Few classification changes set for 2022 football season

By Ernie Clark, Bangor Daily News Staff

Expect just modest classification changes for the 2022 high school football season.

Cheverus High School of Portland, which won the 8-player large-school state championship last year, has asked to return to the 11-player ranks and is likely to be placed in Class C South for the coming season.

Gardiner has requested a return from Class C South to Class B North, where it would resume competing mostly against its Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference rivals.

The MPA football committee also awaits word on whether Washington Academy of East Machias, which canceled its 2021 season before it started due to low player numbers, will return to the 8-player ranks next fall.

The move by Cheverus to return to 11-player football came after a 2021 season when the Stags had an influx of young players during the preseason and fielded a large — by eight-player standards — 43-player roster. Cheverus went on to outscore its opponents 380-48 en route to winning the large-school state title with a 56-0 victory over Waterville in the championship game.

“When we made the difficult decision to move to eight-man in February 2020, our projections were for 26 athletes,” said Cheverus Director of Athletics and Activities Amy Ashley in a letter sent to the MPA’s football committee this week. 

“The decision to participate in eight-man football was a good solution to a problem many schools were facing throughout the state. Eight-man allowed us to play a full JV schedule and brought many new players to us, especially in the first few weeks of the season.”

Ashley said the momentum for football at Cheverus gleaned from its year in the eight-player ranks should leave it poised to have sufficient numbers to return to 11-player football in Class C this fall.

“It brought new life and excitement back to Cheverus football and with that came an increase in our numbers,” she said. “While Cheverus will never know how many incoming freshmen will join football until mid-summer, we do know that next year our numbers will allow us to get back to 11-man football.”

The MPA’s football committee voted unanimously at its Dec. 2 meeting to support a “Rule of 3” for eight-player football rosters beginning with the 2022 season.

Under that rule, a team with a roster size of 34 or greater — three strings of 11-player football — would be required to compete in an 11-player division while a school with a roster size of 23 or fewer would be required to play in an 8-player division.

That rule is subject to approval as part of the football committee’s report to the full MPA membership at its spring conference.

I will be voted on by the membership as a part of the football committee report at the spring conference.

The football committee also discussed sites for the 2022 state championship games, with plans calling for a schedule change that would eliminate night games because of the typical cold weather conditions.

Current plans call for the two 8-player state championship games to be held Saturday, Nov. 12, likely at a central Maine location.

The four 11-player state finals would follow on Saturday, Nov. 19, with the A and B games at Fitzpatrick Stadium in Portland and the C and D games at a more northern locale, likely Cameron Stadium in Bangor.