Here is a brief look at some of the sports offered in the Middle School for the Winter Season.

Boys’ Basketball

The Worcester Academy Middle School Boys’ Basketball Team ended a great season last year; however, with new eight graders coming back, they have greater skills. Sam Joaquin, an eighth grader, thinks that the team will have great chemistry this year due to the eight graders, who are great leaders on the court.

When interviewed, Sam Joaquin, told us that he is excited for the up coming season and to play with his friends.  Joaquin also predicts a good season for their team, due to all the new players coming in. Sam, a“6 foot 2 monster”, says that he has a lot of trust in his eight grade teammates to lead the team to victory.

Girls’ Basketball

Worcester Academy Middle School Girls’ basketball team is currently 7-1.  The team’s captains are Alex Radel and Carly Heman. They practice four, hard times, a   week, with many drills. Many new girls to the team do not know what to during these complicated drills. Their coach, Mr. McCarthy, tries to bring drills and hard aggression to the team. The team brings great enthusiasm to every game and they give it 100 percent.   Girls’ Basketball plans on finishing the season with as many wins as possible and on bringing great success to the Middle School.

Wrestling Team

The Worcester Academy Wrestling team is having a rough start to the season going 0-3; however, they never give up and never surrender. The team is led by Byron Leigh and Johnston Wheeler, who bring experience and leadership to the mat. While some wrestlers are new to the sport, others are experienced, such as Aman “the darkness,” Byron “the freak” Leigh, Johnston “Philipe” Wheeler, Connor McCarthy, and Chris “Snappy” Hunter. The team has and will always bounce back from any loss and come back determined for victory.

MS Boys' Soccer Huddles Up

Written by Peter and Johnston (Aladdin Staff)

The Mighty WA middle school boys’ soccer team is led by eighth graders Danny Baldwin, Sean Winthrop, Matt “Wolfy” Wolf, Tom “Mango” Mangaudis, Zack Sadlier, and Eric “Show Stoppa” Sachse. This years captains are Riley Doherty and Matt Wolf. Riley was a captain last year as a 6^th grader.  The team’s final record is 6 wins, 2 losses, and 2 ties. Going into the season nobody knew what to expect after losing many great 8^th graders last year.

The team’s first game was a tie against Wilbraham and Monson Academy. The first half was a great show of the team’s skill.  The second half was just as well; however, the Hilltopers couldn’t pull out a goal. Shot after shot the goalie for the opposition blocked them.  Finally, after a rebound from Sachse, it gave WA the lead, 1-0.  With a little less than 5 minutes left, Wilbraham and Monson fired back with a tying goal. Neither team was able to take the lead. Time ran out, the game was a tie.

The last game played was a win over Rectory School; the score was 4-1. The game was at New Balance field on November 4th.The Hilltopers came out strong with a goal from Mangaudis. It was a long pass from Troy Hansen, a seventh grader that gave Mangaudis the opportunity for a goal. The next goal was a break away from Chas Tucker, a seventh grader. Riley Doherty, the captain, made a great goal from a free kick. The last goal was another break away from the eight-grade captain Wolf.

The team has also received strong play from Ashay Athalye, James Bechta, Robert Duncan, James Fahey, Cam Heiser, Aaron Kline, Matthew Quick, Max Sadlier, Zack Sadlier, Sam Stimpson, and Kaushik Viswanathan throughout the season.

Photo Credit: Peter Smith

Athletics – One major change for the athletic programs at WA has been the removal of the athletic requirement.  Because of this, Doc Samko, the resident and omnipresent figure on campus, feels that athletics has become much more of a family.  Athletes participate because they are passionate about the sports instead of fulfilling a requirement.  This passion for being part of a larger community spills over into those who aren’t on the field with the Super Fans, a group of students who actually receive academic credit for attending every game, whether home or away.

Senior Projects:  During the last two weeks of senior year students select a short term of independent study based on their individual interests.  These have included working construction, training dogs, acting as a guidance counselor or performing bizarre experiments (staying awake 3 days in a row to see the impact on the body).  While the idea of the senior project has been around for a while, what has changed has been the final product.  More recently  students have produced videos or movies for the final presentations.

