The volatile nature of high school sports has resulted in two more programs being suspended this fall.
The John Bapst Memorial High School girls field hockey program in Bangor and the St. John Valley Mustangs eight-player football program from Aroostook County will not compete this season due to low numbers of players.
Mike Bisson, the executive director of the Maine Principals Association, confirmed the news and said the John Bapst players will become part of a cooperative program with Bangor High School and Bucksport High.
The St. John Valley football team is composed of players from Fort Kent Community High School, Madawaska High School and Wisdom High School in St. Agatha and began play in 2022.
Joshua Nichols, the athletic director at Fort Kent, said the Mustangs will play in the Maine Independent Football League.
“We hope to increase the numbers in grades 9 to 12 next year to rejoin the MPA,” said Nichols.
Bisson said since regular season games don’t begin until Thursday, neither program will receive a two-year ban from MPA play that occurs when teams drop their programs after regular season play begins.
According to the Valley Mustangs website, since they aren’t affiliated with the MPA this fall, they are seeking players from other communities, including Canada, and will play a seven-game schedule. They will not be eligible to play in the Maine Independent Football League championship game.
They used to play in the independent league before transitioning to MPA-sanctioned football four years ago.
They are seeking players from grades six through 12 in order to build a feeder system in addition to filling out their roster.
They wrote that there is no cost to play, and they will supply the equipment. The players just have to provide cleats and a water bottle.
The other teams in the league are the Aroostook Huskies based in Presque Isle, the Central Maine Eagles from China, Maine, and the Berlin Gladiators from New Hampshire.
The Aroostook Huskies are the defending two-time MIFL champs.
The Mustangs were in Eight-Player Small North a year ago and went 1-6.
The cooperative field hockey team with Bangor, John Bapst and Bucksport will host Edward Little High of Auburn in their mutual season-opener at 4 p.m. Thursday.
“Field hockey is in a tenuous situation due to low numbers at a number of schools,” Bisson said.
Sports like football and soccer, where you normally have 11 players participating per side, have adopted an eight-player format for schools that have numbers issues. Field hockey is also an 11-player sport.
Bisson said the MPA’s field hockey committee offered that eight-player option to schools with low numbers, “but when push came to shove for schools to sign up for it, very few schools were willing to commit to that. But the committee will continue to discuss it.”
Bisson said league schedulers should be able to help fill the vacant dates left by the departure of the John Bapst field hockey team, but it will be “very difficult” to fill the schedule spots vacated by the departure of the Mustangs.
“It will be almost impossible to fill because everyone has games” when the Mustangs were scheduled to play, he said.