Weston student-athletes start practicing for winter season

Weston High School student-athletes have brushed off their skis and sneakers as practice for the winter sports season is now underway.

During the winter season, students are offered basketball, hockey, alpine and cross country skiing, winter track, fencing, gymnastics, swimming/diving and wrestling.

In this second article of this series, the alpine skiing, boys basketball and boys and girls winter track teams lay out their thoughts ahead of the 2025-2026 season.

Alpine Skiing

Alpine skiing is a form of downhill racing where athletes compete to finish with the fastest time.

Head Coach Pete Doolittle said alpine skiing is like no other sport because few athletes around the snow-covered parts of the country will go on to play the sport at the collegiate level. Another difference, according to Doolittle, is that while skiers train for an entire season, their race only lasts a few minutes.

The Weston alpine skiing team practices at the Nashoba Valley Ski Area and holds two practices for each of the six competitive matches.

Last season, the boys team finished with a 4-3 record and the girls finished 2-5.

Doolittle thinks each team should improve on their records from last season since many athletes on each side are returning.

Conditioning and technique will be two main areas of focus leading up to the program’s first competition.

“There is no nuance to the sport,” said Doolittle. “The score is the score. The difference between first place and 10th place is half a second.”

He said Weston faces the challenge of having fewer athletes than many of their competitors.

Boys Basketball

The Weston High School boys basketball team is coming off a 2024-2025 season in which it finished with a positive record and reached the MIAA Tournament for the third consecutive season.

Head Coach Patrick Watson said the program has high ambitions for the upcoming season. It has been 27 years since Weston last won the state championship in boys basketball.

“We have our sights set on the Division 3 State Championship in March,” said Watson. “Every day we step into the gym we work towards bringing home the banner once again. Our team feels it’s time for it to happen again.”

Watson said the strength of the team will be maturity and leadership. The Wildcats have a large number of seniors, two returning captains and are an extremely deep team, he said.

“These student-athletes have put in a lot of work during the offseason to get ready for this season,” said Watson. “The hard work has really paid dividends so far during tryouts.”

Emphasis during tryouts has been re-familiarizing the team with the playbook as well as team defense and rebounding.

“Offensively, we have a point of emphasis to control the flow and tempo of the game and work together to get great shots, not just good ones,” said Watson.

The Wildcats will open the season hosting Bedford High School on Dec. 16 at 7 p.m.

Indoor Track

The Weston indoor track team is making the leap into Division 4 for the 2025-2026 season.

Program Director Kathy Vinciullo said the teams are excited for the challenge.

Vinciullo said both boys and girls rosters are full of talented athletes and both teams hope for successful seasons.

“Although we graduated some key athletes that contributed to our success and have moved up into Division 4, we have many individuals that should be ready to step into those roles,” said Vinciullo. “I feel our graduated seniors have left the team with a desire for success and the work ethic to accomplish it.”

Vinciullo said the boys are coming off a successful season and named Oscar Torres, Amil Poyau, Jacob Kasanov and Nathan Tavares as some of the ones to watch on the boys side this season.

On the girls side, Vinciullo said the team lacks numbers, but the quality of athletes they do have is fantastic.

Solona Varela, Izzy Wheler, Jessica Bourne, Ann Moser and Leksi Sullivan were named as athletes to watch.