![On Tuesday, Jan. 28, Wayland Cares director J Verhoosky led a presentation on the importance of choosing to be vulnerable in conversations. Through various activities and experiments, the audience was instructed to confront how they approach risk taking and their comfort zones. “[My biggest takeaway was] make yourself available for other people and share things you might not share with other people to make them feel like they're in a safe environment,” junior Addison Voight said.](https://waylandstudentpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/JLb1q3m4ZHvNAKYzv7c60kyyrrafzS8pJlYoJcoj.png)
On Wednesday, Feb. 5, the varsity wrestling team beat Newton-South to claim the Dual County League (DCL) Championship. Wayland entered the meet as the DCL Large champions, while Newton-South was the DCL Small champions. Wrestling champions are titled ‘small’ or ‘large’ based on the past performance of a team, not school size.
With their win against Newton-South, Wayland will continue their undefeated season into the Division III sectional tournament. This year’s DCL championship is special to the players as it is their first in five years.
“We haven’t won it in a few years and I just like beating all those other teams,” senior Michael Keenan said.
According to long-time wrestling head coach Sean Chase, the team set a goal at the start of the season to win the championship.
“We talk about team goals and one of our team goals was to win the DCL large,” Chase said.
This accomplishment is something that members of the team have been working for well before the season started. Several of the athletes have a season that lasts far longer than just the school team’s season. Wayland has multiple wrestlers that compete on a club team outside of the high school team.
“A lot of these guys wrestle in the off season,” Chase said. “Whether it’s wrestling in the fall or in the spring and summer, or they’re traveling to tournaments in different states. A lot of the work for the DCL was put in during the months in which we’re not in school.”
Aside from the off season dedication of Wayland’s wrestlers, some say their success can also be attributed to the strong leadership throughout the team.
“We’ve had an outstanding senior class that has been able to guide the team and lead by example,” Chase said. “We also have had underclassmen who have been able to step up and fill the void that injuries kind of left us with, in particular, with seniors.”
Injuries to players has been an obstacle the team has had to overcome. According to Chase, injuries can be of the biggest challenges of a wrestling team.
“Staying healthy and then making sure everybody is able and ready to wrestle on match day [is a] big challenge,” Chase said. “The other bright spot on our team, aside from senior leadership, is depth and the ability to send the next man up to success.”
Multiple factors, including the deep roster, have allowed Wayland to keep an undefeated record this season. Players attribute this to the hard work and hours that they put in training for the season, on and off the mat, to refine their skills.
“I think we stay [undefeated] by just having a group of guys who work really hard in the room,” Keenan said.
Other players agree with Keenan that hard work has made the team better and given them the strength to be DCL champion.
“We worked really hard in the season, and it all kind of paid off,” freshman Chase Ciciarelli said. “It was a really good feeling.”
According to Chase, the team has plans to continue their success from the regular season and make a run in the playoffs.
“We’re not stopping at the league,” Chase said. “We have bigger plans ahead.”
