ORONO, Maine — It had many of the trappings of a varsity football game.
Lineups were announced, cheerleaders were on hand to support the home team, a concession booth awaited those seeking sustenance to fuel their fandom and the stadium lights brightly magnified the scene amid the cool autumn conditions.
But for nearly 40 players like Houlton High School freshman Dan McNally, Monday night’s gathering at Orono High School offered something even more cherished — the chance for some meaningful playing time.
With many small-school football programs in Eastern Maine struggling to field enough players to support subvarsity teams, younger high school players from four LTC Class D schools — Houlton, Orono, Stearns of Millinocket and Washington Academy of East Machias — met for what was billed as a “JV Jamboree.”
Players from Orono and WA with similar school uniform colors made up one team while players from Houlton and Stearns comprised the opposition.
“Kids from Millinocket and Houlton and Washington Academy and Orono, they’re all the same type of kids,” said Orono athletic administrator Mike Archer, who developed the concept and organized the game with help from Red Riots’ football coach Bob Sinclair.
“They all have the same kinds of interests, the same likes and dislikes, they all want the same things out of football and they all have the same goals. They just wear different colors and go to different schools and are from different towns. That’s one of the great things about athletics, that they can bring those kids together.”
The two squads battled through four, 10-minute quarters in a controlled scrimmage setting during the jamboree. And by the time the “Houltonocket Shiremen” secured a 14-8 victory over the ”Orono Academy Red Raiders,” the players seemed appreciative of the opportunity to be cast as the focal points of their respective programs for at least one evening.
“I feel like the JV boys needed some more practice because we’ve only had two or three games,” said McNally. “We came out strong tonight. I thought we were going to be nervous because we were coming out with Stearns and that was new for us, but we really got along well, especially for it being the first meeting each other.”
That team chemistry was so good that players matched together for the first time grew more conversational with each other as the game continued. The winners went on to share a modest postgame huddle to celebrate their unified pride for representing the state’s two northernmost high school football schools.
“We were the North team, and it was pretty good,” said McNally. “We all shook hands, met each other, got each other’s names. I’m sure we’ll see each other on Twitter and Facebook later on.”
Football’s new normal
A glimpse at the latest student enrollment statistics for Maine Principals’ Association-member public high schools merely confirms the continuation of a fairly enduring trend — that the school-age population is decreasing steadily around the state.
The reasons are myriad but largely reflect the state’s aging population and decrease in family size in the face of increasing economic challenges.
Many football-playing schools face additional challenges to filling out their rosters, such as the gradual expansion of school athletic programs to offer provide students more numerous competitive options each fall, and heightened awareness about concussions that may lead some parents to guide youngsters toward a different sport at an earlier age.
“It’s about numbers,” said Sinclair. “You’ve got several schools in Class D who are below 30 and sometimes in the mid-20s for players, and then you take an injury or something else and it’s difficult for the younger kids to get quality minutes unless you’re winning a lot or you’re getting beat a lot.”
Approximately half of the LTC’s 11 schools have enough football players in grades nine through 12 to field a subvarsity team on a regular basis, and sometimes those games are subject to cancellation based on circumstances at the varsity level for while the reserves often don’t see varsity action, they represent the primary and source of that team’s current depth and future hopes.
“We have five schools in the LTC right now that could play a JV game every week,” said Archer, “and after that it comes down to how you come out of your varsity game, depending on sickness and academics and all those kinds of things.”
Often that varsity depth consists of freshmen and sophomores who in many cases may not be physically ready to take on juniors and seniors on more than an occasional basis.
“Our JV team is really our freshman team,” said Brian Reynolds, head coach of the first-year Houlton varsity football program. “We only have one junior and two sophomores who play at that [JV] level, so for those guys to be able to come here and be involved in a competition like this is great for them because I think they feel comfortable playing at this level.”
The younger players’ opportunity to gain quality game time not only is influenced by physical concerns but also by competitive issues. If the varsity squads are locked in a close contest, coaches are less likely to clear their benches.
“In our situation this year we’ve been competitive in every game so it’s been very difficult for us to get some of those younger kids quality playing time,” said Sinclair. “I think it’s the same way for the other teams here, too.”
