It was the second half of a football game between Portland and Oxford Hills in 2013, and Portland assistant coach Mark Renna wasn’t enjoying what he was seeing.
And his team led, 68-0.
“Nothing good comes from games like that,” Renna said. “No one wants to stomp people into the ground.”
Renna’s opinion hasn’t changed, although his perspective has. He took over as head coach of a building program at Gray-New Gloucester last year and his team went 0-8, including losses of 48-7 to Leavitt and 43-0 to Spruce Mountain.
“No one wants to coach in those games, on either side,” Renna said.
Mark Hathaway of Leavitt uses blowouts like the one against the Patriots to get more players into the game, but is quick to say, “the fewer of those games that exist, the better.”
In the 2012 season, 25.8 percent of games had at least a 35-point differential.
When football expanded from three to four classes in 2013, the change was expected to create more parity among similar-sized schools, but the percentage of blowout games rose to 30 percent the last two seasons.
A Maine Principals’ Association rule will help those games end faster.
The “Adjusted Timing Rule” mandates that the clock keep running in the second half of games with a 35-point difference or more, except for timeouts, injuries, penalties and scores.
The rule existed before 2015 but wasn’t automatically enforced. Game officials asked coaches if they wanted a running clock.
“That put the official in a tough situation,” said Mike Burnham, an assistant executive director with the MPA. “The officials asked (for the rule to become mandatory).”
The clock will revert back to regular timing if the differential becomes less than 35 points.
The mandatory rule is needed because a good percentage of games get out of hand.
“Going to four classes has created some parity with the top-level teams,” Burnham said. “But it hasn’t taken (away) the disparity of the top teams and the bottom teams (within a class) – and we are seeing the (lopsided) scores.”
Like every other sport, the MPA groups schools according to enrollment.
“Enrollment is not a perfect indicator but it’s what we have to work with,” said Oxford Hills assistant principal Paul Bickford, chairman of the MPA football committee.
When Wells (enrollment 449) played Freeport (511) last year, Wells rolled to a 50-0 victory.
This year Wells has 42 students out for football. Freeport has 22.
“There’s certainly a dividing line with strong programs and some not quite as competitive,” said Craig Sickels, the Freeport athletic director. “When those two differences collide, they are not the most competitive games.”
In previous years, Sickels has given game officials permission to keep the clock running in the second half of some blowouts. While lopsided games happen in every sport, “football is unique,” Sickels said, referring to a greater chance of injury for overwhelmed teams with fatigued players.
“Getting beat by 30 points in basketball is not the same as getting beat by 30 points in football. There’s a physicality factor.”
Both Sickels and Renna, the Gray-New Gloucester coach, would like to see teams classified by the number of players in the program, but the MPA has never used anything but enrollment.
Schools are given “an equal opportunity if a school chooses to participate (in a sport),” Burnham said.
Freeport began varsity football in 2010, the same year as Camden Hills and Sacopee Valley.
Sacopee Valley never won a game and dropped back to junior varsity last year in hopes of rebuilding its program. Camden Hills, a Class B school, opted to play a Class D schedule and be ineligible for the postseason.
The MPA does allow sports to create their own schedules to make an extra effort at parity. Class A boys’ hockey, for example, features a wide range of talent and depth, from schools that sponsor full varsity and junior varsity teams to those that have to merge with another school (or schools) just to make one team. Hockey uses a tiered schedule, with traditionally strong programs playing most of their games against each other, while weaker programs form their own scheduling block.
Sickels says tier scheduling isn’t so simple for football because there aren’t enough teams in each division to make a full schedule without avoiding mismatches.
One solution could be an expansion to five classes, which is what Leavitt’s Hathaway proposed to the MPA football committee last spring.
Under Hathaway’s proposal, Class A would still have 14 teams, but the other classes would be reduced to a similar number of teams. More crossover games between teams in different divisions would be allowed, and teams would have flexibility to play opponents of similar strength.
“You would be able to match up more competitive games,” Hathaway said.
The MPA said it was too late to implement a five-class system for 2015 or 2016.
“It took a long time to go from three (classes) to four,” Bickford said. “We would want input from all the stakeholders.”
But no one has come out against five classes.
“That’s the vibe I’m getting,” Hathaway said.
It’s clear that something is needed to reduce the number of lopsided games.
While success in football can be cyclical – Oxford Hills, which was routed by Portland in 2013, gave Portland a tough game last season in a 14-7 loss – there are some programs that continually have trouble gaining momentum.
Renna is trying to get Gray-New Gloucester moving in the right direction. Losing games 58-7 doesn’t help.
“You want kids buying into (the program) but the kids can get discouraged,” said Renna. “But we’re coming along.”
There will still be lopsided games for the Patriots and other growing programs. But at least this season, those games will end sooner.
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