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State semi-final title champions: that was a name that the Westlake Wildcats varsity football team hadn’t heard in years. Since 1983 to be exact.
All of that changed last year when the new head coach, John Castellano, lead the team of seniors and juniors, with select sophomore and freshman, to grab that title once again. The achievement was so grand it even lead the Mount Pleasant School District to dedicate a day to the Wildcats.
Now, one year later, the pressure is back on.
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The Westlake High School football team is a part of Section 1, Class B. The class ranks are relative to how many kids are in the school: Class A being the largest, Class B being the second and so on. The sections, on the other hand, are determined by which area the school is located in, with a total of 11 sections in New York state. At the very end of the season, when the state tournament game is played, is when each of the sections come together.
Back in November of 2015, our very own Wildcats made it to the state semi-finals, one step away from the state final held in Syracuse. It was a ground-breaking moment in the waiting for 33 years.
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However, the varsity players can no longer shower in the glory of the past but only look ahead.
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According to one of the team’s players, Nicholas Colabatistto, “We have a different team from last year, no doubt, but last year is in the past. We try to forget that so we can focus on this years goals.”
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The Wildcats, as a team, hope to “win a consecutive section title, go farther than last year and win a state title.”
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Being the second ranked football team in New York, making these dreams a reality are right at the players’ fingertips. The road to the state final is promising, but since it is still a while off, the team prepares to focus and take each individual game as it comes.
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“We are just working extremely hard to play our best and go above and beyond,” Colabatistto adds.
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With their, so far, six to zero undefeated streak, there is no doubt in the Westlake Wildcats varsity football team’s mind that they won’t only make it to state finals, but bring back home the gold with them.