That leaves younger, less experienced players from schools with no or limited subvarsity schedules with few options to satisfy their competitive urges.
“It’s hard for those kids to just stand around,” said Reynolds. “It’s hard to go through all of preseason and then practice four or five times a week and then you don’t get to play.”
Such a scenario only increases the concern in the football community that younger student-athletes who don’t get enough chances to test their football skills in a competitive setting may turn to another sport, further exacerbating the issue of shrinking participation levels.
“You don’t want kids to go someplace else, you just want to give them the best possible football experience you can,” said Sinclair. “If you don’t have enough for a full subvarsity team you’ve got to do something.
“It’s no fun to go to practice week after week and never get a chance to play. When that happens and you don’t even get a chance to try out the skills you’re being taught in practice, you think, ‘What am I doing?’”
Rivals helping rivals
Orono High School has one of the richest football traditions among its LTC brethren, winning numerous regional and state titles over the years and advancing to the conference’s semifinals last fall.
But the school’s enrollment as of April 1 was just 346 students, and its football roster for grades nine through 12 numbers fewer than 25 players.
The Red Riots have remained competitive, with a 4-3 record heading into their regular-season finale against John Bapst of Bangor on Oct. 30.
Yet the small roster means the team has little experienced depth, not only for varsity games but also for practices when reserves often are assigned to replicate formations that will be employed by future opponents.
So longtime rivals Orono and Old Town have taken the unique step of holding joint practices each Wednesday this season, enabling starters from each school to work against each other while younger players drill against their peers.
“It’s same idea just at the varsity level,” said Sinclair, “where we have so few kids that we weren’t able to put able to competitive look teams together each week. Old Town was having the same problem. Their numbers are a little better than ours but the skill level there was so far apart between the older and younger kids that they weren’t able to do that either.
“So we’re trying to help them win football games, and they’re trying to help us and the kids have been great. We see the guys in green jerseys [Old Town players] talking to the guys in maroon jerseys [Orono], they’ve bonded well. We look forward to it each week, and I think so do they.”
Since the schools are only a few miles apart and don’t compete in the same class — Old Town is in Class C while Orono is in Class D — the joint practices at alternating sites each week have become a natural, particularly given that the two rivals also began fielding a cooperative ice hockey team last winter.
“It’s about meaningful reps and coaches working with different groups of kids and making it beneficial for both teams, not just one or the other,” said Archer. “I think Old Town’s gotten a lot out of this and I certainly know that we have.
“It’s certainly something we couldn’t have done 25 years ago with the way rivalries were back then, but kids nowadays know each other a lot better. They play together a lot on travel teams and all-star teams, and the rivalries for the most part are nowhere near what they used to be.”
While Old Town’s roster numbers in the upper 30s, athletic administrator Brett Hoogterp agrees with the benefits being derived from the joint practices.
“I think it’s working out well for both of us,” he said. “It gives both teams opportunities to get different looks going into their games without beating up on the junior varsity teams every week.”
Start of a trend?
The football practice relationship between Old Town and Orono may well continue into the future given the results of this year’s efforts.
Even more likely is the continuation of a JV Jamboree within the LTC ranks if initial reactions to its debut are any indication.
“I think it’s really good for all the players,” said Josiah Grace, a sophomore from Orono who participated in Monday’s contest. “You get to work on all your skills, blocking, heading downfield, tackling. It’s definitely a good experience to get out there and try out your skills.”
Similar thinking could even lead to a similar format being employed as a staple of future subvarsity football schedules, particularly if participation trends continue and fewer schools field full junior varsity teams.
“This is something you could almost do every other week,” said Archer. “You could even change things up. You could add schools, you could change the teams around or if it’s the same four schools you could change the personnel around and mix and match. You could keep track of things and make the last game of the season a Super Bowl. There’s all kinds of creative things you could do that I think the kids would enjoy. The bottom line is getting those kids actively involved.
“It’s all about presenting and establishing opportunities that we hope will be positive for kids, and we hope that what we did [Monday] night was one of those. Certainly based on the feedback I’ve gotten it was.”
