Jeff Waring has been given the green light to raise $30,000.

That resulted from Tuesday morning’s announcement that John Bapst Memorial High School of Bangor wants to put a varsity hockey team on the ice beginning next season. The John Bapst Board of Trustees voted 10-0 in favor of the move.

John Bapst Athletic Director Bob Cimbollek, who was the AD at Bangor High School when that school began its hockey program in 1983, said Waring and his group of hockey boosters will have to raise approximately $30,000 for the first year by April 15 in order for him to ask the Maine Secondary School Principals’ Association for admission into Eastern Maine Class B.

Waring had expressed interest in spearheading a group to bring varsity hockey to John Bapst a few years ago, but the move was placed on the back burner.

“It’s going to be a lot more difficult to raise the money than it would have been a few years ago,” said Waring. “But hockey people have been raising funds since their kids were 4 and 5 years old. There’s a lot of support for hockey. I think we can do it.”

Cimbollek sent a survey to students in the fall of 1989 and 18 of them expressed interest in playing varsity hockey.

“And we didn’t have seniors on the list,” said Cimbollek. “Now we figure there are a strong dozen to 15 and we don’t know how many more would come to John Bapst now that we’re offering hockey.”

“It was our intention to satisfy a need at our school,” said John Bapst Principal Joe Sekera.

Sekera said having a varsity hockey program can play an important role in the decision-making process that brings parents and students to John Bapst.

The school has a current enrollment of 391 and Sekera said adding hockey could increase the enrollment.

Mike McInnis, a member of the Board of Trustees, said, “We felt very strongly that the types of kids and parents involved in hockey are people we want to strongly consider John Bapst High School.”

McInnis pointed to the strong commitment of hockey parents and players who have to juggle odd practice times resulting from the availability of ice, road trips, and the expense involved in the sport.

Waring said he doesn’t anticipate John Bapst having a numbers problem when tryouts roll around next fall.

“The youth hockey programs in the area are really growing. The University of Maine’s success certainly hasn’t hurt,” said Waring.

Cimbollek said he intends to research the availability of ice times at the University of Maine’s Alfond Arena, the Sockalexis Memorial Ice Arena on Indian Island, and the Sawyer Arena in Bangor.

The games will have to be played at Alfond or Sockalexis.

Cimbollek said having his students bused to the various rinks won’t be a problem “because all of our athletic teams play off-campus, so we’re used to that.”

John Bapst will be the seventh eastern Maine school to add varsity hockey since 1983. Bangor, Brewer, Old Town, Orono, Stearns of Millinocket, and Foxcroft Academy are the others.