Lack Of Experienced Players Forces Calais High School To Postpone Its Return To Football

Plans for a reboot of the football program based at Calais High School have been put on hold because of a lack of experience among the potential participants. The effort would have established a developmental team for the 2019 season as the precursor to an eventual return to varsity play for a cooperative entry involving players from high schools at Calais, Woodland and Shead of Eastport. Calais athletic administrator Randy Morrison said 23 students from Calais and Woodland had signed up to play football shortly before formal preseason practices began around the state Monday, but only two had any previous organized football experience. “It’s a safety issue, first, on my part,” Morrison said. Morrison said the inexperience not only might lead to injuries, but also could hamper the long-term staying power of the program if the new players become discouraged by their introduction to the sport against more experienced opponents. [Maine moves to 8-player high school football as fall season begins] “If I had 23 kids that had played football from seventh and eighth grade up through, I wouldn’t have a problem trying it,” he said, adding that it might not be a number that would hold up through injuries. “But if you have 20 kids who have never played before, never had a helmet or shoulder pads on, or never been hit or hit somebody, you don’t know how long those kids are going to last,” Morrison said. He fears such a situation would likely lead to greater attrition among the players, at least a few of whom would realize football isn’t the right sport for them. Ian Pratt established the Calais-Woodland Silverados cooperative team that played in the Little Ten Conference varsity ranks for four years until the program was suspended in 2012 because of declining participation. More recently Pratt has coached football for Down East youngsters in the New Brunswick-based Fundy Football League.