Steve Martin, former and current president of Southern Aroostook-Woodstock Youth Football, has announced that the temporarily defunct organization will be re-organized for the fall football season. SAW was originally founded so that all high school athletes in Carleton County (Canada) and southern Aroostook County might have access to the sport.
The Houlton Football Association, which runs the third-12th grade program in Houlton proper —including the nascent varsity program at Houlton High School — will not be affiliated with the SAW Youth Football program and their 8-12 grade-only emphasis.
“We are looking forward to bringing the wonderful, character-building sport of football to the many athletes of the region who currently ‘have no place to go,’” Martin said. “We are extremely proud of what the folks in the town of Houlton have been able to accomplish, and we are absolutely supportive of their efforts,” he continued. “We are not here to compete with the HFA, or Houlton High School. There is room in this broader region of 50,000-60,000 people for two programs to be successful, and hopefully, to even benefit each other.”
The team that SAW will be fielding will be a young and untested group.
“We have 13 signed up so far, and we are going to be playing 11-man right out of the gate, unlike when football first came back to the area 7-8 years ago,” said Martin. “We realistically are going to have to boost the number to the 18-22 range in order to field a competitive squad.”
The team will play teams from across Maine that are very geographically dispersed, but will also play county teams from Caribou and Madawaska, as well as the downstate entries.
“There are going to be some long road trips, especially for our Canadian guys,” Martin added. (There are currently two athletes each from Woodstock and Hartland high schools on the roster, in addition to a GHCA student from Canada.)
The first organizational meeting for all interested players/parents/coaches will be held at Greater Houlton Christian Academy on Saturday, March 9 at 6 p.m. (Eastern Standard Time)
“We are asking all interested home schoolers and students from Hodgdon, Katahdin, GHCA, Southern Aroostook and East Grand on our side, and from Hartland and Woodstock on the New Brunswick side to come out and meet and get their questions answered,” said Martin. “We have some really good athletes signed up and all of our helmets already paid for, but it’s only a great start.”
A benefactor has stepped forward and purchased all the teams’ helmets, but fundraisers will need to be organized to cover the rest.
Much more will need to be done, though. Practices will very likely be on the right field area of the Airport Field and may only be two to three times a week in order to cut down on travel, but the team will have to find a home field for games. One home game possibly will be played at Woodstock High School. There are only two coaches lined up so far, and referees and line crews are needed, as are folks willing to help with fund raising, keeping game stats, announcing home games and such.
“We will have a lot for folks to do to help make the program successful,” Martin said. “We are going to ask for $250 this first year in order to get each student the equipment they will need. That will go down in future years, but the original $10,000 seed money from USA Football that we used seven years ago is long gone.”
Coach Martin can be reached by phone at 207-532-3635, or by e-mail at mepatriot@juno.com. He added that missing this first meeting is no impediment to playing, but asked that folks contact him.
Board of Directors
elected for SAW
The Southern Aroostook-Woodstock Youth Football organization has announced that their 501 c.3 status has been reinstated, and also announced the makeup of their board of directors. Chosen for the following leadership positions are: Steve Martin of Amity, president; Brian Forest of Houlton, vice president; Gail Suitter of Hodgdon, treasurer; LeeAnne Wilde of Hodgdon, secretary and Richard Cleary of Hodgdon and Bar Harbor is the organization’s legal counsel.
Donations to the SAW Youth Football non-profit organization are tax deductible. The organization will be fielding an 11-man football team for the 2013 high school season, and will accept players entering the 8-12 grades from the following school districts: Hodgdon, GHCA, Katahdin, East Grand, Southern Aroostook in Aroostook County; as well as Hartland and Woodstock high schools in Carleton County, N.B.
