WILDCAT WEEKLY

For those of you too young to remember, Arnold Horshack was a product of the classic 70's TV show, Welcome Back, Kotter. Horshack was the guy in the classroom who was always obnoxiously raising his hand, shouting, "Oooh, ooh....ooh, ooh, pick me. " 

I've decided that this football season I'm going to try my luck at Fantasy Football, and like Horshack, the NFL has put together this inticing little commercial to aid me in the process.

If you've got any advice for a rookie or Fantasy tips, please feel free to share them  below by clicking the comment link and then clicking "New Topic".

Let's just say I can't wait to make my move.

4-29-09, Weston-  When Wildcat Varsity Track Head Coach John Monz steps on to Proctor Field, he carries with him a lot more than just hurdles, track mats and shot-puts. He carries with him 29 years of coaching experience with the Weston High Varsity track team.
"Coach Monz is a great guy," said Wildcat Junior Jamie Eberlein. "He's a strong believer in 'you get out as much as you put in', and that's really what track's about."
The Wildcat's must certainly be "putting in" lately because they defeated both Tyngsborough and Boston Latin in their tri-division meet at home on Wednesday.

Against Tyngsborough, the Wildcats Boys Varsity team captured first place in five out of nine running events and first in all seven field events. The Wildcat Girls Varsity team captured first place in five out of nine running events and first in five out of seven field events. In the Boys 100, Wildcat Junior Jonathan Dieujuste took first place with a time of 11.50, with Juniors Carter Hulings and Tom Freeman taking second place with an 11.80 time for both. Will Johnson, Freshman Mark Valovcin, Freshman Sarpong Adu-Gysmfi and Freshman Michael Gannon finished 4th, 6th, 7th and 8th respectively to earn their team nine points. In the Girls 200 Dash, Wildcat Junior Alley Wheaton sprinted her way to first with a time of 25.80 and Junior Erica Gottlieb finished in second place, fourth overall, with a 27:10 time, giving the Wildcats Girls team eight points.
"This is a relatively young boys team and a relatively small girls team, " Coach Monz said. "Yet we were able to beat both Tyngsborough and Boston Latin rather  easily."
 
One area where the Wildcats have an advantage is in the Cross Country mile. Junior Jamie Eberlein, who qualified for the States at the first meet of the year with a time of 4:51, finished the mile event at 4:56:40 and teammates Junior Dan Wu, 5:18.20, Freshman Kevin Mathers, 6:17.50 and Freshman Erik Brote, 6:34.90, finished 5th, 6th and 7th.
"Even though I qualified quickly, I'm motivated to improve," said Eberlein. "In indoor I ran a personal best of 4:45 and I want to cut that down into the 30's this season."
For the Girls Cross Country Mile, Wildcat Freshman Lauren Chow, who has also qualified for the States, took first place over Tyngsborough, second overall, with a time of 5:45.60. Wildcat Freshman David Freeman took first over Tyngsborough, second over all, in the 2 Mile race with a time of 11:34.50 and Wildcat Meera Kallupura took second place in the Girls 2 Mile with a time of 14:07.10.

The Wildcats Boys Varsity team dominated Tyngsborough in all seven field events of the day. Will Jackson took first in the high jump with a 5-4.00 jump and first in the Triple Jump with 38-09.00. Wildcat Phillip Gerner scored 10-00.00 in the Pole Vault to give him the win and Jonathan Dieujuste placed first with a 19-10.50 Long Jump. Weston Senior Mike Reitano took first in the Javelin Throw with a 125-03 showing, and Junior Tom Freeman topped the events in both the Discus Throw, 90-06, and the Shot Put with 35-00.50. The Girls Varsity fared well against Tyngsborough also, taking first in 5 of the seven events. Wildcat Cara Guardino place first in the High Jump with a jump of 4-10.00 and Junior Alley Wheaton took first in the Long Jump with 16-02.50. Junior Erica Gottlieb edged out the win in the Triple Jump with 31-09.00 and Wildcat Junior Eve Jakubowski dominated the Javelin Toss with a throw of 86-00. Weston teammates Amanda Cowgill and Eliza Robson tied for first in the Pole Vault, both clearing 6-00.00.

"Our main focus is getting as many of our kids qualified for the State Championships as possible," said Coach Monz. "We have about nine or ten kids who have already qualified and we are hosting the State event here on May 29th."
Both the Boys and Girls Varsity 4x100 relay teams have qualified for States and on Wednesday's meet both Boys and Girls relay teams took first place.
"We try to have fun while we are doing it," said Coach Monz. "And we are always trying to get better every week."  

