December has come, winter has arrived, and snow is falling, which can only mean one thing: winter sports have started. Every winter sports team is setting up for success this season. The Westford Academy Boys’ Hockey team is no exception to this. After their incredible success last season, with a 10-4-1 league record, the team aims to claim the Dual County League (DCL) title this season.
Last season, the Ghosts almost won the Merrimack Valley Conference (MVC)/DCL championships for the second year in a row. The team lost to Arlington Catholic High School in the finals due to injuries, securing their spot as second in the league. This year, there will be four seniors on the team: Cam Hoagland, Peter Burns, Ethan Murphy, and Aiden Koehr. This is a stark contrast to last year’s team where they had 12 seniors.
Chris Carpenter will be head coach for the third year, and assisting him will be captains junior Nick Kane and Burns, with Koehr and Hoagland as assistant captains. According to Carpenter, the team is expecting Murphy, and juniors Max Bannat, James Roberts, and Shaan Sidhu to make a big impact on offense.
The captains stated that, with a younger team this season, it is clear that the Ghosts will have to work harder to reach their goal of winning the state championship. Despite having fewer seniors, the upperclassmen view the younger team as a strength, emphasizing how all of these new faces encourage hard work and competition. According to Hoagland and Kane, there is no time to slack off as there will not be be any easy wins this season.
“All these young guys, wishing to go hard at practice every single day, [are] going to get us places,” Kane said.
Along with the long-term goal of making states, the team is also looking to take games one at a time, and try to win every week. However, Burns mentioned that there are still some challenges that the Ghosts have to face before going to the championships, such as playing in a tough conference. They will be competing against teams such as Central Catholic, Sudbury, and Billerica. Although the team faces the significant challenge of having lost many experienced seniors, Burns believes that this will only motivate the team to work harder during practices.
“We know there’s going to be ups and downs this season. It’s just about getting past those ups and downs,” Burns said.
In order to perform well during the season, the captains believe that the team must bond, especially with a lot of newcomers arriving. Activities that are planned to reinforce the team chemistry include food outings, group chats, and spaghetti dinners at one of the players’ houses, held the night before every game. According to Hoagland, even just hanging out with each other before and after practices really helps to strengthen the connection between players.
“I can already see some of the younger guys, they’re not timid of the upperclassmen. They’re really branching out so I would even call them friends at this point,” Hoagland said.
The captains truly believe that the team is determined to accomplish their goals this season, and that the decrease in older players will act as both a strength as well as a challenge. They trust that their deep connections with each other, combined with their hard work and motivation, will lead to their success.
“I really do think that we are going to have a good year, and we are going to go far,” Kane said.