But you still need to activate your account.
Maine State Football League commissioner Peter Vorias wants to keep things simple.
“All you need is two goal posts and a lined field,” Vorias said.
The MSFL’s second season started on Aug. 2. Each team plays eight games through Oct. 4, followed by three weeks of playoffs. The MSFL champion will be crowned Oct. 4 at Rockland’s Wagsatt Field.
The league has grown to seven teams and has split into two divisions. The expansion Sebasticook Valley Bucks of Newport join the Brewer Hurricanes and Central Maine Storm of the Pittsfield-Madison-Winslow area in the Northern Division.
The Southern Division features the Portland Predators, formerly the Maine Machine, and Old Orchard Beach-based Beachside Tomcats along with two new teams. The Mid-Coast Knightmares play at the Topsham Fairgrounds, while the Southern Maine Raging Bulls play at Bonny Eagle High School in West Buxton.
The Sebasticook team plays at Nokomis High School in Newport, which doesn’t have varsity football. Bucks owner Chris Whitman said the team was supposed to play in the league’s first season but was waiting for the high school to prepare a field.
“We took the year off, just played recreational ball,” said Whitman, who was a running back at Maine Central Institute in Pittsfield and Division III Norwich University in Northfield, Vt.
Although the league has expanded, it’s still experiencing growing pains, Vorias said. The Downeast team folded a week before the season started, Vorias said, leaving the league scrambling to revamp the schedule.
“I don’t want to see happen what happened to the [Downeast] Bulldogs,” Vorias said. The league also briefly tossed out the Brewer Hurricanes last year, but the club was reinstated when it paid its liability insurance and agreed to use National Football League rules at its games.
Delegating responsibility has helped, Vorias said.
“Last year, I ran it all myself,” he said.
Prospective teams should have stable financing, he explained, although a group of investors is prefered.
Each player pays a registration fee to defray costs, Vorias said, and in some cases purchase their own equipment and jerseys. Teams can find corporate sponorship, he added.
Whitman called the owners’ financial burden “fairly expensive” but said he came out in the black after last weekend’s game, with about 300 fans in the crowd.
The league is always looking for more players and teams, Vorias said. Eventually, he would like to see teams in Old Town-Orono, Millinocket, Augusta, and southern York County.
Sebasticook Valley has a 37-player roster, including several former Div. I players and Nicole Hardy of Dexter, who may be the only woman in the league.
“I’ve got people who have never played before and people who have played a lot,” Whitman said. “It’s all a learning experience.”
The MSFL champion will face the champion of the New England Football League in a Nov. 1 game at Portsmouth, N.H., High School. The winner of the MSFL-NEFL contest faces the winner of a Mid-Atlantic-New York state contest in the Harvest Bowl on Nov. 8 in Medford, Mass.
An all-star game is in the works, Vorias said, but a date hasn’t been picked yet.
Jessica Bloch contributed to this report
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