It was Photo Day 2012 for Belfast Area High School fall sports teams, and Chris Bartlett was hustling to the football field to check out a scene that had nothing to do with yearbook pictures.

As he got closer, the Lions’ football coach began to take notice of what the fuss was about.

“I could see the football going end over end through the middle of the uprights with a high trajectory,” he said. “And when I got up there so I could peek over the fence to see the field, I could see it was Ashley kicking from about 35 yards out.”

Ashley Littlefield was at Photo Day strictly for soccer purposes a year ago. This fall, she’s in two team pictures: as a center midfielder on Belfast’s girls soccer team, but also as the placekicker for the Lions’ varsity football team.

Littlefield has made 12 of 15 extra-point attempts so far this season.

Girls playing high school football in Maine is not without precedent, but it has been infrequent.

According to a survey conducted annually by the National Federation of State High School Associations, Maine has averaged eight girls competing in 11-player football during a given year over the last decade.

No numbers are available yet for the 2013 season, but girls playing football in Maine this fall include Kaitlyn Cota and Chassidy Orn of Orono High School, Lillian Wakeman of Washington Academy in East Machias and Shaina Nalley of Messalonskee High School in Oakland.

Cota and Orn are former soccer players.

“I’ve always wanted to play since my sophomore year, but I never had the courage to do it by myself,” said Cota, a senior wide receiver and cornerback. “Since Chassidy started doing it, it encouraged me to do it.”

Orn, a sophomore whose brother is Orono’s starting quarterback, plays offensive guard and nose guard.

“I’m not much of a physical person so it was kind of tough at first,” she said. “It’s different. We didn’t have to run as much as soccer, but it was more drills and contact and just getting you prepped for hitting.

“In soccer I liked having contact, but now I know I’m going to get hit so I know what to do and it just happens.”

The level of contact in football is what separates it from many other sports, and for Cota the acclimation process was enlightening.

“I was really surprised at how hard they actually hit people, and how hard it is to focus on the plays and catch the ball,” she said. “I didn’t think it was as hard as it is.”

The number of girls competing in 11-player high school football nationally has inched up during the last few years.

According to the National Federation of State High School Associations survey, 1,561 girls participated in 11-player football around the country in 2012, while 1,395 girls played two years earlier and 1,035 were on the field in 2006.

That compares to an average of approximately 1.1 million boys who played high school football annually from 2006 through 2012, according to the survey.

During the last decade, at least five Maine girls have played high school football each year, to a high of 12 in 2004 and 2012. That compares to an average of 3,908 boys who have competed in Maine interscholastic 11-player football each year since 2003, according to the NFHS survey.

“At other levels you’re seeing semi-pro leagues for females now,” said Sinclair, “so I don’t see this as a trend that’s going to go back in the other direction. If anything, it may increase.”