Wrestling

Coach: Ryan Hutchins

Last year’s record: 15-8, Eastern Maine Regional Champions

Key wrestlers: Westbrook stables an impressive array of powerful wrestlers, including seniors Glenn Emery, Troy Fogg, Steve Sawyer, Craig DiBiase, Ben Arsenault, Manny Vincent; juniors Graham Strondak and Cody Payer and sophomores Scott Kirkpatrick and Ryan Pitas.

Key meets this season: The Blue Blazes are looking forward to hosting the Westbrook Invitational at Westbrook High School on Dec. 11, as well as Wells and Fryeburg Academy on senior night on Jan. 19. Otherwise, the Eastern Maine regionals and Maine state meets are always on the horizon.

Season outlook: “After graduating two state champions and three state finalists, we will look to regroup and re-organize our lineup in an attempt to compete for the Eastern Maine regional title once again,” Hutchins said. “While we are not as strong as last year on paper, we have seven state qualifiers returning and several others ready to step into a varsity role and contribute. It will be true team effort this year, and we will continue to improve throughout the season.”

Swimming

Coach: Dana Barrows

Key swimmers: “The Lady Blazes will be led by three returning seniors: Kathryn Violette, Lauren Blais and Kristen Harding,” Barrows said. “Kathryn is a perennial state favorite in the butterfly, individual medley and distance freestyle events. The other two ladies will be ones to watch in the sprint freestyle events. The boys are led by upperclassmen Shawn Harris and Trevor Emmonds. Sophomore Andrew Lamson proved last year at the state meet that he is a swimmer to watch in the distance events.”

Season outlook: “Both teams are looking forward to the state and conference championships in February,” Barrows said. “The girls are poised to have a great season. The ladies have some great depth with Sam Nealey, Morgan Maxwell and Megan Zabenko, which will benefit them during the dual meet season. The boys lost a lot of front line talent last year to graduation. This year, the boys are rebuilding and training hard to achieve personal bests. Our goal is to get many first year qualifiers to the state meet to compliment Andrew Lamson.”

Girls Indoor Track

Coach: Matthew Fortin

Key athletes: As a first-year head coach, Fortin has only just started to get familiar with the elements of his team, although he said he expected Audrey Cobb to be strong on shot put.

Season outlook: “It will be a building year,” Fortin said. “In the past, the numbers haven’t been there, but I hope to be successful despite number of athletes.”

Ice Hockey

Coach: Travis Jalbert

Last year’s record: 2-16

Key players: The Blue Blazes are built around five clutch seniors: Tommy Lemay, John Grondin, Tom Crawford, Derrick Payn, and Adam Begos, along with three talented juniors: Alex Benson, Kyle Gaudreau and Brock Leighton.

Season outlook: “We are a very inexperienced team, but have solid senior leadership,” Jalbert said. “This is the hardest working group of players that I’ve had in four seasons, and we’re extremely excited to see what our freshmen can bring to the table. With some decent goaltending, I think we are going to be able to surprise some teams this season. Our goal for ourselves is to compete for one of the four playoff positions in Western Class B.”

Girls Basketball

Coach: Troy Dunphe

Last year’s record: 4-14

Key players: Westbrook will be anchored by experienced seniors Katelyn Benson, Vanessa Bradbury and Ciera Bellino. Junior Jessica Harris and sophomore forward Ashlee Richards round out the starting lineup.

Key games: “Our first game against Kennebunk is the only one we are looking at,” Dunphe said. “That is our ‘more important’ game of the year.”

Season outlook: “This is the most athletic team we’ve had in three years,” Dunphe said. “We’re looking to make things happen on defense and then turn turnovers into points. Team chemistry will be big for us if we want to compete.”

Boys Basketball

Coach: Mark Karter

Last year’s record: 19-2, lost in the Western Maine finals

Key players: A group of three talented seniors – Trevor Bates, Sean Murphy and Ed Grant – will lead the Blazes as they strive to return to the finals. Karter also stated that he believed the team would get a major contribution out of junior Nguot Nguot.

Key games this season: Contests against Portland, South Portland, Cheverus, Bonny Eagle, Gorham and Windham will all be important for the Blue Blazes this winter.

Season outlook: “We will look to overcome a heavy loss to graduation and try to be above .500 in a tough SMAA conference,” Karter said. “The goal is to improve as the season unfolds and try and make it to the Western Maine tournament.”

The boys indoor track preview was not available as of press time

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