5-1-09, Weston- Proctor Field at Weston High School played host to the first ever Weston Lacrosse Night last Friday night. Billed as "a great family night of Lacrosse", the event helped the Weston High School Lacrosse team to raise money for the Autism Speaks charitable organization. The Wildcats JV and Varsity teams hosted division games against Bedford, with the Wildcat 8th Grade Tournament Team facing Framingham, and the 10 year-old U11 Wildcats playing a mini game during the half at the Varsity game.
"I think this is awesome," Wildcat Will Harris said, "This gets the whole community out here to look at the team and creates excitement about it." 
Both the Varsity and the JV teams dominated Bedford, with the Varsity team defeating Bedford 13-1. The Varsity team was led by high scorers, Junior Will Harris, Sophomore Greg Cohen and Senior Justin Pomerance.

The Wildcats Varsity team got off to quick start when Sophomore Kerry Ecker gave them the 1-0 lead, with his first of two goals on the night, putting them on the board early in the first quarter. Junior Center Will Harris then added his first of three goals and three assists, at 7:40, giving Weston a 2-0 lead at the end of the first quarter. Wildcat Senior Justin Pomerance opened the scoring in the second, with his first of three goals, in a quick move from behind the net at 11:24. Up next, Will Harris would strike again with his second goal, at 9:34 and then Wildcat Senior Jackson Vescuso, assisted by Greg Cohen at 8:48 to give the Wildcats a commanding 5-0 lead.
"The last two days we had great practices where we got down to basics," Head Coach Jim Wilcon said. "Offensively we really worked on ball movement, moving the ball, possessing the ball, taking our time and looking for the open man."

The next open man would be Wildcat Greg Cohen, who got his first of three on the night, at 7:31 with a shot that went unanswered in front of the net. Will Harris would pick up his first of three assists when he made a spin move around a Bedford defender and found Pomerance who crept into the offensive crease and sniped the net's top left corner for his second goal at 5:14, putting the Wildcats at 7-0. Harris would then net his third goal at 3:55, assisted by Jackson Vescuso, who created the scoring opportunity as the result of a clean hit in the offensive end and was able to come up with possession to find the open Harris.
Coach Wilcon said,"Bedford has some good athletes and we had to be able to take advantage of our ability to get the open man the ball for the open shot."

Wildcat Kerry Ecker was hit from behind, resulting in a penalty putting Bedford in a man-down position. Ecker was able to capitalize on the opportunity, scoring the 9th Wildcat point, from Will Harris, his second assist, with 1:50 left to play in the half.
"We strive to be an athletic team and move the ball quickly," Coach Wilcon said. "When we need to be physical and mix it up we're not afraid to do that."
Pomerance would open the second half, scoring his third goal at 7:26, assisted by Wildcat Sophomore Kyle Nickerson, then feed Greg Cohen his second goal at 5:11, giving the Wildcats a runaway lead of 11-0.

Bedford's Scott Johnson would end Wildcat Goalie Freshman Jared Fong's chances on a shut out when he put one past Fong at 3:30 in the third quarter to make the score 11-1. Assistant Coach Mike Brown said of Fong, "He's learning every game and he's open and receptive to that learning process. Every time we have a game he gets better and better."
Wildcat Greg Cohen would close out the quarter with a shot from the side of the net with 2:07 left, assisted by Will Harris and Kyle Nickerson would close out the game at 8:39, assisted by Junior Attack Patrick Leddy. Leddy passed the ball from the 15 to the 8 where Nickerson would score, bringing the final Weston victory complete at 13-1.
"The kids deserve all the credit," said Coach Wilcon. "They had two great days of practice that really helped us get the victory tonight."

4-30-09, Weston- 17 year-old Wildcat Junior Jamie Eberlein credits his mom for getting him on the right track when he was younger.
"My mom got sick of me not being involved in a sport, so I joined the track team in middle school," he said.
Eberlein says that what started out as a track career as a sprinter, changed course the summer before high school. While at summer camp in Maine, he ran a four mile road race and did very well with virtually no training. 
"A friend of mine told me that I would be really good at Cross Country," Eberlein remembered. "So I joined the Cross Country team and that worked out pretty good. I got a Varsity letter my first season, freshman year." 
Eight seasons later, in both indoor and outdoor high school track, Eberlein is in the midst of his ninth season with the Weston track team.

"Indoor track can, at times, be much more competitive and much more intense," he said. "At the All State meet, there were so many people there, there were camera crews everywhere, sponsor posters, and it was really loud, but it was a great time." 
For Cross Country, Jamie runs the Mile and the 4 x 4oo Relay, and has already qualified for the Class 4 States in the Mile, with a time of 4:51, at the first meet of the season. Weston Track Head Coach John Monz wants Jamie to run the individual 800, so he has been working towards adding that to his events. Before each meet, Eberlein says he doesn't have a specific routine in preparation of a race, but that he is focused on the task at hand.
"I just go and run it," he says. "I focus on warming up properly, stretching properly, getting ready on time, checking in, putting my spikes on, and making sure I have everything ready. It's like a state of focus on what I'm trying to accomplish and what I have to do to get there."

