MHS nordic skiers join forces with Waterville High School
In an era when many schools are seeing shrinking enrollments, an increasing number of school athletic departments are keeping sports opportunities alive by forming cooperative teams.
For Messalonskee High School, the latest example of this phenomenon could be viewed firsthand on Jan. 4 when four Messalonskee nordic skiers join forces with counterparts from Waterville Senior High School to compete in the Telstar Relays at Quarry Road Recreation Center in Waterville.
“In order to give opportunities for students to play sports, this is the way it’s going,” Messalonskee athletic director Chad Foye said in referring to the growth of cooperative teams.
Messalonskee is no stranger to cooperative teams. Before forming the nordic ski team this winter, Messalonskee already had multi-school squads for swimming and girls’ ice hockey.
The girls’ ice hockey team is the most monumental model of cooperative athletics with a total of nine high schools (Messalonskee included) combining forces.
Foye is a full supporter of cooperative teams because his priority is to give students as much opportunity as possible to participate in sports.
Nordic skiing is a case in point.
Foye said the sport has been growing at the youth level in the area in large part because of the creation and continued development of Quarry Road Recreation Center, a regional venue for nordic skiing.
Forming a Nordic team at the high school level is a natural byproduct of that growing popularity. Foye said the best method to make it viable for the four students at Messalonskee – all of them with experience in the sport – who wanted to participate was to join Waterville.
As a result, Rowan Angelini, Noah Oliver, and brothers Lexington and Beckett Cote will have a team to compete on to hone their skills in the sport.
Foye said the ultimate goal is to create as many avenues as possible for students to explore the benefits of organized athletics.
“What we are hoping for is to get kids who have never done Nordic to have an opportunity to give it a try,” he said.