ROCKPORT and BOOTHBAY HARBOR — The Camden Hills football team hit its lowest moment in program history in 2015, as did Boothbay in 2016. 

Not even winless seasons, or nearly winless seasons, brought worse feelings than the feeling of scrapping the remainder of the Windjammers’ 2015 campaign brought to the community.

The same can be said for the Boothbay Seahawks, who dropped its varsity team status just weeks prior to the 2016 season, instead opting to take a step back from its days as a varsity state champion to instead be a club sport. 

But, despite hitting program lows in recent years, both teams have drastically turned things around this season in the newly formed Class E, created specifically this year for teams like Camden Hills and Boothbay, which struggle to find enough bodies to don football pads at the varsity level. 

“Our numbers in the program are still very low,” Camden Hills athletic director Steve Alex said. “This season we have a roster of 21 (one of the students is an exchange student). We actually have fewer kids playing this year [than] we did last season.” 

Thankfully, Alex noted, the other Class E schools are “in the same position for the most part” with low roster numbers. 

“We are really counting on our feeder program, which does an outstanding job, to continue to deliver football athletes in addition to getting students who already attend the high school to come out,” Marks said about what next season’s roster may look like.

Marks also hinted that other current high school students might join the program in the off-season once they see that Camden Hills football is “back to stay.” 

The new classification comprises the Seahawks and Windjammers, as well Maranacook Community School, Sacopee Valley and Telstar Regional. Traip Academy forfeited the remainder of its 2017 campaign after three games in the new classification due to low numbers. 

“Playing in this division has allowed us to have a normal high school game schedule which is huge in creating a sense of normalcy and reputation,” Camden Hills head coach Jeremy Marks said. “It has also allowed us to play teams that are similar to us in size and skill level. Thus creating an even playing field for both teams that are competing during any particular game. Lastly, it has given our program some legitimacy as we build forward towards eventually playing in the appropriate classification.”

The Seahawks’ regular season was a remarkable one as they went undefeated with eight wins. Those wins came over Telstar (19-0, 49-21), Camden Hills (35-20, 39-20), Traip (41-12, win by forfeit), Sacopee Valley (8-6) and Maranacook (13-6). 

Boothbay, meanwhile, went a combined 7-18 between 2013-2015 at the varsity level. 

In Rockport, the Windjammers were only four weeks into the season and posted two wins, which was a huge achievement for a program that went 1-23 between the 2013-2015 varsity campaigns, with five of those losses being by way of forfeits. 

Camden Hills went 5-3 during the regular season which was still good enough to give them third place in the Class E standings. After opening the season with a 21-0 loss to Maranacook and 35-20 loss to Boothbay, the Windjammers consecutively picked up a 34-21 victory against Telstar, a forfeit victory from Traip, a 16-13 win over Sacopee Valley, a 30-18 victory over Maranacook and a 30-6 win over Telstar. In the regular season finale, Camden Hills fell to Boothbay 39-20. 

When asked to name an advantage of playing in Class E, Alex noted the “good balance of competition” was extremely beneficial while also acknowledging travel is a disadvantage. 

The Windjammers had to travel just over 100 miles, one-way, for its Sept. 16 contest against Telstar and would have had to make a nearly 150 mile, one way, trip a week later had Traip Academy not forfeited the Sept. 23 contest. 

Meanwhile, the Seahawks made a just over 100 mile one-way trip for its Sept. 16 contest against Traip. Both the Telstar and Sacopee Valley road trips totaled just shy of 100 miles, one-way, for the Seahawks. 

On Class E disadvantages, Marks noted “playing teams twice in season is extremely difficult beating any team once is a great accomplishment to do it twice really shows something. And now with the inclusion of the playoff structure we will now face teams for possibly the third time in one season.” 

Marks, personally, hopes more teams will be placed into Class E for 2018, while also wishing all five football classifications would be well-balanced “in terms of team size and [competition] levels.” 

PLAYING FOR A PLAQUE 

Unlike their counterparts playing in the other four classifications, the Class E champion is only awarded a championship plaque, rather than a Gold Ball. 

For the classification’s first postseason, Boothbay secured the top seed, while Maranacook finished second, Camden Hills third and Sacopee Valley fourth. Telstar, who finished as the fifth seed, forfeited its preliminary round playoff contest against Sacopee Valley. 

The semifinal contests will be held Friday, Nov. 3 as Boothbay hosts Sacopee Valley and Camden Hills travels to Maranacook. Both games will begin at 7 p.m.

The two semifinal game winners will battle it out in a championship game to be played Friday, Nov. 10. 

Reach George Harvey at: sports@penbaypilot.com.