Don Mendell has been a social worker at Nokomis Regional High School in Newport for the past 18 years.

In that role and his additional duties as chairman of the school’s Positive Action committee, Mendell has joined other local educators and community members in search of ways to improve student aspirations at the rural Class A school.

For Mendell, one activity that may serve that purpose is football.

“Our student body would love to have football,” said Mendell, who is organizing meetings in an effort to advance the cause of adding football at Nokomis. “Football’s a fall sport that provides a lot of excitement for a lot of people, both in the school and the community. It brings people together, and it’s a sport where a large number of students can participate.”

Nokomis has no varsity football history, but some current students have gained an introduction to the sport through playing in the independent Moosehead Trail Football League. The MTFL has fielded a team for the last two years in Hartland, another SAD 48 town.

Mendell said 24 Nokomis students played in the league this fall, as well as 28 local seventh- and eighth-graders and 18 fifth- and sixth-graders.

The first organizational meeting to gauge interest in Nokomis football drew about 20 adults. Another meeting is set for Thursday, Dec. 9, in Room 101 at the high school.

“I’m looking for a real groundswell of support for bringing football to Nokomis,” said Mendell. “We really need 50 or 100 people to get things going.”

Mendell hopes to put football on a fast track. He’d like to see a team on the field at a subvarsity or developmental-league level as soon as next fall, and to get some funding for the program incorporated into the next school budget.

“We want to have some football on the field in some form next year,” he said.

Mendell anticipates it will cost $20,000 to pay for uniforms and equipment for a high school team, with significant additional startup costs for such items as goalposts and blocking sleds.

School budgets have been a source of great controversy within SAD 48 in recent years, but that won’t deter Mendell from seeking support for football in the budget, particularly if future organizational meetings bears out his belief that there is support for adding the sport at Nokomis.

“There’s never a right time,” he said. “I’ve been in the area since the mid-1980s, and the time is never right for adding something to the budget. But once something is established in these communities, the people are always very proud of what they have.”

Gardiner OKs Class B football

The SAD 11 board of directors voted unanimously Thursday night to allow Gardiner High School’s football and outdoor track teams to compete in Class B beginning with the 2005-06 school year.

The Tigers have petitioned the Maine Principals’ Association to play in Class A in those sports, as well as field hockey. Field hockey is expected to continue to petition up to Class A.

Gardiner’s enrollment as of Oct. 1 was 751, well below the current 850-student cutoff for Class A football as established by the MPA.

School officials cited declining enrollment and safety concerns with younger players forced to play both offense and defense as reasons to drop to Class B in football.

Most of the school’s football history has been in Class B, with the Tigers winning Class B state titles in 1954, 1955, 1979, 1981 and 1985 before the teams that were members of the Pine Tree Conference at that time were reclassified from Class B to Class A in 1987.

This year’s Gardiner team, which finished 8-2 and reached the Eastern Maine Class A semifinals, finished with approximately 35 players from grades 10-12.

Gardiner joins Waterville in dropping from Eastern A to Class B in football next year.

Gardiner remains a Class A school in many sports, but already fields Class B teams in ice hockey, swimming and indoor track.