WINDHAM – This year was a radically different one for local high school football.
With the move of two teams, Westbrook and Marshwood, from the Class A Southwestern Maine Activities Association to the Class B Campbell Conference, the remaining Class A West football teams had to drastically revamp their schedule this fall.
And in an ever bigger adjustment, Westbrook had to face an entirely new slate of Class B opponents this season, taking on teams like Wells, Cape Elizabeth, Mountain Valley and Fryeburg Academy for the first time. While Marshwood had a difficult time in Class B this fall, the once-struggling Blue Blazes had a program-making season, overcoming a rough start to finish 4-4 and qualifying for the playoffs for the first time in recent memory. The news only got better in the postseason for Westbrook, as the team won its quarterfinal round game at Falmouth and gave top-ranked Wells everything it could handle before succumbing in the semifinals.
Now that the football season is over and the dust has settled, it appears that while there were some bumps in the road for both Class A and Class B teams, the new football schedules were an overall success.
SMAA GETS A NEW LOOK
While the Blazes and the Hawks were getting used to their new home in the Campbell Conference, the league that they left behind was forced to make some wholesale changes in coming up with its schedule this fall.
This season, the SMAA had 14 football teams, down from 16 with the removal of the Westbrook and Marshwood. In response to the elimination of two teams from Class A West, the league did away with the old York and Cumberland county divisions, meaning that schools took on opponents that they hadn’t faced in a number of years.
That new scheduling format certainly helped out some local Class A football teams, as the Thornton Academy Golden Trojans went 10-1, wrapped up the No. 2 seed in Class A West and gave eventual state champion Cheverus a tough time in the Western regional final earlier this month.
Thornton Academy coach Kevin Kezal said he liked the new format, especially the elimination of the old county divisions, adding that this season proved that the York County teams could be competitive with the Cumberland County teams.
“Coming into the season, people said we weren’t going to be able to compete because we played a York County schedule all these years,” Kezal said right after the regional final against Cheverus.
Windham Athletic Director Rich Drummond, whose Eagles started off the season 0-3, but roared back to secure the No. 7 seed in the playoffs, agreed that doing away with the old county-based divisions was good for the league in that it created more equity between teams.
“Back years ago, the stronger county was York County, now it seems to be that the stronger county seems to be Cumberland County, it changes for sure,” Drummond said. “I don’t like personally to see blowouts, I like to see good games, and I think the fans like to see good games as well. And if that means that we have to get rid of the traditional county (divisions) to create a football schedule for what’s best for the league, then I’m OK with that.”
One of the biggest local beneficiaries of the new format had to be Scarborough High School. The Red Storm followed up last year’s 8-2 record with a disappointing 3-5 mark, but thanks to the strength of their new schedule, which included a season-opening win over the Eagles, Scarborough was able to vault into the playoffs ahead of other teams with better records.
“I think we certainly had a difficult schedule and that was evidenced by (our team) making the tournament with three wins,” said Scarborough Athletic Director Mike LeGage. “We were excited to play the games we played, we were fine with the schedule we were given, had we gone further (in the playoffs), we would have had to play those (top) teams anyway, so for us, it worked out.”
“If you look at Scarborough, I think arguably, they had the toughest schedule in the league,” Drummond agreed.
“I’ve been doing this a while (and) I’m not sure the last time that a team who won three games made the postseason,” LeGage added. “But because of the difficult schedule we had compared to others in our league, it really helped us. And I think in the end, the right teams were in the postseason.”
‘THE SCHEDULE DID WHAT WE WANTED IT TO DO’
Sanford High School Athletic Director Gordie Salls is the football liaison to the SMAA and he headed up the team that developed the new football schedule for the conference. Now that the season has been completed, Salls agreed with LeGage’s assessment that the top teams in the league were in the playoffs.
“I think from my standpoint, the schedule did what we wanted it to do,” Salls said. “It got the top eight teams, I believe, into the tournament.”
This season, the Class A West football playoffs included: No. 1 Cheverus, No. 2 Thornton Academy, No. 3 South Portland, No. 4 Bonny Eagle, No. 5 Deering, No. 6 Sanford, No. 7 Windham and No. 8 Scarborough. The playoff positions were up in the air right until the final games of the season, something that wasn’t always the case under the new system.
