.