The Watertown Recreation Department provided the following announcement:
Please fill out our Interest Survey
Watertown Recreation is exploring the possibility of launching a Youth Travel Field Hockey Team to join the Baystate Youth Field Hockey League in the Fall of 2026. Before moving forward, we’d like to gauge interest from families in the community. Your feedback will help us determine whether this program is viable. Proposed Program Structure
Grades 1–4
1 Practice Per Week
Sunday Morning Games (8:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m.)
Grades 5–8
2 Practices Per Week
Sunday Morning Game (8:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m.)
Estimated Cost: $150–$190 per playerhttps://forms.gle/7XhhAJhqNqqyqSxq7
Isaac Maillis and the Raiders will face Shawsheen Valley Tech in the State Tournament on Thursday. (Photo by Charlie Breitrose)
Two Watertown High School squads will play in the winter State Tournaments, with the boys hockey team skating on Thursday girls basketball team playing Friday. The boys hockey team faces Shawsheen Valley Tech on Feb. 26 at 7:10 p.m. at Hallenbourg Ice Rink in Billerica. The Raiders (3-17) are the 28th seed, while Shawsheen (17-2-1) is the fifth seed.
Watertown seniors Jimmy Shrestha, left, and Fahad Khan both finished fourth in their divisions at the MIAA Div. 3 State Wrestling Championships. (Courtesy of Watertown Athletics)
Watertown’s Jimmy Shrestha and Fahad Khan will compete with the top wrestlers from across Massachusetts after both placed fourth at the MIAA Div. 3 State Meet in Gloucester on Saturday. Both seniors placed among the highest finishes in the State Meet in Watertown history, said Watertown Wrestling Coach Kevin Russo.
The Boston Gold Kings (BGK), coming off a tough road loss back on Feb. 7th, put together a strong and disciplined effort on Valentine’s Day night in front of their home crowd, running away with a 9-4 win. Nine different Gold Kings littered the scoresheet and Goalie Mike Cowell, while maybe not as a sharp as some previous games, was still there when needed to post the win. The Gold Kings move to 7-5-0-2 on the season and with two games remaining in the regular season hold a 4-point lead over third place Holyoke. The Gold Kings got off to a great start when Nick McNally, flying down the right side and going upstairs with a wrister, made it 1-0 1:38 into the first period. But last-place Norfolk, with only two wins on the season, found their skating game and put two past Cowell 10 minutes apart to take the lead 2-1 for the one and only time on the night. The Gold Kings righted the ship with a huge goal with a minute forty one left in the period off the stick of fourth-line Center Mike Delisio to tie it two. Delisio and McNally both had excellent nights and were named two of the three stars post-game. One of the bugaboos for the defending champion Gold Kings this season has been a lack of disciplined hockey at times. Whether taking silly penalties or failing to clear the zone or missed assignments, their game has not always been as clean as they would like it to be. On this night, though, the Gold Kings looked much sharper and in control. Second period goals by M. Baldino, Drizen and Cebula paved the way for a third period explosion, as the Gold Kings simply wore down the Mallards. Despite being a last-place team, Norfolk could skate, but they were vulnerable with ever other aspect of their game, and the Gold Kings took advantage. Goal-scorers Forte, Carta, DiCostanzo and Smith made sure of it after a pretty quiet start to the third period. But once the clock hit 8:54, it was all Gold Kings till the final whistle. Final score, Gold Kings 9 Mallards 4.
Watertown/Wayland’s 2026 regular season came to a close Wednesday with a non-league contest versus Dover-Sherborn/Weston(DSW). The game also served as Senior Night as six young men were recognized before the game for their contribution to the program. Once the game began, one and all were treated to an entertaining affair that saw the Raiders (DSW are the Raiders as well, but for this article, only Watertown is the Raiders) take the early lead and once again play a bigger, stronger, faster team (and D2 as well) pretty evenly. It was a 2-1 game DSW late into the second period, but a DSW goal with 30 seconds remaining made it 3-1 after two. That score swelled to 6-2 DSW by game’s-end, but the Raiders kept competing right up to the final whistle.
