Health a key to Weston’s success on the gridiron

The 2025 season ended with a lot of boxes checked for the Weston High School football team.

The Wildcats won their division, qualified for the playoffs and defeated archrival Wayland High School in the annual Thanksgiving matchup.

In addition to the wins on the schedule, Head Coach Jim Wilcon believes the most important win of the season was the experience players took away.

“We had a fantastic year as far as what people measure success by,” said Wilcon. “I think the real success was the kids had a positive experience, mainly avoided the injury bug and formed a great team bond.”

The Wildcats finished the season with a 7-4 record and a trip to the MIAA state tournament before falling to Hanover High School in the first round.

Going into the 2026 season, Weston will not only have to battle opposing teams. The Wildcats will field their smallest roster in recent memory.

“Our numbers are low,” said Wilcon. “A lot of players now go to private schools, specialize in one sport or don’t want to play a collision sport.”

Wilcon said having the right numbers at each position group is also crucial, and the roster size will force some players to feature on offense, defense and special teams.

“We’re in the position where we want to get through the season healthy in order to have that positive experience,” said Wilcon.

The team will start officially practicing next week, which Wilcon said will start with drilling in fundamentals and emphasizing conditioning to ensure the team is in shape to compete for the duration of a game.

“The kids haven’t played in months, so we’ll focus on making sure we’re tackling safely and blocking with the right technique,” said Wilcon.

While older players are getting back into the groove and underclassmen are getting used to the high school level, all players will be learning values prioritized by Wilcon and the coaching staff.

“The important things we want ingrained are being a good teammate, being coachable, working hard at all times and having fun,” said Wilcon.

If student-athletes play and practice with those four pillars in mind, Wilcon said the wins and losses will take care of themselves.

After fundamentals and conditioning are worked on, installing the teams’ offensive and defensive schemes are the final step on the road to being ready for gameday.

“The scheme is the last piece,” said Wilcon. “Putting in some plays that we’re familiar with and have had success with and installing new plays that are fit to the players we have this season.”

Two senior leaders will pair up together on both offense and defense, Luke Betty and Colin Shorter. Both will line up at wide receiver on offense and at defensive back on the other side of the ball.

In the trenches, senior Massimo Selvig will lead the way on both offensive and defensive lines.

The Wildcats will kick off their 2026 season at home, under the lights against Wellesley High School on Friday, Sept. 4 at 6:30 p.m.