5 High School Sports Teams to Watch This Winter

With  2010-2011 winter sports season getting under way, here's a roundup of five teams looking to make a big impact in the coming months.

1. Boys' Basketball

Dec. 14 will be an interesting moment for the boys' varsity basketball team as the Minutemen open their season on their familiar home court against familiar opponent Woburn High School. But what will be unfamiliar to the team is the boys playing under new head coach Reginald Hobbs.

Hobbs was a biology teacher at Lexington, an assistant coach for men's basketball at Endicott College during the 2009-2010 season, the associate head coach at Tufts University from 2003-2009 and the associate head coach and recruiting coordinator at Lasell College from 2000-2003.

Former coach Bob Farias earned 567 victories and 18 Middlesex League titles in 34 years as the boys' head coach and former assistant Tom Brincklow starred and coached at LHS for a combined 25 years. Farias and Brincklow took the 2009-2010 team to the second round of the state tournament, where the Minutemens finished their season with a 74-59 loss to Lynn English.

2. Boys' Swimming

Can Lexington's boys' swim team win its 13th consecutive league championship this season? Last year, the Minutemen outscored second-place Reading by 133 points, extending Lexington's Middlesex League title streak that began more than one decade ago.

An LHS swimmer finished first in every event except the 200-yard individual medley, the 100-yard breaststroke and the 200-yard freestyle relay. The team opens its season at Melrose High School on Dec. 15 at 4 p.m.; then compete against Reading on Jan. 8 at 5:30 p.m.

3. Girls' Indoor Track

Will coach Phil Crosby help produce another undefeated season for the 2010-2011 girls' indoor track team? Last year's squad finished the season with a 52-34 victory over Burlington.

Many seniors graduated with personal bests and outstanding performances, including Allyson Crooke's 8.5-second hurdle performance at Woburn where she broke the record for the fastest 55-meter hurdles ever run on the Woburn track, and one of the fastest times in Massachusetts in 2010.

4. Girls' Hockey

The girls have big skates to fill this season since the 2009-2010 team went almost undefeated, losing only their final game, 3-0 against Acton-Boxborough in the Division 1 state quarterfinal.

The team went 19-1-1 overall, won the Middlesex League title, beat Lincoln-Sudbury in the first round of the state tournament, allowed just 12 goals in 21 games and had 12 shutouts. In a January match-up against Belmont, LHS put up a sizable win, 10-0.

The team will face Belmont again on Wednesday, Jan. 12 at 7:15 p.m. This year's season opens against Needham High School on Dec. 11 at 7:30 p.m.

5. Boys' Hockey

The 2009-2010 season's top-scoring juniors, captain Charlie Guthrie, David Nardella and Brian Segreve combined for 15 goals, 19 assists and 34 points while freshmen Cody Barbieri and Henrik Nilsson made one assist and one goal, respectively.

The teams' 10-4-1 season ended in a 3-1 loss (Nardella scored the Minutemen's lone goal) to Billerica Memorial High School in the first round of the state tournament.

Under direction and encouragement from head coach Greg Fowke, how will the 2010-2011 boys take to the ice this season? The Minutemen open at home against Woburn High School on Wednesday, Dec. 15 at 7:15 p.m.