Growing Up an Athlete

Growing Up An Athlete

By: Alexa Papastathis & Christina Natola

The new sign outside of Wilmington High School leading
to the athletic facilities.  

When you search the term “community” the first definition that pops up is “a group of people living in the same place or having a particular characteristic in common”. However, if you look a little deeper you’ll see that community can also be defined as “a feeling of fellowship with others, as a result of sharing common attitudes, interests, and goals”. Wilmington isn’t just a town on a map, it’s a community in which it’s members know and care for each other. It’s members are friendly and when you’re in town you feel a sense of belonging.

One of the major ways that parents get both themselves and their children involved in the community is through sports. Wilmington has one of the largest Youth Soccer Programs in the state and children begin learning the game at the age of 4. It’s one of the most common games, however, kids aren’t limited to this for a sport. They also have the opportunity to play basketball, hockey, lacrosse, softball, baseball, and field hockey. To the members of Wilmington, sports are so much more than just a game. Kids are able to learn valuable lessons and develop social skills that will be important in life. They learn how to listen to others, be a member of a team, follow instructions, be respectful, but most importantly they learn how to make friends. Kids made friendships that last throughout their entire career as an athlete in Wilmington and sometimes farther.

In recent years, Wilmington’s athletics have shown significant improvement.  With the help of the outstanding youth programs in town, it only makes sense that our high school athletes would perform as well as they do.  Also, various additions have been made in recent years to the WHS Athletic Department.  The recent additions of girls ice hockey, boys lacrosse, and girls lacrosse have all sparked more interest in participating in sports at WHS.  

The new turf located behind Wilmington High School

Over the past 5 years, Wilmington’s success in high school athletics has skyrocketed.  This success mainly began with the boys ice hockey team’s first state championship in 2011.  The hockey team’s successes continued into their next season, where they again won another division 2 state championship in 2012.  The back to back state champions have since sparked a huge hockey fan base within WHS.  Even today, students at WHS eagerly wait for the winter sports season to roll around, hoping the team makes it to the TD Garden yet again.   

Next the girls soccer team has consistently won championships in the Middlesex League from 2012 to 2015, as well as finishing their season as State Finalists in 2012.  Its safe to say that in the fall, the girls soccer team definitely sparks more interest and attraction than any other sport.  With such a large and successful youth soccer program, only the best players are able to play at the high school varsity level.  In addition to this, numerous players on the varsity soccer team have already committed to continue playing soccer at the collegiate level.  With such a strong current group of players, and the developing players in the youth program, the girls varsity soccer team seems as if they will continue to be successful for many years to come.  

Hurdles at the WHS Track

 Besides the soccer and hockey team, there has been a lot of individual success in sports at WHS as well.  Last year basketball standout Connor Bennett made his way to scoring his 1,000th point, as well as move on to play division 1 basketball at UMass Lowell.  Last years winter track season was led by Julia Gake, Sam Pitzi, Elisabeth Olson, and Taylor Santry who set a school record in the 4x800 meter relay.  More recently, this year WHS had two sign on’s to play in college.  One of these came from Jack Gillis, who signed to play division 1 baseball at Vanderbilt University, and the other from Christina Natola who signed to play division 2 lacrosse at Southern New Hampshire University.  With the steady improvement of all teams and athletes at WHS, the future of athletics in Wilmington will definitely continue to grow and be successful.  

Despite not having as much success as they would like, the boys football team continues to peak the interest of it’s fans. On a cool fall Friday night, students of WHS can be found gathered in the bleachers in blue and white cheering on their team. The bonds created between the fans are unlike any other and a strong sense of community is established. Every Thanksgiving the Wilmington Wildcats face the Tewksbury Redmen and both students and players prepare with a pregame pep rally during school.  
Overall sports at Wilmington High School are truly what brings the student body together.  Without our sports teams many of us students would have nothing else to do in our free time.  Thankfully, we live in a community where sports are greatly supported and appreciated.  It is safe to say that a majority of kids in our community couldn’t picture growing up as anything besides a Wilmington athlete.