“I’ve been here 19 years now, and it was one of the few times, and maybe the only time, that in the last week of the season, with the exception of Cheverus, who was going to be No. 1, that last game of the season was going to determine where people ended up in the tournament (in positions two through eight),” Salls said.
The new schedule did make the league more competitive, but it didn’t create complete parity among all the teams. Salls said there was still a fair share of blowout games with the new schedule, which was something that he said he didn’t think could ever be eliminated, adding that despite the occasional blowouts, the league saw a great many very competitive games this fall. “There were really a lot of close Friday night and Saturday afternoon football games,” Salls said.
Windham had its share of competitive games this fall, with one of the closest coming in the team’s final home game, a thrilling overtime win over South Portland that helped clinch a playoff spot. The win helped the Eagles recover from a tough 0-3 start and Drummond said that he thought the Eagles slate of games had something to do with the record. “We had a very tough schedule,” Drummond said.
One other school that saw a dramatic turnaround this season was Massabesic High School. The Mustangs entered 2011 off a tough 0-8 season the year before and sprinted to a 4-1 start right out of the gate. The second half of the season wasn’t as kind, and Massabesic missed the playoffs with a 4-4 record, as the Red Storm snuck into the playoff ahead of the Mustangs thanks to their strength of schedule.
Massabesic Athletic Director Brendan Scully said that he didn’t think the new schedule played a major role in the team’s turnaround. “I’m not so sure that the schedule had a big part in what our record was this year,” Scully said. “I think it was more of a reflection of the kids that we had than a change in the schedule per se.”
ADDRESSING CONCERNS
From Massabesic’s standpoint, one concern about the new schedule was the elimination of some traditional rivals. “We played Biddeford and Thornton Academy for a long time and we didn’t play those teams this year,” Scully said. “We’ve played those teams for a long time and not having them (on the schedule) is different.”
Scully, who is assisting Salls in making up the 2012 schedule, said he would like to try and get the Tigers and Trojans back on the Mustangs’ schedule. “I know that would certainly be something that (people in the area) would like,” said Scully. “And if it works, I’d certainly ask if that would be a consideration.”
Salls said that while the league tried to accommodate all requests, it wasn’t possible for some longtime rivalries to be maintained and while the new schedule will try to address some of those concerns, Salls added that he felt that he needed to do what was best for the league as a whole rather than accommodating individual schools.
“That was very hard for them to swallow (losing some teams from the schedule),” said Salls. “And we’re going to try and address some of those things in the schedule. I would say this however, schedules in all sports evolve and things get done to make the league better. And sometimes people have to take those things and deal with them in stride because they’re better for what the league needs. I think we took a step in the right direction for the league. I don’t think it fully accommodated every team, but it was a step in the right direction.”
One other concern that has been expressed around the league with the 2011 schedule is the distribution of home and road games. Under the 2011 schedule, some teams were forced to play three consecutive games on the road, a situation that didn’t always sit well. “I think that all in all, there were some concerns with (the distribution of) home games and away games and the number of consecutive home and away games (that teams were scheduled to play), but I think in the end it produced the best team in the league for the state championship game,” Scully said.
Kezal also feels that the balance of home and road games needed to be addressed for the 2012 schedule. “(There is) no reason why a team needs to be on the road for three weeks in a row or home for three weeks in a row,” Kezal said. “And half the league was like that. More effort needs to go into balancing that.”
“I think there’s some little things that need to be tweaked,” Drummond agreed. “I think the (distribution of) home and away (games), if we can look at that (avoiding long stretches of road or home games).”
Salls added that the Redskins were one of those teams that had to play three straight on the road. “Sanford played three games in a row on the road and lost all three of them,” he said. “No one can really say that Sanford got a break because I was doing the schedule.”
The schedule makers are going to work on making sure the distribution of home and road games will be a bit more equitable next fall. “That is one of the things that we are trying to address,” Salls said.
BLAZES THRIVE IN NEW HOME
Westbrook Athletic Director Todd Sampson said he wasn’t overly surprised by his team’s success, though he admitted that even he wouldn’t have been able to foresee just how far the Blazes could go. “From my seat, watching coaches, kids and the community, it worked out better than anyone could have anticipated,” Sampson said. “We believed it was the right decision when we were proposing it, but for me to tell you that we would go 4-4, win a quarterfinal playoff game on the road and still be competitive in a semifinal game, I couldn’t have predicted that.”
