Once again, the rapidly changing landscape of high school football in Maine has forced some major conference and scheduling changes in classes B and C.
For the first time since the 1997 and 1998 seasons, Western C will be playing crossover games with Eastern C. Class B, meanwhile, is eliminating crossovers this year, meaning the demise of one of the state’s top rivalries between Leavitt and Mountain Valley.
Two teams from Class C are moving up to B next year, Cape Elizabeth from the West and Maranacook from the East, leaving each side with nine teams for a nine-week season. Rather than have a bye week, athletic directors from the East and West agreed to play crossover games this fall.
Jeff Ramich’s formula for devising next year’s Western Class C football schedule would probably send the Will Hunting into convulsions if he drew it up on a blackboard. But given the unenviable position the Lisbon co-curricular director was in, coaches in the Campbell Conference felt they could have made out a lot worse.
“I don’t mind it. I definitely didn’t want to have a bye week,” said Jay coach Mark Bonnevie. “I don’t envy Ramich a bit. We’re lucky we have him to do that. I think he did a good job.
“It was tough,” Ramich said. “I developed the schedule with some input from the other AD’s in the conference. It was based on the tradition of these schools, the recent history of the schools. Travel is always a major consideration, too, but I did try to honor all the home and aways from last year.”
Ramich had a number of other considerations to take into account. He wanted teams to have no more than three straight games at home or on the road or back-to-back home or away games to end the season. He also tried to give teams that had only four home games last year a fifth home game this year.
The toughest part may have been scheduling the crossovers.
“We had to stagger it during the year,” he said. “A lot of people thought we’d be able to do them all in one week, but because of the odd number of teams in each league, that would always leave one team off, and no one wanted a bye.”
That means there will be one crossover game per week. Fittingly, the first one will be a rematch of last year’s state championship as Bucksport will travel to Jay.
“We’re glad we got it the first week,” Bonnevie said. “Not that I want to get it out of the way, but we get to do it first and then get into our schedule. I like the fact that we’re playing Bucksport because I think our kids will be excited for it, plus there’s familiarity there for us.”
To make the pairings, Ramich said he used a combination of last year’s final standings and the projected strength of each team next fall.
Travel considerations trumped some of the match-ups. For example, matching Traip with Stearns was out even though they both finished in last place last year because that would have resulted in a 255-mile round trip for the visitor. Traip will still have the longest trip, 165 miles, to Dexter and back, followed by Lisbon, which faces Mattanawcook, 154 miles away round trip. Interestingly, the two closest schools, Madison and Dexter, declined being paired, preferring to keep their rivalry game in the preseason.
The rest of the crossovers look like this (in order from Week 2 to Week 9) – Livermore Falls at Foxcroft Academy, Lisbon at Mattanawcook, Orono at Boothbay, Rockland at Old Orchard, John Bapst at Winthrop, Traip at Dexter, Stearns at Dirigo, and Madison at MCI. The schedule is on a two-year cycle, so the home teams will have to make their long bus trips in 2006. This season kicks off Sept. 2.
Class B changes
Class B is headed for radical changes with a number of new additions and defections. Western B loses Gorham to Class A, but adds Cape and Gray-New Gloucester. Eastern B, meanwhile, doesn’t lose anybody but adds two teams that are dropping down, Gardiner and Waterville, and one that is moving up, Maranacook.
With 10 teams in the Campbell Conference and 12 in Eastern B, the two conferences no longer needed crossover games, meaning the annual Mountain Valley-Leavitt showdown, a rivalry dating back to when both teams played in the Campbell Conference, is at least temporarily on hold.
“Obviously, it’s too bad we don’t get to play them anymore,” said Leavitt coach Mike Hathaway. “It would be nice to have at least an exhibition with them, but I guess it didn’t work out that way.”
Eastern B may still need some intra-league crossover games, however, because it is considering splitting into two, six-team leagues, having teams play each foe in their division once and cross over to the other division for three games.
That would result in an eight-week season and allow the league to expand its playoffs from four to eight teams, with the top four teams from each division making the playoffs based on their division record. Those teams would then be seeded based on their Crabtree points.
Western B maintains a nine-week regular season in its proposed schedule. Gray-New Gloucester would make its varsity debut at home against Greely in Week 1 (Sept. 2 or 3). Defending state champion Mountain Valley would open at home against Wells, Poland at York and Fryeburg at Cape.
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