Greely High is considering restarting its own football program as an eight-man squad and has posted a job opening for a varsity football coach.
“If we’re going to do it, we need to have a head coach in place,” said Greely Athletic Director David Shapiro. “The long story short, we have some interest in our students. Our job is to figure out how many.”
Greely will host a meeting with prospective players and parents at 5:30 p.m. Thursday. Shapiro said 25 students have signed up as prospective players in 2022.
“It’s a mix of kids, a core of sophomore players that have approached me,” Shapiro said.
Greely has been in contact with the Maine Principals’ Association and members of the MPA’s Football Committee to let those groups know it is looking into a return to football.
Greely shut down its program after the 2018 season, when it went 5-5 in Class B South and won a playoff game for a fourth consecutive season. That year, Greely had 22 players. Ten were seniors, eight of whom started on both offense and defense. Greely expected only three incoming freshmen to join the program, and 10-year head coach David Higgins had resigned.
Greely has been in a co-operative with former rival Falmouth since 2019. That year, eight players from Greely played under the Falmouth colors, four on the varsity and four on junior varsity. Tackle football was not played in Maine in 2020 because of pandemic restrictions. Shapiro said in 2021, “five or six” Greely students were part of the co-operative team, with three on the varsity.
Greely has not offered transportation to the football practices.
Shapiro said if Greely does restart its own program, it will be as an eight-man team. The MPA introduced eight-man football for the 2019 season. That year, 10 teams participated. In 2021, there were 25 eight-man varsity teams. Greely, with an enrollment of approximately 635 students, would be considered an eight-man Large School (355-plus students).
“It would be the best fit. And it needs to be something that’s sustainable,” Shapiro said. “It’s still exploratory right now, but knowing the time lines we have, we can’t explore too long.”
Shapiro said a decision would need to be made by the end of April “at the absolute latest” to be able to field a team for the 2022 season.
The position of varsity football coach was posted on job sites on Monday. As of Wednesday afternoon, Shapiro had not received any applications.
The Greely Rangers Football youth program has continued to operate with teams at the middle and elementary school levels. According to its website, the middle school teams played eight-man football in 2021.
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