So as we continue our week long look at Raider winter sports teams we take a look today at both the boys basketball and boys hockey teams who kicked off practices yesterday and who are both coming off of state tournament appearances in 2014-15. We start with boys basketball who is coming off a 13-9 season a year ago in Mike Reidy’s return to the helm of the program. The boys won their first tournament game knocking off Bridgewater Raynham at home before falling on the road to eventual state champion Catholic Memorial. Now the boys will have a lot of shoes to fill as they graduated 8 seniors from a year ago but do get some experience back in the back court in guards Jake Mohan and Jack Waisel. Myles Cole also returns after seeing some key time off the bench a year ago. The boys will kick off another quest at both a tournament appearance and Bay State Herget title as they host Dedham on December 11th and their schedule also includes their yearly trips to the Rockland Tournament December 28th and 29th and to the Westwood Tournament February 14th and 15th.
For boys hockey meanwhile they are coming off a very successful 2014-15 campaign that saw them finish with a 15-3-4 overall record and a Bay State Herget title. The boys also knocked off BR in the first round of the tournament before falling in the quarterfinals to another eventual state champion the Hingham Harbormen. Paul Donato returns for his 10th season behind the Raider bench and despite losing some talent the cupboard definitely is not bare as they Raiders return several key contributors from a year ago including Carter Huff and Ethan Murphy up front and Kevin Ward on defense. The Raiders will have some big shoes to fill in net though with the graduation of Jack Maxwell and finding an adequate replacement will be key to the teams success this season. As of now it looks like Andrew Johnston is the favorite to replace Maxwell in net but we’ll certainly have to wait and see on that with tryouts just being over a day old. The boys begin their Herget title defense on December 12th against Dedham at home, the first of 3 home games including arch-rival Needham (December 16th). The boys non-league schedule consists of some familiar and some new foes including at the end of the season they will host two traditionally strong D1 North programs in Winchester and Waltham in consecutive games to close out the regular season.
Wellesley Sports Blitz 