“It was good for our program, the excitement that it generated,” Westbrook football coach Jeff Guerette agreed. “Playing a Class B schedule where most of your games are against manageable opponents, we knew that Wells and Mountain Valley would be big challenges early on, but we knew that once we got through those couple of games, we felt like we should be competitive in every game.”
Salls said that the success that Westbrook had in its new conference proved that moving down was the right thing to do for the program.
“I believe there is a lot of teams in Class B that could play pretty well in Class A,” Salls said. “I would say for Westbrook it created a lot of positive feelings in their community with them making the playoffs. So, for them, I think it was a great move, you have to do what’s best for your program.”
Guerette said that there was a much different feeling this season. While he said the team always played hard while it was in Class A, it was hard to go into some games where the difference between Westbrook and its opponent was overwhelming.
“I think when you’re playing a Cheverus or a Bonny Eagle, you don’t want to go in saying that you’re not going to win, but you go in knowing that the odds are really stacked very far against you,” Guerette said. “When you’re 1-5 and going to play Deering, it’s tough to get kids fired up. They’ll play hard, but it’s tough to get them to believe that there’s importance (to the game). Against these Class B (teams), you go in and say if we do what were supposed to and play the way we’re capable of playing, we know that we’re going to be at least competitive.”
‘YOU’VE GOT 12 TEAMS PLAYING EIGHT GAMES’
Making the master football schedule isn’t a simple exercise. “Every schedule comes out of a mathematical formula, you’ve got 12 teams playing eight games,” Salls said.
Complicating the issue is the fact that the league is striving to maintain the schools’ traditional Week 8 rivals, which locks in one week. Then, Salls said that the three Portland-area schools: Portland, Deering and South Portland all insisted on playing each other. “Those teams want to play each other every year, so there’s four weeks taken out of the schedule and you try to plug in all the other games around that,” Salls said. “So it becomes a major problem (to fit all the other games in).”
Drummond lauded the work Salls did in coming up with the schedule for 2011, but he did say he thought that there was some room for improvement for next season and he liked the fact that the 2011 schedule was a one-year only schedule, which would allow for easier improvements. “A lot of effort went into trying to create some parity and create some balanced games,” Drummond said. “So I don’t want to discredit the effort or the intent, but I think there are some things that can be done to improve it for next year.”
The work to come up with the 2012 schedule has just begun and nothing has been determined as of yet. While he wasn’t sure what next fall will look like, Salls said that the schedule committee would continue to work to keep the SMAA football league as healthy as possible.
“I think our league was stronger overall this year and there was more excitement in the schools and the communities,” Salls said. “And that’s all we’re trying to do. We’re trying to make the best decisions for the kids involved (in football) and the communities.”
LeGage agrees that, while playing a tougher schedule can lead to some early setbacks record-wise, it will strengthen programs in the long run. “Playing those tougher teams, it does benefit your program,” LeGage said. “You might not see it right off in wins and losses, but our team is going to be stronger next year for having played a tougher schedule. It brings your game up to another level.”
As for Westbrook, while it was hard to leave behind a long tradition of playing football in the SMAA, Sampson said that he has no regrets with the switch. “We are very happy,” he said. “I knew going in that the Campbell Conference was a class act. Our student crowds we had at our two playoff football games were tremendous.”
Guerette said he thought the change of conferences didn’t lower the quality of opponents that the Blazes faced this season, it just put the team on equal footing with schools of similar size and allowed Westbrook to be competitive.
“I thought there was plenty of good football (this season),” Guerette said. “I don’t think the league is deep as what we played last year, but last year, we were playing in the toughest football conference in the state, particularly that Cumberland County division. (There), every game is a dogfight. Here (in Class B), we didn’t blow anybody out, but we thought we should be competitive all the time, which was good.”
Drummond said that since the football season is such a short one and all of the teams in the league don’t meet in the regular season, making sure the schedule is a fair one is vital. “There’s eight games (in a season) and every week can really impact the postseason placement, whether you go (to the playoffs), whether you don’t go, they’re not playing 12 or 15 (games) that’s why the football schedule (is so important). It’s a big undertaking.”
And while he thinks there is some room for improvement, Drummond said he thought the SMAA was heading in the right direction. “I think we’ve got a great starting point,” he said.
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