Nokomis set to add club football team

The drive to add a football program at Nokomis Regional High School gained steam Tuesday night when the SAD 48 board of directors voted to support fielding a club team beginning this fall.

The Friends of Nokomis Football, which launched the drive to add football at the Newport school last year, will be responsible for nearly all of the program’s funding, according to Don Mendell, a teacher at the school and a leader of the Friends group.

The school board gave its support after hearing a presentation from the Friends group as well as support from University of Maine football coach Jack Cosgrove, Carl Johnson, who started the current high school football program at Mount Ararat of Topsham, and Brian Hanish, another Nokomis faculty member.

“The school board stood behind the kids and looked at what we’re offering as a potential win-win situation,” said Mendell.

A survey of Nokomis students taken last year found considerable interest in having a football program, according to Mendell. Some students who attend Nokomis already have some football experience through the Moosehead Trail Football League, a league in central Maine with teams for junior high and high school-age players from communities that don’t have established school programs.

The football proposal approved by the school board will allow not only for the establishment of a high school club team, but also a junior high team for students from the two middle schools that send students to Nokomis, Sebasticook Valley Middle School of Newport and Somerset Valley Middle School of Hartland.

Mendell said he expects the Friends group will need to raise about $50,000 over the next three to five years to establish and sustain the program.

The school board will provide up to $2,500 to help defray transportation and field upkeep costs, he added.

While the Friends group will focus its efforts on fund raising, school officials will work on finding field space and establishing schedules for the team, with the high school team likely to play its games against subvarsity teams from schools with established programs.

“We have to put a plan in place as far as where we feel we can play, and develop a concept of how we want to approach it,” said Nokomis athletic director Carl Parker.

Parker stressed the importance of developing the program not only at the high school level, but also at the middle-school level. With that in mind, he hopes the new middle-school team will be able to join an existing league of junior high programs in order for those players to develop at a similar pace as potential future high school rivals.

The football program will be evaluated by the school board on an annual basis, Mendell said.

Sportsmanship rewarded

For the second straight year, the Bangor High School girls and Calvary Chapel boys teams will receive the Eastern Maine Board #111 of Approved Basketball Officials sportsmanship awards.

Schools are rated by officials after each game during the regular season on a scale of one to five (5 being highest) in four areas: players, coaches, fans and officials (scorers, timers, athletic directors).

The winning schools will receive banners and the second- and third-place schools (Islesboro and Greenville girls and Bangor and Mount Desert Island boys) will get certificates. The teams voted most improved were the Lee Academy girls and Bucksport boys.