ROCKPORT, Maine — Camden Hills Regional High School, which dropped its varsity football program three weeks into its 2015 schedule because of player safety concerns, is working toward fielding a junior varsity squad in the fall.
In fact, the Windjammers already have scheduled their first game against a Presque Isle-area club team, according to Camden Hills athletic administrator Steve Alex.
That home game will be held Oct. 7 as part of Camden Hills’ annual homecoming celebration.
“We’re going to try to play a six- to eight-game season,” said Alex.
Camden Hills canceled the remainder of its 2015 Class D North season shortly after a loss to Bucksport during which four starters were lost to injuries that included a concussion, two hand/wrist ailments and a strained knee.
That left an already depleted Camden Hills roster with barely enough players to practice early the following week, and those available largely were younger players with minimal high school football experience.
The team’s initial roster submitted to the Maine Principals’ Association last August listed 28 players — six seniors, four juniors, six sophomores and 12 freshmen.
A community forum was held in the aftermath of Camden Hills’ decision to discuss the future of football at the school, and an ad hoc committee subsequently was established to address the issue.
“After the dust settled there was interest in trying to keep something going,” said Alex.
The ad hoc committee eventually proposed through the local school board that Camden Hills move forward with fielding a subvarsity team for next season and looking at a minimum of about 25 players, Alex said.
“Further down the road,” he added, “if we keep this thing going and go back to varsity status, we’d be looking at a baseline number of 35 kids to keep a varsity program running.”
Alex said there is no timetable for pursuing a return to the varsity ranks.
Under Maine Principals’ Association policy, if a school begins competition to start a sports season but does not complete it, the school is ineligible to field a varsity team in that sport for the next two years.
“A lot is going to depend on what happens next year,” said Alex, “but my gut tells me we’ll be playing JVs for a couple of years and really try to rebuild this thing.”
Alex said the current freshman and eighth-grade classes in the community boast “solid numbers” of players to form the basis of a junior varsity team at Camden Hills in the fall.
“We are going to play [junior varsity] football next season if we have enough kids who want to come out and play on the team,” he said. “I think we’ll have those numbers.”
Camden Hills played its first season of varsity football in 2009 and qualified for the playoffs in 2010, but had a 2-25 record from the start of the 2012 season to its 0-3 start in 2015.
In the Maine Principals’ Association’s four-class football format, Camden Hills is a Class B school by enrollment but received approval to play down in Class D (and forfeit postseason eligibility) last season in an attempt to salvage its program.
