Player Spotlights: Team Captains

Ben Sherry

Quarterback, Linebacker

His favorite memory from the season:

“It was late in the second half of our state championship game against Marshfield. We were beating them by a couple of scores, but there was still a lot of time on the clock. They had the ball, and Wade Critides intercepted it and ran it back 98 yards for a touchdown to make the score 28-0. That was the moment where I really realized that it was over, that we had capped off our season with a championship. We had completed the 13-0 run.

What he thinks made the 2006 team special, as compared to others he was on at Wayland High.

“One of the main reasons was that it was very unique for a small Wayland team to have enough guys that we didn’t have to have a lot of guys go and play on both sides of the football. We were deep enough, talent wise, to have nine or 10 new players come onto the field for offense and defense. So that was unique as far as Wayland is concerned. Going with that, I think we had really good competition in practice because our starting offense and starting defense were different units for the most part, so that allowed us in practice to have starters going against starters day in, and day out. Not only were we deep, but we also had a lot of talent on both sides of the ball, so as a quarterback, I was facing the best defense I’d see all year every day, so that was a huge advantage, and I think the defense benefited from that as well. We had a great competition level in practice, and a great depth of talent in our personnel.”

Favorite High School Class: American History, junior year, taught by Dan Frio

Current Occupation: Financial Planner at Northwestern Mutual

Tony Torres

Running Back

His favorite memory from the season:

“It’s gotta be winning the super bowl, that moment when the clock ran out. It was bittersweet. I was like ‘Wow, we just accomplished some crazy stuff this year.’ All the coaches are running out on the field and everything. I remember specifically thanking Coach Girard. He had a lot to do with our success that year, along with all the coaches. Coach Cincotta was great as well. We would go into the game and say “Coach, we want to run this play’, and he would be like ‘Okay, if you think it’s going to work.’ To have that type of autonomy at that age was pretty cool. The moment Wade Critides took that interception back to the house, and we looked up at the scoreboard and realized we had just won the super bowl.”

What he thinks made the 2006 team special, as compared to others he was on at Wayland High.

“We started to play together in middle school, and I remember that when we were in middle school Coach P brought over the highlight tape, and we were all amazed by it and from that point on we really wanted to be like the guys we saw on those tapes. It was a tight knit group of guys in our class, and we wanted to play football together, so everyone was invested. Everyone was there over the summer, everyone did camps together, and everybody worked hard. It was a different atmosphere, one where everyone was locked in from the beginning and had a really good time playing together.”

Favorite High School Class: American History, junior year, taught by Dan Frio

Current Occupation: Sales Executive at Athenahealth

Henry Hastings

Offensive lineman

His favorite memory from the season:

“Other then shutting out Marshfield in the Super Bowl and winning that game 28-0, it has to be beating Acton-Boxborough. For as long as I could remember we were always getting our butts kicked by those guys, so beating them was a great feeling.”

How going up against starters everyday in practice helped him improve as a player.

“You always had good competition across from you, and both sides really prepared the other. We had a really deep team with a lot of seniors and juniors that year, who were all very good players. The day to day competition really allowed us to prepare for our upcoming opponent each week.”

Favorite High School Class: Physics

Current Occupation: Electrical Engineer

Chris Lash

Defensive end/Outside linebacker

His favorite memory from the season:

“I’m going to skip over winning the championship, because that’s a given. Two things come to mind. The first is the Acton-Boxborough game. Following our win over them, we realized we sort of had a clear path to the playoffs. Once they were out of the way, we started thinking ‘we could actually do this.’ That win at home, under the lights was a huge moment for us and for the program as a whole. The other thing I thought of was this play, I forget who it was against, but Ben Sherry was blitzing, so he blitzed through the line right as the ball was snapped, and they were running a pitch, so the quarterback was trying to pitch the ball and Ben intercepted the pitch, or I think he knocked it down and then scooped and scored. As a player on the defense, that’s what you love to see. Complete disruption. Bam-bam, all the sudden we’re up another seven points.That play was pretty ridiculous.”

What he thinks made the 2006 team special, as compared to others he was on at Wayland High.

“I think we had the right combination of players and coaches at the right time. I was on the team the year before with the class of 2006, and that was a team that people had really high expectations for, and that year we went 9-2 which was a disappointment for us. So after that, in some ways the pressure was off. We had a lot of players really coming into their own, a good receiving corps, Ben Sherry and Tony Torres in the backfield was a pretty incredible combination, so I think everything came together at the right time. We had seen what had happened the year before, and we wanted to follow it up with something better.”

Favorite high school class: English, junior year, taught by Mr. Auciello

Current occupation: Non-profits