Wiscasset eyes more sports partnerships

Fri, 05/27/2016 - 8:45am

More sports partnerships could be ahead for Wiscasset, like the one the town is planning with Boothbay Region High School for football. The Wiscasset School Committee on May 26 decided to have Athletic Director Nate Stubbert explore the potential for collaborative teams with area school departments.

“We should definitely look into that,” Chairman Steve Smith said after member Glen Craig brought up the idea. Wiscasset might only have two tennis players next year, and the school has a court, so that might be one sport to consider, Craig said. Minutes earlier, Wiscasset Middle High School Principal Peg Armstrong reported that 23 students attended an informational meeting Stubbert held on the collaborative football team.

Only one of the students plays soccer, Armstrong said, looking in member Eugene Stover’s direction. Stover had recently wondered if the school would lose soccer players to football. He voted in favor of the collaborative football team and Thursday night, he agreed with Smith, Craig and Michael Dunn on seeing about other possible ones.

Member Chelsea Haggett, part of the majority vote on football, was not present for the latest discussion.

“Even baseball and soccer are close to not having teams,” due to their small number of players, Smith said. In April, Smith dissented in the committee’s vote for the collaborative football team with the Seahawks. He had cited his concern for maintaining numbers in Wiscasset’s sports program.

Superintendent of Schools Heather Wilmot told the committee she could ask Stubbert for a needs analysis, looking at which sports might need the boost of a collaborative team in order to keep being offered.

As with the collaboration with Alternative Organizational Structure (AOS) 98, each potential one might depend in part on any impact it would have on the class the school plays in, she said.

The collaboration on football would help BRHS maintain Class D junior varsity and varsity teams as enrollments decline, BRHS sports officials have said. Stubbort has said that opening Wiscasset’s sports teams to BRHS players wouldn’t make sense; it would change Wiscasset’s class for soccer, he said.

As with the football plan, any others would need the committee’s approval and those of the schools involved and the Maine Principals Association, Wilmot said.