When asked about track role models, Jamie said he need not look any further than his teammates for motivation.
"Brendan Devlin is inspiring," he said. "He has been working so hard since his sophomore year and he knows everything about the sport and he's so dedicated."
Eberlein says that Wildcat Senior Brendan Devlin serves as a role model for himself and a lot of the other team members by helping them to find the fun in their sport while enjoying their success. Jamie expects to try to improve as much as he can to help his team out in this season's meets, and is looking forward to the upcoming DCL Championships. His teammates are what he described as a "strong group", who are just as dedicated as he is.
"If we train properly and do everything right, I think we'll be able to do pretty well at the DCL Championships," he said.

Eberlein is a High Honors student at Weston High School, and credits his high honors status as the product of hard work. English is his favorite subject, which for Jamie, is defined by the teacher and the classroom environment.
"Mr. Banker is a really fun guy and I like his style of teaching," said Jamie. "He's got a crazy personality which makes the classroom exciting. Mr. Banker really livens everybody up, even if it's 7:30 in the morning."
Pre-Calculus is his least favorite, and finds that the course is somewhat undefined which makes it harder and more of a challenge. College is in his future, with a possible career in Engineering or Business Management. Jamie and his dad have been doing a lot of reading about higher academia and have a stack of books "about three feet high" with every angle on colleges that you can imagine.  They have visited Georgetown, Northwestern, University of Michigan, Hillsdale College and William and Mary to name a few. Will he run track in college?
"I feel like at my current level, I wouldn't be able to be competitive at a Division 2 or Division 1 school," said Jamie. "I'm not quite sure track would define where I decide to go to college. If I decide to go to a Division 3 school, I would consider doing track."

Jamie is a member of the band, where he plays the trumpet in the Wind Ensemble Jazz Band and is an avid skier who skied for the Alpine Ski team in Vermont for 5 years. He is also a bike enthusiast.
"I went on a six week bike trip cross country last summer. That was an amazing experience. We dipped our back tires in the Atlantic Ocean and then when we reached the Pacific Ocean, we took our front tires off and dove into the surf to be symbolic."
He lives at home with his mom and dad and his big, black, Briard French sheep dog, Princess. He has a Facebook, but says he never updates his status.
"To me it just seems stupid to update my status," he said. "I use it to post pictures or to get messages from the class of 2010, but I don't really do any of the pointless stuff on there."

His favorite books are "The Things They Carried" by Tim O'Brien, which he describes as a series of fictional Vietnam war stories written to test the subjectivity of truth theory, and "The Road", by Cormac McCarthy, which tells the story of a father and son in a post-apocalyptic world. His favorite movie is another Cormac McCarthy tale, "No Country For Old Men", and the runner in him loves to sit down to a big bowl of angel hair pasta with marinara sauce.
"I think being Wildcat of the Week is a surprise," he said. "It's really a cool thing to be selected, and to be given the recognition as a good athlete and a good student is an honor. It's really unexpected and really appreciated." 
 We at Wildcat Weekly think you're pretty cool too, Jamie.

5-3-09, Weston- Weston Little League celebrated Opening Day with a parade around the Town Green and a fun filled afternoon of festivities on Sunday, May 3. The weather was perfect for the event and Betsy Romeri and the Opening Day Committee expertly planned everything, down to the last detail with the assistance of Doug MacDougal and the Weston Recreation Department. Both the Wildcat High School Varsity Baseball and Softball teams volunteered their time to help the event run smoothly.
"It's hard not to enjoy the Norman Rockwell quality of a little league opening day," said Commissioner of Weston Little League, Adam Wisnia. 

Weston Little League and the community of Weston has a lot to be excited about ,with the grand opening of the brand new multi-field, baseball complex, Burchard Park.
"It's very exciting that it's open," Wisnia said. "The idea was not just to make it a ball field but a community destination. Big brother, little brother playing on two different fields in the same place."

Weston Little League Sponsorship Director Bob Peatman agreed.
"This is a wonderful event to bring all the Little League kids of all ages together, " Peatman said. "It joins in the whole theme of Burchard Park, which was built for that reason."

National League Commissioner, Ray Helfer is looking forward to a fun season.
"Playoff season starts this Wednesday and we are looking forward to the buzz that's created by having all the parks together," he said.