Boys Lacrosse has winning mindset

The Weston High School Boys Lacrosse team and Head Coach Jim Wilcon live by the mentality of “This is all we have and this is all we need.”

This way of thinking led the Wildcats to a 15-1 regular season record, two MIAA state tournament wins and a berth in the Elite Eight while carrying just 17 players on the varsity roster – smaller than most schools in the state.

Wilcon said that taking the season one game at a time, dictating the pace of the game and a selfless mindset when sharing the ball were pivotal drivers to the teams’ success this season.

With just 17 available players on the roster, a number that decreased over the course of the season due to injuries, ensuring players were getting the right amount of recovery time during the grueling stretch of the season was emphasized.

“The obvious challenge is the nature of lacrosse, kids running up and down the field get tired when you don’t have the depth,” said Wilcon, who also coaches the school’s varsity football team. “That was an adjustment. We had to play smarter. We had to try to slow down the pace.”

Slowing down the pace wasn’t always easy.

Slowing down also applied on the practice field between games. With up to three games per week at times during the season, Wilcon said more time was spent watching film as a team than in years past, just to give the student-athletes more time off of their feet.

On the field, six players scored more than 30 goals for the Wildcats. Having so many attacking options make them a hard team to gameplan for and play against, Wilcon said.

“It’s the best team we’ve had as far as balance and not relying just on one or two players,” said Wilcon. “They are very unselfish and shared the ball tremendously. That’s something we always talked about.”

Typically at the high school level, one or two players might need to shoulder the load at their position. That wasn’t the case for the 2026 Wildcats.

“It’s always difficult to defend us because you can’t just take away two players because we had at least four others who could generate offense for us,” Wilcon said.

The team wasted no time getting into winning ways to start the season, coming away victorious in each of their first seven games. After losing their eighth contest, the Wildcats started a new winning streak, which spanned the remaining eight games of the regular season and the first two playoff games.

Even during a win streak, the mindset in Weston’s locker room was to maintain focus on the next game, and the next game only.

“We hang our hats on playing one game at a time and knowing that game has no bearing on the next game,” said Wilcon.

The 7th-seed Wildcats beat Swampscott 11-6 in the round of 32 to advance to the round of 16. They then defeated Oakmont Regional 16-4 before falling to Norwell High School in the state quarterfinals.

“The program has been very successful,” said Wilcon. “The bar has been set. The expectation is to be a tournament team and win games in the tournament.”

Wilcon said he couldn’t be happier to lead the Wildcats.

“I’m lucky to coach at such a great place,” said Wilcon. “The kids are great. The families are great.”