By DAN PAWLOWSKI
WAKEFIELD — There’s no following it up.
The 2022 Wakefield High football team will live on forever after a perfect 13-0 season and a Div. 3 Super Bowl title, just the second Super Bowl victory in school history.
With a league championship trophy, a second consecutive Thanksgiving Day win over rival Melrose and some new championship rings now tucked away, the 2023 Warriors have turned the page to a new season with plenty of buzz still surrounding the program.
“It has definitely been noticeable,” says head coach John Rafferty of the energy and enthusiasm that last year’s squad created. “That started with the players who bought in to the offseason strength and conditioning program and has definitely been carried over into the start of this season.”
On paper, the Warriors appear to be young. That’s what happens when you graduate 12 seniors and 4 All-Stars in former captains Christian Delgado, Nathan Delgado, Ian Dixon and Javin Willis.
However, a deeper look shows plenty of promise, not just in Wakefield’s returning starters, but in the potential of players who will now step up to run the show.
That begins with senior captains Steven Woish, Joe LaMonica and Mark Letchford.
Woish, also a Middlesex League All-Star in 2022 after securing a school record 8 receiving touchdowns, is back to lead the wide receivers and defensive backs.
LaMonica and Letchford will lead the offensive line in addition to the defense, which returns plenty of talent.
Last year, the Warriors had a rotation of about 14 two-way players. In addition to Willis, the Delgado’s and Dixon, they will need to replace David Amyouny (OL/DL), Max Cusack (OL/LB), Bobby DeFeo (RB/DB) and Kaiden Johnson (OL/DL) in that rotation.
Six of those 14 return: Woish (WR/DB), LaMonica (OL/DL), Letchford (OL/LB/K), senior Declan O’Callahan (LB/WR), junior Cade Esposito (OL/DL) and junior Matt Beaver (TE/LB).
There are plenty of candidates to fill in the gaps.
Warrior fans are wondering who will take the QB keys from three-year starter and dual-threat Willis, the ’22 Freedom Division MVP and All-Scholastic who broke school records with 326 passing yards in a game and 2,108 total, completing 73 percent of his throws for 21 touchdowns.
That honor will fall to a true freshman, as Westin McNeilly will get the nod when the Warriors open up their season tomorrow night at Greater Lawrence Tech.
Wakefield’s backfield, looking to replace All-Scholastic RB Nathan Delgado who rushed for 1,163 yards and 18 touchdowns, will include more newcomers with sophomores Myles Sanchez and Aiden Jones ready to take over.
Woish leads a talented group of pass-catchers including juniors Ian Christie and John Fitzgerald. Beaver also fits into that category as a tight end along with Jackson Fitzpatrick, a junior transfer from Brooks School.
Playmakers aside, McNeilly will most rely on a strong line to give him some time and get used to the speed of the game. That’s where the freshman is lucky to have someone like LaMonica, an experienced center. Letchford will line up next to his fellow captain at guard while Esposito will protect as a tackle. Wakefield’s two new linemen set to join the starters will be football newcomer and senior Bryce Vaughan (G) and junior Zach Courtright (T).
LaMonica and Esposito will anchor the defense from the interior while the Warriors count on defensive ends Fitzpatrick and sophomore Luciano Rossetti to cause havoc from the edges.
Letchford leads a strong linebacker group along with outside backers, Beaver and O’Callahan, a hard-nosed, defense-first and special teams leader. Woish will lead the defensive backs as a safety with cornerbacks Fitzgerald, Christie and senior newcomer Logan Bayers. Sanchez and Jones will also rotate as either linebackers or defensive backs.
“It’s definitely a work in progress,” says Rafferty the 2022 New England Patriots High School Coach of the Year. “We graduated a tremendous amount of talent and we are working with a lot of inexperience but we are making progress and getting better. The energy is really good and our three captains have been doing a great job of leading the way.”
Of course, that learning process is a season-long endeavor. Even through all the victories last year, Wakefield never wavered from their identity, which revolved around consistent progress week-to-week. Whether upsetting the top 3 seeds in the Div. 3 bracket or racking up lopsided regular season wins, the Warriors never let the noise or the hype get to them.
That’s a mentality that will carry over once again, despite Wakefield’s current 15-game active winning streak, the 2nd longest in Eastern Massachusetts behind just Catholic Memorial (29). It’s a new team but the same, week-to-week, game-to-game, practice-to-practice, rep-to-rep focus.
“We always hang on to that very narrow-minded focus,” said Rafferty.
Season goals are not for Wakefield football. All they want to do is take on the challenge in front of them.
In week one, that challenge will be familiar non-league foe, Greater Lawrence Tech. The Warriors and Reggies have kicked off their seasons as opponents every year since 2019. Greater Lawrence won it that year, 16-14, but Wakefield has been victorious in the last two, winning 50-0 in 2021 and 28-6 last year.
Kickoff at the Greater Lawrence Tech Turf Field is set for 6 p.m. tomorrow night.