AUGUSTA, Maine — Three Portland programs — Cheverus, Deering and Portland — would be shifted to Eastern Maine for high school football under a four-class proposal for the sport crafted by the football committee of the Maine Principals’ Association on Wednesday.
Cheverus — the two-time defending Class A state champion — along with Deering and Portland are among 10 schools that would shift geographic regions under the plan to expand the state’s high school football world from three to four classes for the first time since the mid-1980s.
“It does look dramatically different in some areas,” said Mike Bisson, associate principal and athletic director at Mattanawcook Academy of Lincoln and outgoing chairman of the MPA’s football committee.
The four-class proposal, which has been in the works for more than two years, divides the state’s 76 varsity football programs into Classes A, B, C and D, with Eastern and Western Maine divisions for each class. The proposal would take effect in 2013 and is based on unofficial enrollment figures supplied by the football-playing schools as of April 1.
“Football’s one of the few sports that we offer that has seen significant growth,” said MPA assistant executive director Mike Burnham, “and as we’ve continued to grow, moving on to four classes has seemed to make sense.”
The proposal approved by the five-member committee is subject to adjustment as individual schools will have the opportunity to petition the MPA to play up or down a class either to maintain rivalries or for competitive reasons.
“We really looked at trying to take what we already have and reorganize it into four equal classes as much as we could do it,” Bisson said, “knowing that there are going to be teams that are going to look to move to keep some of the tradition that they have.”
Each of the state’s football-playing schools will be sent a copy of the proposal and given time to declare its determination to either play in the class to which it is assigned or seek to move up or down, though by moving down a program would become ineligible for postseason play.
The football committee is scheduled to meet again Aug. 7 when it will discuss any such requests. Any fine-tuning is expected be done in time to submit a final proposal to the MPA’s classification committee later this year.
“We tried to build this proposal anticipating some teams moving,” said Bisson, “but there probably will be some schools we don’t anticipate moving that do and some we might expect to move that choose not to.
“The plan is to get this out soon so schools can see where they are and try to get a commitment from them on what they want to do, either staying where they are, petitioning up or moving down to an area where they might be more successful.”
The four-class proposal would be subject to final approval by the full MPA membership next April.
“You look at what’s best for the sport and work from there,” said Burnham. “I do support the committee taking its time and looking at this from the big picture.”
Cheverus, Deering and Portland would join Bangor, Brunswick, Edward Little of Auburn, Lewiston, Mount Ararat of Topsham and Oxford Hills of South Paris in the new nine-team Eastern Maine Class A, while the remaining nine southern Maine schools with enrollments of 850 students or more would comprise Western A.
“Certainly it may be difficult for some [football-playing] schools to comprehend moving from Western Maine to Eastern Maine as they’ve traditionally always played in Western Maine,” said Burnham.
Class B, with a minimum enrollment of 625, also would involve 18 teams evenly divided between East and West, while Class C (450-624) and Class D (0-449) each would have 20 teams, also equally divided between East and West.
The classification process is designed to determine representatives to the state championship games contested each November, but regular-season schedules still would be determined more locally.
“The championships would be set by this, but the schedule isn’t,” said Bisson. “That’s one for the leagues to work out.”
Other schools that would be moved geographically under the current proposal are Oceanside of Rockland-Thomaston and Camden Hills of Rockport from Eastern to Western B; Leavitt of Turner Center and Morse of Bath from Eastern B to Western C; Winslow from Western to Eastern C; and Maranacook of Readfield and Winthrop from Western C to Eastern D.
The first-year cooperative team from Ellsworth-Sumner is considered a Class B school under the new proposal with its combined enrollment of 777, but that program is playing in the small-school Class C ranks this year under the three-class format and will have the option of moving up to its designated class or compete in Class D in 2013 and 2014 under its status as a new program.
Among the more noteworthy changes dictated by enrollment, the top two teams in Western Maine Class B a year ago, state champion Wells and Mountain Valley of Rumford, both would move to Class D, as Wells has an enrollment of 435 students while Mountain Valley is at 395.
Lawrence, the reigning Eastern A champion, would become a Class B program under the new proposal with its enrollment of 718.
Leavitt, the three-time defending Eastern B champion, not only would shift from East to West but would be moved to Class C based on its enrollment of 602.
And Biddeford, a fixture in the Class A ranks for generations, would become the largest school in Class B under the football committee’s proposal given its enrollment of 830.
“I think this is a fair proposal,” said Bisson. “There’s always going to be a biggest and there’s always going to be a smallest in each classification, so we know that more than one school is going to be unhappy, but there’s no perfect proposal. This is our best effort.”
Camden hills and Oceanside(Rockland) are in the west? These 2 are on the coast.Why not Skowhegan and Messolonskee.
Or Cony and Mt. Blue?
DOA…the nut and twiggies in Portland can’t go past Falmouth without hyperventilating and having anxiety attacks.
having teams like portland, cheverus and deering in eastern maine will only improve the competition and level of play in this area of the state. Aside from a couple of decent teams from Bangor and Lawrence, class A east has been lagging for quite awhile.
