Fifteen years ago Caribou High School had an enrollment of about 1,300 students. Today that number has dwindled by 750, and the Vikings often have struggled against much larger Class A opponents.

The drop in enrollment prompted Caribou athletic director Dwight Hunter and principal David Ouellette to recommend that all Caribou sports teams, including soccer, basketball and tennis, drop from Class A to Class B.

The Caribou School Board voted 6-0 to approve the change at its regular bi-monthly meeting Wednesday night.

The decision leaves only one Class A school, Presque Isle, north of Old Town.

Caribou’s drop to Class B will take effect in fall 2001.

“I could see this coming down the road,” Hunter said. “I believe you have to go where your enrollment takes you.”

Caribou, the smallest Class A school in Eastern Maine this season, had already been playing a mixed Class A-Class B schedule with all but basketball, soccer, cheerleading and tennis in Class B. Those four sports now join baseball, softball, Alpine and Nordic skiing, track and field, and golf in Class B.

Reclassification is a two-year cycle, said Maine Principals’ Association executive director Dick Tyler. Caribou is in the second year of that cycle, and so the school has the option to re-examine its classification and drop a class. Schools that want to move up a class must remain in the higher-enrollment class for four years.

The current basketball enrollment cutoff for Class A is 725 students.

Caribou boys basketball coach Jim Carter said he supports a move from Class A to Class B.

“I think it will be a good thing,” Carter said. “Most people realize we have a chance to be competitive. There’s a sense of realism there.”

The Vikings have struggled in basketball recently. The girls have posted a 10-44 record since the 1997-98 season and the boys have an 18-36 mark during that span.

Tennis may be a sticking point because the Vikings have consistently been successful in Class A and won four Class A girls state titles from 1992-95. Still, Hunter believes the move is good for the sport.

“I think a lot of people will ask, well, should tennis stay in Class A?” he said. “I’m not for that. Things run in cycles. I’m a firm believer that you have to go with your enrollment.”

Most of the Eastern Maine Class A schools north of the Waterville-Fairfield area have lost enrollment except for Bangor (about 1,300 students) and Nokomis of Newport (holding steady at 806 and not expected to decline, according to athletic director Carl Parker).

Those northern schools make up the Big East Conference in basketball.

Presque Isle, 13 miles south of Caribou, has an enrollment of 660 and plays mostly in Class A, although sports such as skiing and cheerleading compete in Class B. Other Big East schools such as Old Town and Hampden are near the Class A enrollment borderline but play a mixed schedule.

“You wonder what will happen to the Big East,” said Garry Spencer, athletic director at 768-student Old Town. “You take away one school, OK, but you take away two schools and then you only have five schools, and five schools does not a conference make.”

Even at 550, Hunter pointed out, Caribou will be a mid-size Class B school. The cutoff for Class B is 400 students.

Hunter said the switch in classes may not affect Caribou’s schedule. The biggest difference could be that the Vikings will play in the Eastern Maine Class B basketball tournament.

“Bangor has been very good and cooperative in dealing with this,” Hunter said. “We still want to play those teams. We’ll just be in the [Class] B tournament.”

Hunter and Ouellette’s decision to recommend reclassification to the school board was made based on opinions expressed at a public meeting last week, as well as a survey filled out by students and community members. Hunter said 83 percent of respondents thought the Vikings should drop to Class B and the rest thought the teams should remain where they were.

Caribou had a mixed schedule six years ago. The school moved all of its sports back to Class A, but in October 1998 voted to drop golf, skiing, track and field, softball and baseball to Class B, where they have been ever since.

In his 38 years as Caribou’s athletic director, Hunter has seen Aroostook County schools such as Madawaska, Fort Kent, Houlton, Fort Fairfield, and Limestone drop from Class A to Classes B, C, and D. Sometimes, Hunter said, schools fight too hard to stay in a higher class.

“You see schools want to hold on, hold on, hold on to that ‘A’ classification even though you’re not competitive and you get to the point where your program is devastated.”