New year, new school, same blog. I hope everyone had a splendid and relaxing break, but now it’s time to get back to work.

Wayland teams enjoyed a lot of success as they closed out 2011.

The girls’ swim team put together their best performance of the year and beat Weston 97-89 over vacation. The boys weren’t as fortunate and they fell 87-94, but they recovered in their next meet, beating Waltham 99-76.

On Christmas Eve, the wrestlers managed to salvage a tie against Weston 33-33 thanks to a pin by senior John Monahan in the heavyweight match.

Girls’ basketball is still searching for its first win of the season after losing to Winthrop 57-51 in triple overtime.

The girls’ hockey team continued their winning ways and sit at 3-1 with an upcoming game against LS on Tuesday.

Tournaments were friendly to the Warriors over break as both the boys hockey and basketball teams were crowned champions.

Boys’ hockey won the Grafton tournament for the third consecutive year, beating Worcester 4-1.

Boys’ basketball beat Ashland 64-63 to claim their tournament championship. Although I was only able to attend the basketball game, I’ll use this to segue into my topic, the element of the game that often goes overlooked: fans.

The fan’s role

In the winter season, fans play more of a role in games than other seasons. I think it has to do with the fact that some winter sports such as basketball and hockey are indoors, which allows fans to be easily heard. It’s hard for even professionals, let alone high school athletes, to deal with the crowd’s chatter. Some deal with it better than others, but that’s not what I want to focus on.

I want to focus on what’s said by the fans. Usually it’s students who do the bantering, but we all know there are some parents as well. Anyways, most of the heckling is creative, thoughtful and for the most part, harmless. It almost creates a second game: the game on the court or ice and then the game in the stands. I’ve experienced it both ways, in the stands and in the game, the positives and the negatives.

When we went on our run in the tournament with the soccer team, and the number of fans increased, it was extra motivation every game. It was also an unbelievable feeling celebrating overtime winners with them; it felt like they were on our team too.

However, there were occasional jeers from the opposing fans during the games, but there always are. That is a part of the game, like it or not, but there is certainly a fine line of things to say and not to say, ways to act or not to act. I love sports and love cheering and heckling but just be careful of what you say.

The best thing fans can do is cheer for their team and give them the energy to perform. Being a fan is awesome, so don’t do anything dumb and be prepared to back anything you say. One last thing: if you go to a game, watch it. Don’t spend the whole time socializing in the stands. Watch the game!

I hope everyone enjoys watching and participating in the winter season. Check Warrior Scoresfor the latest scores.