Credit: Jeffery Zhang and Tina Su

Wayland High School seniors prepare to move on from their last season of high school sports. “My favorite memories from baseball are the walk off wins we’ve had and the team dinners, specifically the team bonding,” senior and boys varsity baseball captain Ezra Wyner said. “Being a part of the team and being a captain definitely helped my leadership, communication and work ethic skills.”

As spring comes to an end, seniors at Wayland High School are finishing their last season of high school sports. In a few months, many seniors will be going off to college, and for some, their days of playing organized sports will be behind them.

As they play in their last practices and games, some seniors will miss the relationships and memories that they’ve had throughout playing high school sports.

“I definitely feel sad about the end of the season because of all the relationships I built,” boys varsity baseball senior captain Ezra Wyner said. “I’m likely going to miss the feeling of being on a team.”

For senior Henrique Abecasis, playing high school sports was special. As an exchange student from Portugal, Abecasis was only able to play one year of high school sports as a varsity soccer player and varsity tennis player. In Portugal, students play individually in clubs, instead of playing with their classmates.

“There are no high school teams [in Portugal],” Abecasis said. “If you wanted to play sports, you did it outside of high school. When I did tennis, it was an individual sport and [I practiced with some people], but when I went to tournaments, I was all alone. It makes tennis a little bit depressing. Here, it’s way more fun.”

Abecasis’s experiences on a team have been helpful in building new relationships in the U.S. and finding new friends.

“I’m going to miss my teammates for sure,” Abecasis said. “In both my teams, I had really good teammates that were just there for me. They also helped with the transition from Portugal to [the United States.”

Although some seniors will play sports in college, for others at WHS, the chance to play organized sports will be a rare occurrence.

“[I’m going to miss] being able to play an organized sport, like soccer and tennis,” senior Kailas Srnivasan said. “It’s never going to happen again.”

There are memories that some of the seniors will hold close to them as they move forward in the next step of their lives. For Srinivasan, one of his favorite memories was playing in a soccer tournament in Maine, which is a WHS boys soccer tradition.

“[One of my favorite memories] was the Maine tournament this past year,” Srinivasan said. “I saved a penalty to make us go to the finals, and the whole tournament was really fun.”

One of Abecasis’ most beloved memories was when he played in a soccer charity event, Kicks for Cancer.

“Even though we lost Kicks for Cancer, the environment, vibe and being able to wear the name of a person you love on the back of your shirt is something that I’ll never forget,” Abecasis said. “Also, in tennis, I really liked our first match. I’m really looking forward to the playoffs [as well]. I feel like we can go really far, so hopefully my favorite moment will be winning [the tennis] state finals.”

Going forward, the days of high school sports are over for seniors. But for some, playing organized sports will still be a part of their lives. Wyner will continue to play baseball this summer and in college.

“I’m playing Legion baseball this summer, which is a club team,” Wyner said. “I’m planning on playing club baseball at Villanova.”

As a final piece of advice to underclassmen, Srinivasan recommends athletes to keep training, even when they’re down or in a place where they don’t want to be.

“Keep [at it] even if you’re not the best,” Srinivasan said. “You have a lot of time to keep training everyday, and you’ll get success later. Don’t get down on yourself if you’re not where you want to be. You’ll change by the time you’re an upperclassmen because of all the work you’ve been putting in.”

And for Abecasis, his final piece of advice is to just enjoy any chance you get while playing high school sports.

“I only had one year for high school sports, and I loved every minute of it,” Abecasis said. “You guys have more than one year, so make sure to treasure every single moment.”