UMaine football has just eight Mainers on its roster, with nearly half from Leavitt

Aug. 21—ORONO — There’s never a lot of native Mainers on the University of Maine football team. With fewer than 80 high school football programs in the state, there just aren’t enough players who are capable of competing at the Football Championship Subdivision level.

This season, for example, only eight Mainers on the Black Bears’ roster. Nearly half of those eight are from Leavitt Area High School, a Class C program in Turner that dominated Maine high school football last fall.

Jack Boutaugh, a redshirt sophomore offensive lineman; Noah Carpenter, a freshman quarterback; and Jace Negley, a freshman defensive lineman, are all playing for head coach Jordan Stevens.

“Each year, we have someone we’re actively recruiting from Leavitt,” Stevens said after a recent practice. “Just the character of the guys there, they have a great program. They’re well-coached, and they have some great continuity in their staff there, which has shown in their ability to play up levels and win games.”

Maine last carried three players from the same high school in 2019, when Scarborough alumni Zoltan Panyi (quarterback), Anthony Griffin (offensive lineman) and Zachary Reed (offensive lineman) made the roster. Those three players accounted for 18% of the Mainers on that team. In 2017, Maine had four players from Thornton Academy: linebacker Owen Elliott, fullback Michael Laverriere, kicker Brandon Briggs, and defensive end Dakota Tarbox.

Scarborough and Thornton Academy are among the largest schools in the state.

According to the Maine Principals’ Association, Leavitt’s enrollment is 572, which is about middle of the pack for the 79 football programs in the state (including the combined enrollments of co-op programs).

That hasn’t stopped Coach Mike Hathaway from building one of the most consistently excellent football programs in the state….

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/umaine-football-just-eight-mainers-230000976.html

Author : Portland Press Herald, Maine

Publish date : 2024-08-21 23:00:00

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