WA officials kicking off process of building football program

High school football in Down East Maine is gaining momentum.

Calais and Woodland have combined forces to develop a cooperative program that will begin playing at the subvarsity level this fall with plans to join the varsity ranks in two years.

Now officials at Washington Academy in East Machias are taking the first steps toward building a football program that one day may produce the school’s first varsity team in that sport since the 1930s.

The school is hosting a full-contact football camp this week for youths throughout the region in grades six through 12, and plans call for the school to offer its students a chance to play the sport at the high school level later this year.

“We’re working on having a club team this fall,” said WA head of school Jud McBrine. “Our hope is to have a full-fledged varsity program in a few years. We’re not in a hurry, for now we just want to give kids an opportunity to play and see how it goes.”

The school has procured some equipment, and will advertise beginning this weekend for a club football coach. While there is no set schedule yet for this fall the Raiders hope to play games against other JV-level teams.

Talk about bringing football back to WA is a fairly recent development, though “it’s been in the back of my mind for a long time,” said McBride, who still recalls playing the sport as a fifth-grader in Auburn and whose father and brother both played at the high school level.

A group that included current Calais-Woodland coach Ian Pratt and Frank Hallissey, a local coach and retired attorney, spoke to the local school board this spring, and that also spurred interest in adding the sport to WA’s extracurricular offerings.

Football is one of several new sports at the school, which has seen its enrollment increase by 100 students in the last two years, McBrine said. That growth – to a total of approximately 400 students last spring – is attributed in part to the influx of students from communities throughout Washington County as well as a thriving international student program.

Swimming made its debut at Washington Academy last winter, and the school also plans to debut a varsity wrestling team next winter under the guidance of former Calais coach Aaron James.

The school also fielded a junior varsity boys soccer team last fall after 32 players tried out for the varsity team, another sign that there is enough athletes in the school to support a football program.

OT’s Lukas a Louisville Slugger

Chalk up another postseason honor for Old Town High School baseball standout Jarrett Lukas.

The University of Maine-bound shortstop and pitcher, already chosen the Maine Gatorade Player of the Year and recipient of the Dr. John Winkin Award symbolic of the state’s Mr. Baseball, now has been named the 2007 Louisville Slugger Maine High School Baseball Player of the Year.

Louisville Slugger initiated its State High School Player of the Year Awards in 2004 as part of its 120th anniversary. A player of the year was selected in 47 participating states and Washington D.C., by coaches who are members of the National High School Baseball Coaches Association.

Lukas led Old Town to a 14-5 record and a berth in the Eastern Maine Class A semifinals this spring. He batted .487 with four home runs, 17 RBIs, a .655 on-base percentage and a .923 slugging percentage.

On the mound, Lukas compiled a 5-3 record with a 2.13 earned run average and 49 strikeouts in 46 innings.

He went on to star in a pair of senior all-star games. Lukas led Maine to a 7-5 win over New Hampshire in the second annual Maine-New Hampshire Senior All-Star game at Hadlock Field in Portland with a triple, double, single and three RBIs. He followed that up with a triple, single, three RBIs and the pitching save as the East defeated the West 8-6 in the Maine High School Senior All-Star Baseball Classic at Saint Joseph’s College in Standish.

Lukas and the other Louisville Slugger State High School Player of the Year Award recipients will receive specially engraved black and silver Louisville Slugger bats noting their achievement.