Seniors Ryder Barenholtz, Odarjyo Cook, Matthew Wheeler, Griffin Wood, Liam McIsaac and Kingston Omolade were introduced as the starting lineup on this night, a nice touch by Head Coach John Vlachos. For goalie Liam McIsaac, it was a chance to see some action as junior Finnley MacDonald has seen most of the time in net this season. McIsaac did himself proud, making a number of Grade A saves and only surrendering one goal before being relieved by MacDonald half way through the first period. Wayland Senior Griffin Wood, a first-line winger all season long, got the scoring going for a team short on goal-scoring all season. He rambled down the right wing and put a shot on DSW goalie William Goldstein, a shot that wasn’t blistering but nonetheless on net and hard for him to handle: 2:29 in on Senior Night Watertown/Wayland had the lead. DSW tied it four and a half minutes late, but the Raiders, despite being outshot and defending their zone more then they would have liked, were right there with DSW after one period.
Jirat Saengthong of Watertown set a new standard at Bridgewater State in the 200 freestyle during the Little East Conference Championships in Wellesley on Feb. 14. The junior finished second with a time of 1:45.80, eclipsing the previous BSU record of 1:46.39 set by Jameson Rose in 2017. He improved his personal best by 0.82 seconds, and the performance was one of three school records set by Bridgwater State swimmers that day. Saengthong also finished second in the 100 individual medley with a time of 54.71 on Sunday.
Watertown senior Fahad Kahn, on the top step, won the 106 pound class MIAA Div. 3 North Sectional Meet for the second year in a row. (Watertown Athletics)
Several Watertown High School wrestlers extended their season by finishing well in Saturday’s MIAA Div. 3 North Sectional Meet in Dracut. One repeated as section champ.
Watertown/Wayland Hockey deserves so much credit, in my opinion. From the coaching staff on down to the last player on the roster, there has been little to no quit despite winning very infrequently. They play in a very competitive and physical league with a young and undersized roster, yet they always hang tough, even when the score might indicate otherwise. With the regular season winding down and still no league wins next to their name, Watertown/Wayland found the secret sauce against a Wakefield squad, who in addition to clearly getting out-played, left their A-game, let alone their C-game back in Wakefield. Final score, which is music to the ears of EVERYONE associated with Watertown/Wayland, Watertown/Wayland 7 Wakefield 2. It started very rocky for the Raiders. SIX seconds in captain Luke Egan was sent to the penalty box for hooking. But the Raiders executed a good kill, and junior Goalie Finnley MacDonald, called upon all season long to make quality and quantity saves, faced two good scoring chances and steered them aside. But a funny thing happened on the way to getting back to full strength —the Raiders failed to execute the transition from Egan leaving the box to a line shift, and were immediately back on the penalty kill, guilty of a bench minor for too many men on the ice.
Now, if you believe in fate, I’d recommend the story of the rest of the period as proof that it exists. The Raiders not only killed the second penalty, but settled down, played solid hockey, and at 11:14 went on the power play thanks to — yup, a Wakefield penalty for too many men on the ice. And 28 seconds later they were whistled for a tripping, giving Watertown/Wayland a two-man advantage. And what did the Raiders do better than Wakefield with their power play opportunities? That’s right hockey fans, they scored, first a 5-on-3 power play goal courtesy of a Griffin Wood wrister, and then they pulled off the daily double as Michael Philbin scored a 5-on-4 power play goal to make it 2-0. Now, to be clear, I’m neither making light or making fun of what I’m about to say, but there have been very few opportunities to say “Raiders are up 2-0 with two minutes left in the period.” It sounds good, right?
Up first, the Boys… Senior night honored three young men who have devoted their time and effort to Watertown Basketball — Higor Camara, Andrew Malovanyi and Benjamin Teixeira. Congratulations to all three of them and a tip of the hat for their contribution to Watertown Athletics and Raiders Basketball! A season that has seen mostly struggles has been better of late, with the Raiders winners of four of their last five. Two were non-league blowouts against an inferior opponent (a home-and-home), but two were league wins, and one on the road. Every team wants to win Senior Night, and tonight was no different. For most of the contest it seemed as though Watertown would do just that — win — but, they went cold and flat in the fourth while Melrose, fighting to stay in contention for a D2 Tournament berth, found their way just in time to bring about overtime. And in overtime it was ALL Melrose as the Red Hawks outscored the Raiders 14-2 to defeat Watertown, 59-47. The first quarter was a bit of a slog, as both teams struggled offensively. The only offense for the Raiders came courtesy of junior Michael Nshanian, who scored 8, four of four from the line. Both teams lit it up, relatively speaking, in the second. While Melrose featured a balanced output, Nshanian added 9 more on the way to 36 on the night. But, despite that impressive number, it was a harbinger of sorts for how the night would turn out. As Nshanian continued to score, the rest of the team stood around and increasingly their half-court offense became downright stagnant.
