![The Wayland Police Department have issued a warning on the rise of scammers during the holiday season. “Hang up [the phone]. if you get a text and you do not know who it's from, just delete it. Don't click on any links, nothing,” Wayland police chief Edward Burman said. “Every single one of them is a scam.”](https://waylandstudentpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/img_0954_720-e1734676255647.jpg)
![WHS’s Connect Program ran its annual holiday gift drive to fulfill the wishlist of children enrolled in the Dorchester based non-profit daycare organization, the Yawkey Center. This drive brought the town together and impacted both the students in Connect, as well as the greater Wayland community. “You could see how helpful the town was and how our community came together and wanted to help out a community that wasn't our own [and] kids who were less fortunate than we were,” senior and Connect Program member Jordynn Lee said.](https://waylandstudentpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/screenshot_2024-12-20_at_12.21.24___pm_720-e1734734228474.png)
![The Boy Scouts will be selling trees on Fridays from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m., Saturdays 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sundays noon to 6 p.m. until they sell out.
“This event is one of the things that [the Boy Scouts] get to have a direct impact on the community,” freshman Alex Macleod said.](https://waylandstudentpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Screenshot-2024-12-11-at-8.38.38 AM.png)
Although most teams are no longer in the hunt for a state title, we have made some leaps toward achieving great success for Wayland athletics. The first sporting event was the Dual County League (DCL) cheerleading competition last Thursday at Westford Academy.
At the competition, our girls went out and gave a strong performance. The girls hit every stunt and scored a 77.35, which was able to award them the second place title in the DCL Small. With that score, they were able to qualify for the regional competition, which will be held on Sunday, Nov. 16 at Lowell High School. To qualify for states, the girls need a scored of 80. To get this score, they need to up the difficulty of their stunts because hitting the stunts is not enough if they are easy.
The boys’ soccer team then played a great game last Friday against Pentucket. Pentucket was able to hush the crowd with an early goal, but the boys did not stop working. They kept pressure on the goalie, and we were able to fire in four goals by the end of the game. The final score was 4-1, Wayland. Scott Carvalho, Ethan Stavisky, Alec Foster and Charlie Halliwell scored the goals. The boys will now play at Manning Field in Lynn today for the North Sectional semi-final game against Tewksbury.
The football team competed against Burlington last Friday in the non-playoff bracket. The team was able to work hard and defeat Burlington 26-13. The boys will be playing their senior game this Friday against Winchester at home on the turf.
While sports here at WHS are winding down, so are the sports of our WHS alumni. I decided to look into how some of their teams are doing. Former WHS boys’ soccer player Nico Pascual-Leone’s Amherst soccer team was able to qualify for the NCAA DIII men’s soccer tournament and will be playing Fitchberg State in the first round.
Former WHS girls’ soccer player Natalie Shear’s Colby-Sawyer women’s soccer team has qualified for the NCAA DIII women’s soccer tournament and will be playing against Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the first round.
Best of luck to both teams! If you know of any other athletes experiencing collegiate success, I’d love to include them in my next post!
