LEWISTON – Junior Kristen Lacasse bolted out of the locker room.

A few teammates stood by, still in street clothes, talking with coach Ron Dumont about a gaggle of housekeeping items – jerseys, socks, physical exams and other, seemingly tedious examples of preseason legwork.

But Lacasse wanted to skate.

“I’m usually like that, though,” Lacasse said. “I like to get out there, get things started.”

Soon enough, the rest of Lewiston High School’s hockey-playing girls stepped out of the Devils’ dressing room at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee on Monday for their first practice.

For the first time, Lacasse and the rest of the Blue Devils are suiting up to play the sport they love in a Maine Principals’ Association sanctioned season.

“I’m sure we’ll get more publicity. People will know more about it,” Lacasse said, “which is a good thing. I don’t think it changes as much for us as it does for other schools, because Lewiston treated us like a varsity team anyway.”

“The school made a commitment that we get ice time like any other varsity program,” Dumont said. “We’d get ice, a full schedule, the uniforms, everything. For some schools, it’s different, though.”

This year, with the MPA’s blessing, the league in which Lewiston, St. Dom’s, Leavitt and Winthrop/Maranacook play will be recognized at the same level in the winter as high school basketball, boys’ hockey, indoor track and swimming, with one small tweak: The teams will begin play two weeks earlier, and settle their playoffs earlier, too.

“I think it’s great, the girls are ready to play,” Dumont said.

Many of the girls on Lewiston’s team – which begins this week with 14 skaters and two goaltenders – played together in a summer league.

“We had a bunch of high school teams playing against each other in Portland this summer, so that’s what we’ve pretty much all done,” Lacasse said.

As far as numbers are concerned, things are pretty much on par with the last few seasons.

“We’ve never had a big team,” Lacasse said. “It’s good, that way, because we get a lot more help, and there’s more repetitions for each person out there.”

“The first couple of years, we didn’t get a lot of girls, because they were hesitant, thinking that with the “varsity” tag, they weren’t good enough to be out here,” Dumont said. “But I always tell the girls, if we can go out there, improve and show that we have a good product, people will want to come and play hockey.”

Beyond some paperwork and some changes to the trophies for which the girls will play, there won’t be much difference between last year and this year, Dumont said.

As for Lacasse, she was the last one off the ice Monday, too, helping scoop up pucks and cones before slipping back into the locker room.

“We always want to make it to the state finals,” