Now the next step on the Windjammers’ road to rehabilitation may involve a slightly different form of the game after a Maine Principals’ Association panel on Thursday backed the establishment of two divisions of eight-player football beginning next year. The MPA’s football committee approved the establishment of a large-school division of eight-player football for schools with enrollments of more than 350 students and a small-school division for schools with enrollments of 350 or fewer.

With the regular firearms season for deer concluding on Saturday, Nov. 24, the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife’s new online registration system showed that deer hunters had a very good year in Maine -- likely the best in over 15 years.

On Saturday, Nov. 24 the Foxcroft Academy wrestling team traveled to Dexter Regional High School for an annual preseason event, the Dexter Duals tournament. This event consisted of eight teams divided into two groups. The winner of each group advances to the finals and will face the winner of the other group.

U.S. Cellular officials on Tuesday, Nov. 20, announced Williams as the third-place finalist in its Most Valuable Coach contest. The honor comes a year after Luis Ayala of Foxcroft Academy earned top honors in the 2017 Most Valuable Coach contest.

With firearms deer hunting season in its final week, the perennial questions began running through my head. Do I get up early and get into the woods at first shooting light? Do I walk or should I sit in my blind?

We all know people who just seem to know where to go at just the right time to see deer. They have that uncanny ability to bag a nice buck almost every year. These people have good hunter instincts -- what I call “the sixth sense.”

The Wells High School offense decided to run the football nearly all night -- the team threw just twice with one of these plays being a halfback pass -- and the strategy paid off as the Warriors defeated Foxcroft Academy 55-20 in the 2018 Class D championship on the turf at Alfond Stadium at the University of Maine on the evening of Saturday, Nov. 17.

Look through these pages on a regular basis, and you will see evidence that for many Mainers, taking up hunting or fishing is nearly a birthright. This week alone, I interviewed a pair of 12-year-olds who have been hunting since they were legally allowed to do so.

Many people who witnessed undefeated Josh Harvey’s -- who is a graduate of Dexter Regional High School -- recent majority draw against Joe Giannetti in the main event of Cage Titans 41 at the Plymouth (Massachusetts) Memorial Hall thought Harvey won -- including his opponent.

As the undefeated Foxcroft Academy football team worked out Monday evening in advance of a snowstorm that left Oakes Field with even more of a winter’s blanket by Tuesday morning, Nov. 13, 10th-year head coach Danny White and his troops did so knowing the formidable task that awaits them.

South teams won two games, the North captured one and the other ended in a tie during high school soccer action at the 24th annual Senior Bowl at Thomas College on Sunday, Nov. 11.

Five different Foxcroft running backs accounted for six touchdowns and 368 rushing yards as coach Danny White’s club defeated Bucksport 43-26 at a cold and windy Weatherbee Complex at Hampden Academy on Saturday night, Nov. 10 to capture its second straight Class D North championship.

Athletes from each of the area’s five high schools received recognition on the 2018 fall Penobscot Valley Conference All-Conference Teams.

Players from across the region were selected for 2018 Maine Soccer Coaches Association Regional All-Star Teams.

When November days turn to double digits, plenty of Maine deer hunters make a special point to spend more time in the woods, taking advantage of the peak of mating season, also known as “the rut.”

Seniors Carter Tolmasoff and Lucas Wardwell combined for 584 rushing yards and and 10 touchdowns Monday, Nov. 5 as second-ranked Bucksport made the scoreboard at Carmichael Field look more like the U.S. National Debt Clock as the Golden Bucks defeated No. 3 Mattanawcook 77-36 in their Class D North semifinal.

Jessica Morton, 13 of Brownville Junction, harvested her first moose on Oct. 12. She was hunting with her father, Mike Morton, in the Katahdin Iron Works region.

Piscataquis Community High School students, athletes and those enrolled in physical education classes alike, now have the opportunity to improve their strength and health in the school’s new weight room. Located in a classroom space near the library the weight room features machines, presses, and dumbbells to provide a place for Pirates to exercise at no charge.