When the Portland Press Herald did an extensive survey in 2015 of area high schools charging an athletic participation fee, Poland Regional High School Athletic Director Don King made it clear he didn’t like that his athletes were docked a “pay-to-play” fee – even if the school only charged a modest $25 per-sport assessment.

“We just felt, ethically, that our athletic programs are part of the school and part of the culture of the community and we just didn’t feel it was right to charge them to participate,” King said.

So King and Poland Principal Cari Medd proposed the elimination of participation fees, starting with the 2016-17 school year. With support from Superintendent Tina Meserve, the proposal was adopted by the school board at its most recent meeting.

“I consider this to be a victory for the kids in the school programs,” King said. “There’s always been a concern of whether having to pay could be a boundary for people to play. I felt like it was the right thing to advocate for.”

The fee was instituted as a compromise response when a board member suggested cutting athletic programs. Over the past six years, the fee raised $10,000 to 12,000 annually, King said. A portion went to the athletic supply budget, and the remainder would go into a capital improvement fund for projects such as resurfacing the track.

“It helped out but it never covered the cost of those things,” King said. “Now we’ll just fully fund those requests.”

Eleven of the 29 public schools that compete in either the Western Maine Conference or the Southwestern Maine Activities Association charge a fee for every sport. The average fee is in the $75-100 range. Falmouth tops the list at $175 per non-running sport.

Another 12 schools charge only for sports such as hockey that include facility rental costs.

Poland’s hockey players, who are part of cooperative teams, will continue to pay a fee to offset ice costs. In addition, Poland has entered into a new cooperative girls’ lacrosse team with Gray-New Gloucester. Since lacrosse is not yet in the athletic budget, the players will be charged a fee to fund the program.

WITH ST. DOMINIC Academy coming back to the Western Maine Conference after seven years in the Mountain Valley Conference, it got us wondering: With basketball reclassification blurring traditional rivalries, is there still value in conference affiliation?

“The five classes in basketball has kind of forced schools to play outside their conferences,” said St. Dominic Athletic Director Keith Weatherbie, who was Cape Elizabeth’s AD from 1987-2008. “The benefit of a conference is it enables you to come up with a schedule to start with, and that is something that is very important.”

North Yarmouth Academy Athletic Director Jack Hardy said conferences ease communication and help promote athletics.

“In the Western Maine Conference, you get these athletic directors in the same room once a month and have conversations, as opposed to out of league trying to get them on phone or through email,” Hardy said. “And the all-conference recognition we can offer is significant. It’s a huge thing for the student-athletes to be selected for all-conference.”

Basketball reclassificiation is forcing conferences to open their schedules to opponents from outside their league. This winter, the SMAA allowed its basketball teams to schedule crossover games. Class A schools Biddeford, Kennebunk, Marshwood and Westbrook booked dates with Western Maine Conference and Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference teams. Portland-area Class AA squads were in the North region competing against the likes of KVAC schools Oxford Hills and Bangor to win a regional championship.

“No one told us that we had to schedule SMAA and WMC basketball,” Hardy said. “We could have gone status quo, but the SMAA was more open than they’ve ever been in the past.”

Could a scheduling system built around classification rather than conference affiliation be in the future?

“I’ve entertained and listened to the argument, ‘Make it just a Class B South conference,'” said Poland AD Don King. “I think that it’s still good to work consistently with the athletic directors in a smaller group. I like in basketball that we’ve experimented with some games out of conference, but we’re still predominantly playing within our conference.”

St. Dominic will give the 19-member WMC increased scheduling flexibility as a sixth Class C school, joining Traip Academy, Old Orchard Beach, Sacopee Valley, Waynflete and North Yarmouth Academy.

WELLS HIGH SOPHOMORE Rosemary Campanella will soon be a full-fledged member of the newly formed Kennebunk/Wells cooperative girls’ tennis team.

“I’m very pleased that I have this opportunity,” Campanella said. “It is exactly what I was fighting for last year.”

As a freshman, Campanella unsuccessfully appealed to the Maine Principals’ Association to be allowed to join the Kennebunk High team because Wells did not offer varsity tennis.

Campanella was allowed to play in the individual state tournament (she reached the semifinals), but if she had competed in any regular-season matches for Kennebunk, they would have been counted as forfeits.

Last spring, the MPA voted to eliminate the cooperative/individual designation for tennis and several other sports, opening the door for more cooperative team arrangements.

Wells Athletic Director Jack Molloy said the Wells and Kennebunk administrations began the process of creating a combined tennis team for the girls (Wells is not involved in boys’ tennis) early in the school year.

“Certainly, Rosemary was a huge factor,” Molloy said. “We wanted her to have the full experience of playing high school tennis as opposed to what she went through last year, and we’re just glad both communities supported it.”

Practices begin Monday. Campanella will be joined on the team by two Wells freshmen.

“That is good because it makes it more of a cooperative team,” Campanella said. “It’s Wells and Kennebunk, not just me and Kennebunk.”