Portland has home turf edge Stadium criteria limit ‘A’ choices

For the eighth time in the last nine years, Fitzpatrick Stadium in Portland will host the Class A state championship football game.

For the first time in that same span, one team will have a definitive home field advantage as it plays some of its games at Fitzpatrick, which has artificial turf.

Portland High School will “host” the Bangor Rams with a gold ball on the line Saturday at 1 p.m.

How can this happen, when one of the Maine Principals’ Association’s principal goals in selecting state game sites is finding a neutral location?

“The [MPA football] committee has known that could happen. We’ve had games at Fitzpatrick quite regularly over the last 10 or so years and this is the first time it’s happened,” said MPA assistant executive director and football liaison Larry LaBrie. “It’s just an imperfect system in this particular sport, unfortunately.”

Site evaluation for Class A state games is done differently than Classes B and C. The main reason for this is that since the schools usually involved in the game have some of the largest enrollments in the state, most “A” games require facilities that can at least seat between 5,000 and 6,000 fans. This factor alone drastically reduces the pool of available facilities to seven at most and three or four at the least – in the entire state.

Other factors include ability to collect tickets in a secure manner (fenced-in facilities are preferred), adequate parking space, costs of using the facility, receptiveness and cooperative effort of people working at the game, and (ironically) the relative travel requirements of participating schools.

Taking all that criteria into consideration, the only suitable high school facilities remaining for Class A games are Fitzpatrick, Biddeford’s Waterhouse Field, Thornton Academy’s Dr. Paul S. Hill Stadium in Saco, and Lewiston’s Franklin Athletic Complex, according to LaBrie.

In choosing “B” and “C” sites, the MPA committee waits until the semifinal rounds of the regional playoffs and selects an available site which is not a home site for any remaining playoff teams. Those sites were finalized Nov. 5. Fitzpatrick was selected before the fall season began.

Another lesser bit of criteria used in evaluating sites, according to the MPA site selection criteria policy, is that college and municipal facilities will only be considered if comparable high school sites are not available.

With that in mind, the only suitable collegiate facilities are the University of Maine’s Morse Field in Orono, which hosted the 1999 Class A state game; Maine Maritime Academy’s Ritchie Field in Castine; and Bowdoin College’s Whittier Field in Brunswick.

“It is less than desirable as far as the limited choices open to us, but we have to work with what we have available,” LaBrie said. “It’s a no-win situation. We were at Bowdoin several times back when I was on the football committee and it was the same issue then because we went there every year.”

Another factor which makes site selection even tougher is that a site must at least be interested or willing to host a state game to be considered. That whittled the list down to four sites: Fitzpatrick, Morse, Waterhouse, and Hill. Hill and Waterhouse were eliminated because they’re located even farther south than Fitzpatrick.

“We’re not going to go there if they don’t want to host a game, or simply can’t for whatever reason,” said LaBrie, who admitted that Morse Field was considered, but university officials didn’t contact the MPA or show any ready interest in hosting a game this year.

“Most of these facilities are available if we go after them, but we prefer to have them show interest in hosting them,” LaBrie said.

That left Fitzpatrick.

This isn’t the only time people were left scratching their heads over site choices. LaBrie said when Morse Field hosted the 1999 Class A game, both teams – South Portland and East champ Oxford Hills of South Paris – had major distances to cover.

A similar situation is cropping up in track and field as UMaine’s recently refurbished Beckett Track Complex is slated to host all three spring track and field state championship meets on the same day.

“It’s because they have the facilities to hold such a big event,” LaBrie said. “That means all the Western teams will be traveling back up there for the second year in a row and they will likely keep doing it until someone else has their stuff together to be able to host a multi-class meet.”

Benefit basketball for NYC

Valley High School in Bingham will host a charity basketball game between the faculties of Valley and Carrabec High of North Anson to raise money for a New York City high school damaged in September’s attack on the World Trade Center.

The game will start at 7 p.m. Friday in the Valley gym. Admission is $3 (adults) and $2 (students). There will also be 50-50 and silent raffles, a bake sale, and concession stand sales. All proceeds will go to Stuyvesant High, which is located close by the WTC ground zero site. The game is being organized and sales coordinated by Valley’s National Honor Society, Key Club, and student council as well as other groups.

Andrew Neff’s High school report is published each week. He can be reached at 990-8205 or aneff@bangordailynews.net.