MILLINOCKET, Maine — A hardy band of 16 football brothers will suit up for the Stearns High School football team Friday night when the Minutemen host Mattanawcook Academy of Lincoln in a LTC Class D North regular-season finale at Alumni Field.
It’s a low roster size to be sure, but not unheard of for one of numerous programs that have experienced declining participation numbers in the sport stemming in part from shrinking enrollments at public high schools across Maine.
Stearns, the smallest football-playing school in Maine with 158 students as of April 1, began the football season with about 25 players and currently has 20 on the roster, with four injured and unable to play against the Lynx, according to head coach Steve Waceken.
And this week the 1-7 Minutemen will play with lingering thoughts of other fallen teammates in their minds.
Three Stearns football players were among four students injured in an SUV that rolled over on Baxter State Park Road in neighboring Township 2 Range 9, at about 2 p.m. Oct. 20.
None of the football players were wearing seat belts and were ejected from the vehicle, according to reports. All four occupants were taken to a local hospital, with two of the football players subsequently transferred to Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor, one by LifeFlight helicopter and the second by ambulance.
One of the injured players remained at EMMC as of Thursday afternoon with multiple injuries, said Waceken, who declined to name the students.
The second student-athlete taken to EMMC was released from the hospital last Saturday, Waceken said.
The Stearns football team began regrouping during a football practice held later that evening after the SUV crash. Among those taking part were two other players who had left the team earlier in the season but sought to rejoin the squad in the aftermath of the crash.
“It was very emotional in the sense that the practice was a tough one for the kids to get through knowing that three of their teammates were in the hospital and there were all kinds of question marks surrounding them,” said Waceken. “That weighed heavily on them.”
Stearns officials consulted with the Maine Principals’ Association about possibly receiving a waiver from a penalty if the team could not complete its season — at that point games remained at Houlton the next evening and then this week’s matchup against Mattanawcook.
Under Maine Principals’ Association rules, if a school begins competition to start a sports season but does not complete it, that school is ineligible to field a team in that sport for the next two years.
“We had real questions at that point in time about whether we were going to finish the season, and [the Maine Principals’ Association] would have had to vote on it, but the thought was we could probably get a waiver if we didn’t finish without a penalty given the circumstances,” Waceken said.
“But the finish line was right there. Houlton was having its Senior Night game, and I have four seniors who wanted to finish it out, so there was never any question among the kids about finishing the season. They all wanted to keep it rolling for the fifth- and sixth-graders and the junior-high kids coming up,” he said.
Stearns had 14 players available for the trip to Houlton — the two players who had just rejoined the team did not play against the Shiretowners.
Waceken, a 1987 Stearns graduate who played on the Minutemen’s 1986 Eastern Maine Class C championship team, and athletic administrator Fredy Lazo also consulted with Houlton officials before their game about a potential scenario where if the game became one-sided a discussion could ensue about whether or not to continue play in the interest of player safety.
That concern didn’t materialize, as Stearns rallied from a 24-12 halftime deficit to take the lead before Houlton scored in the final minute for a 36-32 victory.
“The kids played phenomenal, I thought,” said Waceken. “With 47 seconds left, we were up by two, and I told the coaching staff in my headset that we gave [Houlton] too much time.
“We gave them all they wanted, that’s for sure,” he said.
Preparation this week for Friday night’s scheduled game against 3-5 Mattanawcook Academy has been more routine, though there remains concern for the player still hospitalized after the SUV crash.
“The kids have had a couple of really good practices this week,” said Waceken.
At least one player involved in the crash is likely to attend the game, he added.
