Three seniors will lead the Belchertown wrestling team into this weekend’s MIAA Division 3 Western Massachusetts Sectional Championships, as the Orioles’ first season back as a varsity program in nearly a decade nears a close.

Jack Bergeron, Max Bessette and Jack Lacroix joined the Belchertown wrestling team with no experience this winter, but have helped head coach Kevin McNeill establish the idea that the program is here to stay.

“I’ll be a good day for the three seniors. We’re happy for them and it’ll be fun to see them wrestling in what could potentially be their last matches,” McNeill said. “They’ve been a good part of this program and really helped us in this first year building this foundation, so it’s been good to have them.”

Up to 14 varsity wrestlers are allowed to compete in Saturday’s meet – one for each weight class –  and McNeill said the Orioles will be able to fill out 12 of those 14 slots in the event held at Mount Greylock Regional School in Williamstown.

Because all of his athletes started from zero on day one, McNeill feels the experience his team gets from competing in meets on a week-to-week basis is more important than the actual results of competition. Knowing that, McNeill has been pleased with how his team has progressed throughout the season.

“Wrestling isn’t necessarily a sport that you can usually jump right into and have immediate success,” McNeill said. “It kind of takes some time. But we’ve watched all of the kids get a lot better over the few months that we’ve had them.”

This weekend’s meet will count as the first postseason match for every single Orioles wrestler. However, McNeill has prepared Belchertown for these kind of competitions by having his team take part in some well-attended Saturday tournaments during the regular season.

“In wrestling, we as coaches, we get to schedule our Saturday events so some Saturdays we’ll go wrestle a quad meet where we’ll wrestle three other schools, other Saturdays we’ll go to individual tournaments,” he said. “For example, we went out to Framingham for the Framingham Holiday Tournament and there was like 22 teams there or something like that. So that style tournament, where it’s an individual tournament, is what kind of gets you ready for the postseason.”

Now that the Orioles’ first season since 2016 is winding down, McNeill reflected back on all the work that went into bringing wrestling back for Belchertown.

“I’m thrilled that the response has been positive,” McNeill said. “Everybody has been really excited about having the program back. There’s a little bit of a buzz around the building, which is nice. Kids are talking about it, it’s something different, a different opportunity for kids in the winter time, which is great. I’ll have random students walking the halls that say, ‘hey I think might wrestle next year,’ so that’s just an awesome thing. I’ll have parents come up to me and congratulate me and my coaching staff on a great year, just because they’re thrilled that something different is being offered. It’s been a really positive experience and a really great thing to be a part of this winter.”

The Division 3 Western Mass. meet will also feature Gateway, Frontier and Hampshire Regional.

The Division 3 Central Mass. meet will be at Wayland High School, where South Hadley and Granby will wrestle, while the Division 2 Western Mass. meet will feature Smith Vocational and Holyoke at Algonquin Regional in Northborough.