Two-year-old Calvary Chapel Christian School of Orrington already has made quite a splash in Maine schoolboy basketball, reaching the Eastern D quarterfinals last season and getting off to a 5-0 start this winter.
School officials hope the Sabers’ next athletic success story will involve blocking and tackling.
Plans are in the works to develop a football program at the school, perhaps as soon as next fall at the middle-school level.
“We’ve got little bit of funding to help us get started, but we’re still in the early stages,” said Calvary Chapel principal Bob Seccareccia, a longtime football coach in eastern Maine at the high school and youth levels.
“When it begins it will definitely be at the middle school level. We’ve identified a league we might play in, and hopefully there will be a program at the middle school level next fall.”
High school football may be a bit further off at Calvary Chapel, though Seccareccia envisions the Sabers initially playing a schedule against area sub-varsity programs.
“We have kids who want to play,” said Seccareccia, whose football roots go back to his days as an All-Yankee Conference offensive tackle at the University of Rhode Island, followed by a tryout in 1984 with the New England Patriots and a brief stint with the Houston Gamblers of the United States Football League.
“But it’s a numbers game right now, because you need to have at least 25 players if you want to have 11-player football,” Seccareccia added.
Calvary Chapel currently has an enrollment of 187 students from pre-kindergarten through grade 12, and 70 students at the high school level. Of those high school students, approximately half are male, Seccareccia said.
Seccareccia’s hopes for football at Calvary Chapel are buoyed by the number of adults who have indicated an interest in supporting the program.
“We’ve got quite a few people who are interested in helping out, a good base to build on,” he said.
‘Jammers dominate wrestling
Take a sentence that contains the phrases “state champions” and “Camden Hills Regional High School” and thoughts usually turn to basketball.
But while hoops may be king at the Rockport school, in reality it merely shares the throne with a wrestling program on a remarkable run of its own.
The Windjammers are seeking their fifth consecutive state Class B wrestling title, and have finished no worse than second in the state for the last eight years, with five state titles overall during that span.
“We have a lot of kids who have responded to our type of coaching,” said Camden Hills head coach Patrick Kelly, who took over from his brother John two years ago. “We’re very disciplined and structured, and we start at a very young age. ”
Two junior high programs feed into Camden Hills: Camden-Rockport Middle School and School Union 69, which includes Hope, Appleton and Lincolnville.
That feeder program helps the Camden Hills team typically maintain one of the deeper teams in the state.
This year’s roster boasts 26 wrestlers, Kelly said.
“It’s not anything magical, he said. “We just ask kids to bring a strong work ethic.”
This year’s team is led by 145-pound senior Chris Remsen of Rockport, who is bidding to become the second four-time state champion in school history (Tim Boetsch, Class of 1999) and only the fifth statewide since wrestling became a high school sport in Maine in 1959, Kelly said.
“Chris is a Monday to Sunday wrestler,” said Kelly of the North Carolina State-bound Remsen, who hasn’t lost to a Maine wrestler since his sophomore year. “You won’t find a more disciplined athlete in any sport.”
Remsen is one of four former state champions – all seniors – on the current Camden Hills roster. Kyle Young, state champion at 135 pounds last season, is wrestling at 140 this winter. Jake Rollins, now wrestling at 119 pounds, placed second at 112 last year after winning at 103 pounds as a sophomore, and Brian Creamer is the defending state champion at 189 pounds.
Kelly sees quality depth as crucial in the Windjammers’ bid to win a fifth consecutive state title.
“Five weeks out, we’re right where we want to be,” he said. “We’re not close to peaking, and we have a lot of kids who are hungry.”
Other top performers for Camden Hills include Joe McGowan ( 103 pounds), Derek Young (112), Pete Forst (152), Harry Pearson (160) and Nathaniel Boehmer, who is bidding to become the school’s first state champion at 171 pounds.
The Windjammers, who recently defeated five-time defending Class A state champion Noble High School of Berwick to win the Noble Invitational meet, currently are ranked No. 1 in the state regardless of class, according to the latest Maine Amateur Wrestling Alliance poll.
“Over the last two or three years we’ve had a lot of kids who want to keep this ride going,” said Kelly, himself a former Camden Hills wrestler. “They look up to kids who have won two or three state championships before them, and they want to do the same thing.”
Ernie Clark may be reached at 990-8045, 1-800-310-8600 or eclark@bangordailynews.net
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