“The crown of Maine, where life moves at the speed of the seasons,” begins Buddy Collins, narrating over the rustle of trees and a passing flock of geese one early fall morning in Aroostook County.
“Up here, we’ve got the freedom to live quiet, or to live loud,” he continues, as the video cuts to dirt bikes racing through The Sawdust Pit, a motocross track he developed in Ashland.
“It’s the kind of place that sets your heart ablaze,” he says, as the video pulls wide to reveal a blaze orange camouflage soccer jersey, the new third kit of the Portland Hearts of Pine.
The Hearts of Pine, who call themselves “The Soccer Club of Maine,” embraced that title with the marketing campaign for the release of their “Blaze Kit.” Members of the United Soccer League club’s creative team traveled four-plus hours up I-95 for a series of promotional video and photoshoots that prominently feature The County.
The campaign, which also highlights Maine guides, was an effort that had one national soccer media outlet asking: “Is this the greatest kit release ever?”
While in the area, the Hearts of Pine visited BigRock Mountain in Mars Hill, Buck Farms in Mapleton and Riverside Inn Restaurant in Presque Isle. In the woods, the creative team captured bowhunters and fishermen, highlighting the kit’s practical use for outdoorsmen and women as Maine’s hunting seasons ramp up.
The jersey is 50% blaze orange, the team says, making it an eligible piece of hunter orange clothing under Maine law.
It’s also, as Serena Collins Bonville decided, a pointed piece of early fall fashion.
She wore it to work on a recent Friday in late September, a week or so after the Hearts came looking for someone with a classic square-body pickup truck. Collins Bonville, who is Buddy Collins’ sister, has one, and so does a friend. So the team came along for a ride.
“If you take pride in things, they last forever,” Collins Bonville said of her truck and what the team wanted to capture with it.
They dropped by Ashland One Stop for some “small town vibes” before heading out to the Sawdust Pit, where about a dozen local kids geared up to race around the unique track that was carved out of a pile of sawdust left behind by the former Grafton Mill.
“We were blown away with the photos and the videos and stuff that they provided,” Collins said. “Not just for the Sawdust Pit, but for everything they worked on showcasing The County and our natural resources.”
Early that morning, the Hearts joined Mark and Megan Shea as they hopped in a canoe on the Aroostook River before sunrise.
The Sheas are season ticket holders and some of the team’s most devout fans in The County. Both sport Hearts tattoos from a June tattoo event the club hosted in Portland. Mark Shea, who is a longtime soccer coach in The County, called being on the river a “magical experience,” and one that only deepened his connection with the team.
“A lot of businesses that are Maine-based or claim to be Maine-centered, they kind of forget about us up here,” Mark Shea said. “It was nice to be included.”
Shea was among the group that skied down the rugged, snowless landscape of BigRock, a ski mountain in the winter, later that day for the shoot.
The Hearts photographed Mike Chasse, a member of the Maine Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame and a Presque Isle city councilor, at the base of the mountain where he is the newly appointed general manager, alongside his service dog, Sasha. Both donned the Blaze kit for the shoot.
“I was all on board because I love how they’re building a soccer team around community,” Chasse said. “Not just around the Portland area, but the whole state of Maine.”
Soccer is a fixture sport in the fall in Aroostook County, an area with few high school football teams. A number of County soccer programs have rich histories that stack up with their counterparts in the more populated areas of the state.
Ashland, a perennial Class D contender with two girls state championships since 2014, wears a similar shade of orange as its primary color. It’s a happy coincidence, but one that fits the message the subjects of the Hearts’ trip to The County all seem to have taken away.
“I honestly believe they were trying to capture the heart of Maine,” Collins Bonville said.
Collins, who ends his narration of the team’s promotional video with a hearty “friggin’ right, bub,” ended his conversation with a reporter last week with the sentiment that statement already appeared to convey.
“Go Hearts of Pine,” he said.