Capstone Projects – According to the advisor the Capstone Project is really a Senior project on academic steroids.  Newly introduced in 2008, this is a year long project and is extremely student driven.   Students select a topic of interest and may meet on the weekends for seminars or research in addition to a student’s normal workload.  Students don’t receive extra credit and yet they still invest significant time demonstrating the passion they have for learning.

Open Studio – This is an afterschool art program where students can choose any type of medium (ceramics, painting, drawing, architecture, sculpture).  Most projects are ten weeks and the program has been around for four years.    This allowed more students to fit art into their schedules where they otherwise might not have had time.  The students are very self-directed and use the teacher more as guide.

Vigornia – The school newspaper is going through a transformation this year.  The paper has 25 members and two editors who invest up to 20 hours a week managing the editing and production of the paper.  The editors find the experience a great immersion into leadership, journalism and working towards a deadline.

Math Team – There are two math teams at Worcester Academy, Varsity and Middle School team.   The teams participate in 5 leagues, where most schools compete in one so there are meets almost every weekend during the season.  Students feel this supplements their math knowledge, enhances their problem solving abilities that can be applied in other classes.

The freshly cut grass and newly painted lines along with the perfect weather made great conditions for a Friday afternoon soccer game. Worcester Academy’s boy’s varsity soccer team was out for blood, the blood of the Brooks School’s players. From the goalie to the strikers, WA was intense and in the zone the whole ninety minutes of play.

Scoring goals is easier than defending them. The WA defense proved their strength in the match. The goalie Kevin Mangaudius, along with defenders Tucker Myhre, Zach Packer and Dan Lima created a strong force throughout the game. Letting up only one goal, and having eight saves, Mangaudius had a great varsity debut, as starting goalie Kyle DeKlerk is out for the season with a broken hand.

Games however, cannot be won without some offensive play. The first goal came at the thirty- minute mark from Sawyer Kisken. “It was a well hit ball that knuckled past the keeper”, said Tucker Myhre when asked about his teammates goal. Myhre was a huge contributor to the second goal of the game scored in the eight third minute of play. After hustling through a series of tackles, Myhre took a thrown in that advanced the ball to Max Haines who put it in the back of the net.

When asked to comment on the overall feel of the game, forward Max Haines said, “We did not possess as much as we may have liked to. Also, at times we were out of shape. However, midfielder Jamie Doherty (captain) played a solid seventy -five minutes at midfield, and for the last fifteen minutes helping back on defense and advancing the ball up the field. “ The Worcester Academy boy’s soccer team is off to a good start of 1-0-1, with more wins to come. Other contributors to the team are David Atkinson, Neil Baldwin, Vincent Ciavarra, AJ Distefano, Zachary Gehring, Evyn Grimes, Jack Hamm, Billy Lane, David Nwankwo, James Watkins, and Andrew Watson-Hogan. The team is coached by James Proctor, Charlie Fuentes, and Matias Pietropinto.

Although I do understand that making a rink costs a whole bunch of money, time, and space I think it should be done.
The space aspect of it is all set because of the purchase of the land down the street at St. Vincent’s Hospital. The time is not really an issue because it can be built whenever. And I am pretty sure they are building an athletic facility over in that land anyway so why not support the hockey team and throw in a rink? Oh yeah, it cost way too much money to build one and keep it up and running. But if you think about it, at every ice arena you need to pay hourly for the ice. For example at Lake Ave. (Buffone) Arena it is 185 dollars per hour to skate, but if there were a rink that was owned by Worcester Academy then the ice would be free for us. And all that money spent in order to make the rink would be made in the future years from renting the ice out to the community. Once all the money has been made back and seeing how Worcester Academy is a non-profit organization, the money that is coming in from the rink could be used for scholarships towards kids who need financial aid and for kids with athletics, academic, or artistic talent, it could be used towards fixing up buildings and maintenance around the campus, raising salaries for teachers and faculty, new furniture or equipment in some certain buildings…use your imagination. So all in all it would help the school to build a hockey arena in the future.

A new pool, new weight room, new gym, etc. is not technically needed because we have those things. Yes it would be useful to have those facilities because the ones we have now are way too old, but we do not even have a rink of our own now, never mind an old one. This will probably be my biggest problem at Worcester Academy until one is made, and if I become filthy rich in the future, which I hope, I will build one myself for Worcester Academy.

Photo Credit:D’Arcy Norman