LIVERMORE FALLS – Last spring, Angela Courchesney had the urge to play soccer again.

“Because it was my senior year, I had started to think about it,” said the Jay senior. “I’ve played all through middle school, and I was interested in playing again before I graduated.”

The only problem was Jay High School didn’t have a girls’ soccer program. So it was either play on the boys’ squad or create a program from scratch.

Courchesney and a group of her newest friends made the latter happen. Athletes from Jay and Livermore Falls have teamed up to form the Livermore Falls-Jay Wildcats, a club team hoping to be a future varsity program.

“They’ve been here every day and worked really hard,” said coach Amanda Brooker. “I’m really excited and hopeful for the future.”

There are currently 16 girls on the team. They scheduled six games this season and had already gone 1-1-1 before hosting the Buckfield JV team Wednesday afternoon. They wear Livermore Falls jerseys at home and Jay jerseys on the road.

Their final two games include a doubleheader with the Livermore Falls boys at Wiscasset Tuesday, and a home game at Jay with the Maranacook JV’s October 18.

“It’s a lot of fun,” said Esther Bizier, a freshman forward from Livermore Falls. “It’s a really good experience. It’s nice that girls from Livermore and Jay can all come together. We’ve all made new friends. It’s really great.”

Courchesney produced a list of interested girls at Jay last spring. Tim Noll, the Jay boys’ coach, then contacted Larry Thornton, Livermore’s boys’ coach. Both typically have females on their squads. When Thornton said he had a group of girls interested, the wheels started turning.

“When I had the 23 girls sign up, I asked them would you be willing to combine with Livermore Falls as a club sport?, and they said Absolutely, as long as we can play soccer,'” said Noll.

Bizier was already thinking of playing on the Andies boys’ team. When she heard about the possibility of playing on a girls’ team, that peaked her interest.

“I always thought it would be cool to play with all girls,” said Bizier. “I’d played since second grade, and I’d always played with boys. I thought it would be a good experience.”

Brooker, who played soccer in high school in Limestone, agreed to coach the team as a volunteer. She’s joined by Janet Wicks, a fellow Jay teacher. There were nearly 30 girls signed up to play, and the plan was to have girls work with the boys’ during the summer. Noll had hoped for 16 or 17 girls but only got a handful.

“We had some doubts, but the girls that did go said that they were going to stay dedicated to playing soccer,” said Courchesney. We had said if we didn’t get a girls team, we were still going to play.”

There was hope more interest would materialize during preseason.

“I knew once school started, the girls that had signed up and didn’t come out this summer would see the other girls playing and would come out and play,” said Noll. “That brought the numbers right up to a manageable number.”

Courchesney and Jay freshman Rachel Delevan are the two captains. Jasmine Schtrumpf and Cashmeira Robinson join Courchesney as the club’s only seniors. There’s one junior, three sophomores and nine freshmen.

“I’m a little surprised, but I’m very excited about it,” said Courchesney. “Just the fact all these girls are so dedicated and willing to come out when we didn’t even know if were were going to have a team, and they’ve stuck with it.”

The two schools have split the costs. The hope is the team will be a full-fledged club program next year with the purpose of building for a varsity team in the future.

“We have to show for a certain number of years that there’s enough interest and that there’s enough kids to support it,” said Brooker. “I hope that we will be able to get some funds eventually for this. Right now, I know the interest is there. The middle school girls are really excited to see that there’s a program for them there next year.”