The University of Maine-Machias will add women’s soccer to its list of varsity sports beginning next fall.

The women’s soccer team will be in the Maine Athletic Conference and will play a full conference schedule.

“We’ve had it as a club sport the last two years and we had 23 women last fall,” said men’s soccer coach Wulf Koch, who also coached the women’s team when time permitted.

“And I think only one of them was a senior,” said UMM athletic director and men’s basketball coach Rich Ward, who estimated that it will cost $13,000 to run the program, excluding the coach’s salary.

“We hope it will attract more kids to UMM. This shows some growth,” said Ward, who added that he has a six-year plan that includes the addition of more sports.

“I think they can be competitive immediately,” predicted Koch. “There was some good talent. A lot of the women played competitively in high school.”

Women’s soccer will be the school’s fifth varsity sport, joining men’s soccer and basketball and women’s basketball and volleyball.

Ward said they will begin looking for a coach soon and he has already heard from people interested in the position.

Koch wouldn’t rule himself out, although he said, “I’m developing our men’s soccer program, and I don’t want to take anything away from them. But I’ll never say never.”

The University of Maine-Fort Kent men’s basketball team, with a 20-8 record, is the top seed in the North Region of the National Small College Athletic Association New England District Tournament.

Four teams will compete Feb. 21-22 at Framingham (Mass.) State College. The winner advances to the national tournament March 3-8 in Salina, Kan.

The NSCAA is comprised of schools with enrollments of fewer than 1,000 full-time students.