Credit: Emily Wyner

Fisting in the air, the boys varsity basketball team chants before the players go back onto the court.

On Friday Dec. 12, the boys varsity basketball team started the season with a 58-42 win over Norwood High School. The leading scorers for Wayland were junior Josh Lewis-Guy with 15 points followed by junior Josh Grossman with 10 points.

First year head coach Jeff Brewington’s starting players included Lewis-Guy, Grossman, sophomore Gio Salesman, junior Jack Renneker and sophomore Jake Soslow.

“It’s guys showing up and bringing it [in] tryouts and then bringing it in the week of practice,” Brewington said. “I’m just playing the guys who stepped up.”

During the first week of practice, Soslow was on junior varsity, but with senior captain Agastya Parulekar’s back injury and impressive playing in the weeks following tryouts, Soslow was called up to varsity.

“[Soslow] has made a great jump from coming all the way up as a JV player,” Grossman said.

Wayland started hot, leading 32-19 at the end of the first half. Continuing their momentum into the second half, good playing extended their lead 41-19 with 5:30 left in the third quarter. However, Norwood went on a 12-3 run, cutting into Wayland’s lead, resulting in an intense fourth quarter.

After earning an and-one with just four minutes left in the game, Lewis-Guy missed the free throw, but Wayland rebounded the ball and Lewis-Guy quickly hit a three pointer. This five point play contributed to Wayland’s momentum and helped put the win out of reach for Norwood.

According to Grossman, the Wayland student section was a contributor to the win.

“I think in those moments, those breaks, those good steals, those threes, when the dome gets going, it lights up the energy for the whole team, which is it’s like a sixth man out there,” Grossman said. 
”It really helps everyone, and it really is great when we have all those people out there.”