If they do go to a four classes after all four state champs have been crowned they should have a playoff. class A play the winner of Class C and Class B play Class D. And then the winner of those games play. To crown a true state champ. I always thought they should do that in high school basketball as well. Give a small school a chance to play against the bigger schools. I played on a Stearns team in the early ninties and won a two state championships in Class C that could have competed and beat any football team in the state.
It’s about time they go to 4 classes. The current 3 class system is outdated. I know one of the issues recently has been travel , creating new traditions and restoring past rivalries. The former coach of Madison-Carrabec, who is now the head coach of Skowhegan. Coach Friedman mentioned this. He mentioned about the travel hardship for the Madison-Carrabec team was having in the PPH/KJ/Sentinel. Which would have put them in Western Maine under the last 4 class proposal with the current teams that are now in the new proposed CLASS C. It would have done so under the current 3 class system until a last minute switch to B East which they are in now. He felt any system would work if it made sense travel wise , restore old local rivalries and not causing teams to move down to forfeit playoffs. He mentioned how Madison-Carrabec now benefits by playing teams in the Waterville-Winslow and Gardiner areas because of the historic rivalries that restarted last season after 40 years . How it has saved money on travel and fuel costs. That it reduced on wear and tear on the kids. As a Madison-Carrabec Bulldogs “Cobradogs” fan. I like the current proposal just fine in these economic times it makes no sense to have kids traveling over 10o or some cases 200+ miles a game as some of the past proposals did. Why should Madison-Carrabec, Oceanside , Winslow , Camden-Hills be in a Western Maine in any class instead of say Morse or even Leavitt makes no sense period. It also makes no sense dropping down missing the playoffs. If your team is improving and did make the playoffs the kids miss the experience of playing in the playoffs. It get kids that experience so the next few years they can go deep in the playoffs and has the chance at a championship. Well hopefully this doesn’t get voted down because this proposal actually makes the most sense. Good luck to the Madison-Carrabec Bulldogs in the future . The future is bright.
Moving a bunch of former class C or B teams down to D, doesnt really make a lot of sense to me. John Bapst has always been in the lowest class because of an up and down enrollment and competed with Dexter, MCI and Stearns, who won the state title last season. Orono has always been class B as has Bucksport so to me in the new divisions they should be Class C. Hermon is a two year program and would likely lose participation if put up to Class C against that competition, they would be hard pressed to win many games. Madison Carabec would be in the same situation. I can see what they are trying to do, but honestly i believe you are going to create some dynasty type of programs while others will be hard pressed to compete. The problem with that is that teams that go on long losing streaks tend to lose people that want to play. It has happened to John Bapst and Old Town recently. Kudos to those with the idea of the four class idea though, I remember when i played at John Bapst we were class D.
The reason it is being driven is the economy, travel costs, enrollments dropping and to make high school football more stable better games etc.. None of these teams including Madison-Carrabec will move down it makes no sense. None of these teams will forfeit their rights at postseason play. Teams that are getting better like Madison-Carrabec will stay where they are in this proposal. Being from Madison the fans are now more supportive since the teams formed a combined team and moved up to Class B. The last Madison-Carrabec coach Coach Friedman who is now the coach of Skowhegan during the last 4 classs proposal was outspoken about travel , fuel costs and wanting local rivalries. He was outspoken about them (Madison-Carrabec) being in Western Maine region in the last proposal and was in the current 3 class proposal before they were shifted to PTC B East before the season started last season. Before they were put in PTC B (Class B East) he complained about traveling to games in Western Maine Class B games like Moutain Valley 70 miles away , York, Gray-New Gloucester , Westbrook etc.. So I don’t see teams like Madison-Carrabec, Hermon, Ellsworth-Sumner dropping down. They will do what all teams do and that is man up and play take the lumps if they lose they work harder for the future.
Yarmouth has won the Class C State championship the last two seasons. Stearns was the Eastern Maine champ in Class C in 2010, and Bucksport (who has been class C for YEARS now, along with Orono) was the 2011 Easten Maine champ in Class C.
The point is that it’s not the 1980’s anymore and people need to get over these nostalgic traditions of Class or Regional identification in Maine high school football. Schools are getting smaller, especially north of the greater Portland area. If we are going to play football in this state in 2012 and beyond we have got to face the (ugly) fact that these aren’t the teams/schools of the past.
On a side note, I do agree with anyone here who is feeling like Camden Hills and Oceanside are getting screwed from a geographic standpoint. Cony and Skowhegan are much better choices (especially if Winslow can be go from Eastern Maine Class B to Western Maine Class C in the course of a year). Also, I’m in favor of doing away with Regions or at least calling them what they really are -North and South regions
mt. valley in D, just give them the gold ball now!!!
If your going to have four classes, scrap the regions. It would give a lot of flexibility for schedules, as long as you play within your class. You would have state standings for playoffs in each class. Giving a regional title to every 9.5 schools isn’t right.
I agree with scrap the regions just as long as they play games in their class then they can’t complain about travel. As some of the coaches including Madison-Carrabec’s former coach now Skowhegan’s coach has done in the past. I know they talked about cross over games in different classes during the last proposal I would like to see that in the future. It would bring new interest to High School Football for those fans wanting to see other teams play. It may be lopsided games at first but it would be nice to see a “new Class C or D” team beat a Class B or Class A team it would create buzz.