Elevation of football to ‘A’ upsets Brewer City to try to contest MPA committee recommendation

Brewer High will contest a recommendation by the football committee of the Maine Principals’ Association that would result in the school’s football program being elevated from Class B to Class A beginning next fall.

During its most recent meeting held Monday, the city’s school committee directed Brewer athletic administrator Dennis Kiah to contact the MPA expressing its disappointment with the recommendation, which involves revising enrollment cutoff numbers for each of the three classes of high school football in the state.

As of April 1, 2006, Brewer had a student enrollment of 883, which not only placed it above the current Class A enrollment cutoff of 850, but well above the proposed Class A cutoff for the 2007 and 2008 seasons of 800.

Kiah said Tuesday that while Brewer High’s enrollment will be near 850 for the next couple of years, that is expected to be followed by a downward trend to fewer than 800 students.

Given that scenario, Brewer could be shuffled between Class A and Class B in the coming years, which he said would be problematic in maintaining rivalries and consistency within the program.

Brewer has played a Class B schedule in football since the start of the 1999 season, and won the Class B state championship in 2005. This year the Witches finished 3-5 and did not qualify for postseason play.

Brewer was last a Class A football program in 1997 and 1998. During that two-year cycle the Witches went 0-18, and participation numbers in the sport dropped drastically, Kiah said.

Jeff Sturgis, MPA assistant executive director, said he has been in contact with Brewer officials about the football reclassification issue, and that he encouraged them to send a letter expressing their opinion to the MPA’s classification committee, which is currently undertaking its biennial reclassification of all schools in all sports.

The classification committee is expected to take up the football committee’s enrollment cutoff recommendations at its Nov. 29 meeting. Sturgis said if Brewer is not satisfied with the results of that meeting, they could appeal in person at the classification committee’s December meeting.

The football committee has recommended the following enrollment cutoffs for the next two years: Class A: 800 or more, Class B: 501 to 799, Class C: 0 to 500.

Enrollment traditionally has been the primary factor in classification issues, Sturgis said, adding that enrollment cutoff recommendations for all sports for the next two-year cycle will be determined by February and then forwarded to all schools for their consideration and feedback. No classification changes will become official until approved by the MPA’s general membership at its spring conference next April.

Brunswick wins inspire Rams

The Bangor High School boys soccer team earned its first Class A state title last weekend with a 1-0 double-overtime victory over Scarborough.

But it was two earlier matches against perennial Eastern Maine power Brunswick that gave the Rams the ultimate momentum required to finish off their championship run.

“I think Brunswick was just as talented as Scarborough was, and that totally helped us,” said Bangor senior Cam Cormier. “They had the same style, the same talent, and it helped us a ton to get ready for Scarborough.”

“Brunswick was very physical and so was Scarborough,” added senior goalie Aaron Taft. “We were able to see that in the Brunswick game and it helped us [against Scarborough].”

Bangor’s first meeting against Brunswick didn’t even count, at least in the Heal point scheme of things.

“On October 13, when we played Brunswick in the KVAC championship game and beat them, that gave us a lot of confidence going into the playoffs,” said Bangor coach Adam Leach. “Here we were playing probably the best team in the state and beating them, and that really got the kids excited.”

The next meeting came in the Eastern Maine championship game when the Rams held a 1-0 lead until the final 65 seconds of regulation play, only to have Brunswick score the equalizer and force overtime.

It was the ultimate confidence test for a Bangor team reliant on a healthy dose of first-year varsity players, but the Rams regrouped in time for Mack Susi to score the game-winner with 7:19 left in the second overtime.

The state final played out similarly to the regional final, with Scarborough building up a significant advantage in scoring chances. But Bangor’s defense again came up big, and when the opportunity to score arose, sophomore Ryan Larochelle delivered the game’s only goal with 5:07 left in the second overtime.

“I thought we played well,” said Leach. “I thought we played better in the Brunswick game. I thought Brunswick may been have been a step better team than Scarborough, but we played over our heads in that game.

“[Against Scarborough] we just played a solid game. They looked like the team that had been here before, and it took us a while to settle in. With their speed they did run us around and get us tired, but we had heart.”