This winter season, the boys hockey program has changed significantly. Not only is the team back to playing at the varsity level, but it also has merged with the Watertown High School team.

Last year, due to size and age concerns, the team was placed into a JV league. While most varsity hockey teams have about 20 players, the Wayland team only had 12. Along with this, the majority of the players were underclassmen, and only about five players were upperclassmen. This raised safety concerns amongst the athletic director and parents of the players.

“We had a ton of freshmen [last year],” junior Jack Ali said. “Our AD and parents were worried about kids getting injured, like if we had freshmen playing against varsity [teams] for their first year of high school because usually freshmen don’t make varsity.”

The team has since decided to merge with Watertown, creating a varsity and JV team. The Wayland girls hockey team is already combined with Weston, however, when Wayland was looking for options to merge with other towns, the Weston boys team was already with Dover-Sherborn.

“We were looking for a team, so that we could go back to being a varsity team,” junior Sam Brande said. “We were going to try and merge with other towns a little bit closer, but no one else wanted to merge with us, so then we worked it out with Watertown. Now, we can have a varsity and a JV team.”

If it wasn’t for the merge, the team would have been placed into a JV league again. For some players, they considered quitting the high school JV team, and instead, just play for their club team.

“Last year, I had to supplement competitive hockey by going to play for a club team throughout the winter,” senior captain Ryan Desmond said. “When you’re supposed to be one of the better players on the team, and you’re on JV as a junior, it’s hard. I’m glad that we’re back now.”

Although being on a JV team meant that some of the players couldn’t reach their highest potential on the ice, the team was very small, which allowed for a close-knit community.

“We had something to work for,” Ali said. “We were in a JV league, and while we went almost undefeated, there was definitely competition. There was a championship in the JV league that we won, so it felt really good to win something and not just be playing for no reason.”

This year, the majority of the JV team is Wayland, while the varsity team is mostly made up of Watertown players.

“It kind of comes with more of the Wayland guys being younger and most of the Watertown guys being older,” Desmond said. “It’s all one practice, we are never separated into varsity or JV. JV guys always have a chance to move up to varsity, and varsity guys who maybe aren’t playing as well, are always open to being moved down to JV.”

Now that the team is combined with Watertown, the players must travel to the John A. Ryan Arena in Watertown for practice every day after school. The Wayland players will also no longer be playing towns in the Dual County League, but they will play teams in Watertown’s league, the Middlesex League.

“We practice with Watertown at [Watertown’s] rink, ” Ali said. “It’s 20 to 30 minutes to get there after school. We sit in a lot of traffic, but it’s worth it.”

In the past, the Watertown team has been successful. Last year, the team made it to the MIAA Division IV state final at TD Garden in Boston but lost to Sandwich. This year, the Watertown-Wayland hockey team will compete in Division III.

“[Watertown’s] done very well, as they made it to finals last year,” sophomore Shane Desmond said. “Unfortunately they lost, but they also had multiple titles, for their division or their county, so to speak.”

In their first scrimmage, the team came out victorious against Cambridge Rindge and Latin, with a score of 12-0. So far, the team has gone undefeated in scrimmages.

“The team is definitely still good,” S. Desmond said. “I think they only lost maybe a handful of [seniors]. We haven’t lost a game yet in terms of our scrimmages.”

Going into the season, the team has high hopes. The team had its first league game against Arlington on Wednesday, Dec. 14 at the Ed Burns Ice Arena.

“I am really excited,” R. Desmond said. “I want to make it to the playoffs. Obviously, the end goal is to make it to the Garden with the team, but we have to take it one game at a time.”