GORHAM — Doors open at 5 a.m. at the USM Ice Arena. Practice begins at 5:30. The Windham/Westbrook high school hockey players are used to the early hours.

But something’s different this season. As players emerge from the locker room, they keep coming – 28 strong.

“This is awesome,” said junior captain Holden Anderson. “It’s a lot better. It’s nice having some depth.”

That depth comes courtesy of a third school joining the program – Bonny Eagle. In the continually changing landscape of Maine boys’ hockey, three programs that were once all independent have joined forces into one program – to continue to offer hockey and, now, in a better environment.

“With the addition of Bonny Eagle, we can now have players gain experience at a level that matches their skill set, while not sacrificing competitiveness at the varsity level,” said Coach Greg Leclair.

Leclair, 43, is in his 10th year with the Windham program, his eighth as head coach. When he began, Windham played with a sparse roster, with the addition of a few players from Sacopee Valley. The team was not competitive and not well funded.

“The school wanted to sponsor hockey, but there was little budget,” Leclair said. “Families were paying and fundraising upwards of $1,200 to $1,400 per player.

“We didn’t practice half as often as we do now, and that was strictly based on budget.”

Other programs were having trouble. Massabesic had its own program but eventually merged with Bonny Eagle (along with Old Orchard Beach). Westbrook struggled and merged with Windham.

The Westbrook-Windham team began as a co-op in 2015-16 and had its most successful season. “We went 12-5,” Leclair said. “That was with tiered scheduling, so those numbers are skewed a little bit. But prior to that, we won only seven games.

“But we were still struggling with numbers. We’d had 15-16 kids.”

This year, before adding Bonny Eagle, the team had 18 players – 12 from Windham, six from Westbrook. Other programs were in similar shape. Even hockey-rich Biddeford High was looking for partners.

“We had been looking for a co-op for the past two seasons,” said Biddeford Coach Jason Tremblay.

Biddeford, which has 19 players (including six freshmen), became an attractive – and closer – option for Massabesic and Old Orchard Beach. They joined the Tigers, making a roster of 29, with enough players for a junior varsity team.

The move left Bonny Eagle’s 10 players stranded.

“It was surprising,” said Bonny Eagle junior Tayte Harris. “But now, it’s pretty much the same.”

Not only are the Bonny Eagle players still at the University of Southern Maine rink, but they know several of their new teammates – having grown up in the Husky Youth Hockey program at USM.

“I played with these kids when I was young,” Anderson said.

A third school means an increased budget, which means more ice time.

“With the exception of a handful of dates, we have a full practice schedule,” Leclair said. “And this year, we have a nice mix of morning and afternoon practice time, which results in more productive practices.

“Adding Bonny Eagle has allowed us to bring in additional members to the coaching staff. All these things help level the playing field with some of the traditional hockey areas.

“We still have a long way to go, but we now have the resources and the structure in place to shift the focus from simply trying to keep the program viable to becoming a competitive team on a nightly basis.”

The team opened its season on Saturday, losing 4-0 to Bangor.

A winning season will be a challenge, but the team appears competitive. More importantly, they are still playing, with a future that is more certain.

“I see us moving forward,” Anderson said.

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