A baker’s dozen is fantastic if you’re talking donuts or dinner rolls. If you’re talking a football team roster, a baker’s dozen is a problem. In football, 13 is barely passable. When you need 11 players on the field, 13 gives you less wiggle room than a clown car.

On Thursday night in Thorndike, the Orono High School football team dressed just 13 players against Mt. View. A baker’s dozen. Enough to field a team but not nearly enough to really play.

Before the game, both sides agreed to running time in the second half, regardless of the score. Unsurprisingly, Mt. View had a 21-0 lead at the half and with Orono’s lack of depth, it may as well as have been 100. The Red Riots were not mounting a comeback.

One Orono drive made it deep into Mustangs territory, but it ended on downs, not in the end zone.

With 1:14 left in the game, Orono Coach Bob Sinclair decided enough was enough and called the game.

The question is, should that decision be in Sinclair’s hands, or in the hands of any coach faced with that situation?

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Orono is a proud football program with a tradition of success. Over the last decade, the Red Riots have won numerous Little Ten Conference playoff games, and played in the conference championship game as recently as 2015.

Orono typically has done well with a small roster, so it’s not a surprise that when faced with a roster even smaller than average, it decided to stick it out in the Class D Little Ten Conference rather than spend a season or two in the developmental Class E to gain experience.

But playing with 13 is like trying to squeeze into your high school football jersey for your 30th reunion. It’s cutting it tight and too much is exposed.

Even on the best days, when everybody on the roster is healthy and ready to play four quarters, Orono has just 22 players.

Orono is not alone. This is the era of small rosters, particularly in Class D East. Stearns of Millinocket lists 23 players on its roster. Mt. View, Orono’s opponent this past week, lists 26. Rosters with 20-something players are common across Maine, even in higher classes.

If you were to informally poll high school football coaches in Maine, many would say because an abundance of athletes play both ways and on special teams, it feels like the roster isn’t much greater than 13 anyway.

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But they also don’t worry about not having 11 capable players on the field, either. Thirteen leaves no room for rest, no room for injury, and the Red Riots knew it.

Just before the half, Jacob Farnham of Orono stayed on the ground after getting hit returning a kick. It was a clean hit, certainly hard, the kind of contact that happens a dozen times a game. Farnham was cleared to play by the on-site trainer at halftime and returned to the game in the second half. In the second half, Farnham limped off the field again.

Sam Martin, a sophomore tight end, went down and walked off the field gingerly. Did they feel like they were letting their team down through no fault of their own? Knowing you’re playing a game in which participants get hurt often, knowing even a twisted ankle or a jammed finger could mean the end of the game, is a lot of weight to put on a teenager. It can make you play tentatively, and hesitating is a way to get hurt in football.

A Maine Principals’ Association rule says any team that fails to complete its schedule would be ineligible for the next two varsity seasons. The school can appeal that decision.

Mike Burnham, an MPA assistant executive director, represents the governing body on the football committee. He said he’d like to see at least 20 athletes dressed and ready to play, but the MPA has no minimum number for a game.

Theoretically, a team could show up with 11 players and go all-out iron man football.

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How many players on small rosters hide injuries, knowing there’s nobody to take their place?

The MPA football committee has a lot to discuss in the offseason, but this should be on the agenda. Set a minimum participation number for the class in which each school is assigned.

For example, a Class D school needs 17 players or it goes to Class E. A Class C school needs 20 players or it goes to Class D.

Talk of creating an eight-man football league has picked up steam over the last year. If more teams are forced to play with a team of athletes constantly looking over its shoulder for a substitute who isn’t coming, debate on an eight man league should be over and it should be implemented.

Orono was forced to make a difficult choice. Forfeit and risk losing two seasons, or play until you drop.

With 1:14 remaining in Thursday’s game, Orono dropped.

That’s not a choice any team should have to make.


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