Football’s popularity in Maine has been reflected in a significant increase in the number of high school programs in recent years, particularly in the southern part of the state.

But the sport also is growing in northern and central Maine, not through Maine Principals’ Association-sanctioned programs but through the independent Moosehead Trail Football League.

The league kicked off in 2003 with eight-player football in heavyweight and lightweight divisions for youths in grades 6-9, with teams based in Unity, Corinth, Hartland, Newport and Hermon.

This year, the league is expanding to include four divisions: 11-player high school-age varsity and junior varsity divisions and eight-player junior high-age A and B leagues.

Teams will be based in Unity, Hartland-Newport, Hudson, Hermon and Monticello, according to league commissioner Mike Karnas of Brewer.

Most of the teams will hold preseason scrimmages this weekend, with opening day for the high school-age regular season on Sept. 4. The regular season will be followed by playoffs scheduled to conclude Nov. 13.

This is a pay-to-play league, with each player charged $250 to cover such costs as uniforms and insurance. Some scholarship money is available to defray those costs, Karnas said.

“There are a lot of kids who want to play football,” said Karnas, who also coaches the Hudson Hornets, a program that includes players who live in communities served by Penobscot Valley High School of Howland, Penquis Valley High of Milo, and Central High of Corinth.

Both the high school and junior high programs are developmental in nature – particularly the junior high teams, which utilize a limited number of plays and formations.

“We want to work with the younger players on developing their football skills, to teach them how to block and tackle,” Karnas said.

Some 80 players are competing in an Aroostook County program that will play its home games in Monticello, according to coach John Brown, with approximately 50 high school-age players and 30 at the junior high level.

The team is drawing its players from throughout The County, including a healthy contingent from Madawaska, Brown said.

In Hermon, coach Brent Dority is working to build up a program that currently draws most of its participants from Hermon and Carmel.

“We want to give kids the chance to play football, and to know how to tackle and be tackled,” said Dority, who presently has about 30 kids playing but hopes to add to that number once school begins.

Dority has seen how fast the learning track can be, as Hermon won the MTFL’s heavyweight division last year.

“For some of the kids, it was like night and day from beginning to end,” he said.