By Kevin Mills,Staff Writer

ROCKPORT – Changes to lacrosse and hockey were approved Thursday at the Interscholastic Business Meeting at the Maine Principals’ Association’s Spring Conference in Rockport.

A recommendation to split lacrosse into two classes was approved, while a new scheduling format for ice hockey also passed. The most significant discussion over the two proposals revolved around a freeze on lacrosse teams that would be in Class B. Those schools would not be allowed to petition up to Class A for two years.

“We would like to have that option as we do in all of our other sports, to be able to apply up in classification” said Marty Ryan, the athletic director at Kennebunk. “We feel quite frankly that this is very arbitrary and very unfair for schools that would like the challenge of playing up to the Class A level.”

The proposal recommended that schools below the enrollment of 830 would be in Class B and the freeze to petition up would last for two years. That would mean a number of the state’s top programs would compete in Class B. The change would pertain to the tournament classification and not effect regular season scheduling.

“We have typically maintained a very solid relationship and a long-time and long-standing development of our Class A program,” said Gary Hoyt, the athletic director at Cheverus. “Now we’re being asked to move downward. Our school philosophy, even though we’re a small school, is the desire to participate in the highest level possible.”

A motion was put forth to strike the two-year freeze from the proposal. That failed by a 18-12 vote. The proposal was then approved 22-10 with two abstentions.

An ad hoc committee had looked into reclassifying ice hockey or developing a tier system to help alleviate the one-sided scores. Instead, the proposal presented was for teams to eliminate the non-competitive games by adding better-suited opponents from outside their leagues.

Mike Haley, the chairman of the hockey committee and assistant principal at Leavitt, said the committee had initially looked into the idea of expanding to three classes or developing a tier system as is done in Massachusetts.

“Initially, we thought that’s the way we’d go,” said Haley, who was part of a committee that had six athletic directors and four coaches. “Then members of the committee went back to their respective regions in the East and West and talked to their league members. They came back to the next meeting. Instead of having a tier, they thought we could effectively tier within each league.”

In addition to playing league games, teams would go through a statewide pool to provide more competitive matchups.

“It is subjective, and it’s not perfect, but it’s much better than saying you’re going to play everybody in your region, knowing going in that you’re going to have mismatches,” said Hoyt.

Some members were concerned with the arbitrary nature of determining what teams are competitive with each other.

LaBrie said because five or six hockey teams are bordering on extinction, something needed to be done.

“Ice hockey is in a crisis situation,” he said. “Basically because of the haves and the have nots. This is how the hockey schools, basically the AD’s, recommend that we fix it. It’s not a perfect system. It will have to be looked at every year.”