With the close of cross country, football, and soccer the winter sport squads have started practice for their upcoming seasons. Wrestling, swimming, and basketball begin their respective seasons on November 25 while gymnastics starts on December 4 and indoor track on December 26.

With the return of seniors Dennis Willison, Fred Horn, Tom Kummer, George Woodley, Bruce Kerr, Jim Hanselmann, and most of last year's sophomore champs, the varsity basketball team, under Coach Gaston Freeman, has great depth at all positions. Commenting on their chances for the conference championship, Willison stated, "Deerfield will be tough, but in the end Maine West will be number one."


Wrestling could prove to be quite interesting this year. After losing many members of last year's varsity squad, the team, under Coach Dick Carlini, will be supplemented by last year's sophomore team. Bruce Beam '71 has been considered by his teammates as a state champion hopeful because of his third place finish in last year's tournament.

Looking forward to a successful season will be Maine West's tankmen under Coach Pete Andersen. With many members of last year's squad returning, Coach Andersen feels he has a team of experience. He specifically sights Skip Parent '71, Don Hudson '72, Russ Zage '71, Larry Bierwirth '73, Steve Dueball '72, and Eric Dahl '71 as outstanding competitors on his squad.


Trying to bounce back from a disastrous season last year will be the gymnastics team under the direction of Coach Sid Drain. Coach Drain feels, "Barring injury or any other major catastrophe, we should have a vastly improved year." T h e team has been looking to the freshman and sophomore teams to be greatly improved and to help out on the varsity level.


Practice for indoor track will start later than the other winter sports. The track team has always been a tough competitor, and this year the outlook is for more of the same. With depth at all of the distance runs due to the excellent performance of the members of the cross country team, Coach Joe Jobst feels he has a strong contender in his team. Coach Jobst goes on to say, "The conference championship will be between Maine West and Maine South. They have a more balanced team while we have a team mainly comprised of experience. We are short on the dashes, but I feel we will win conference . this year."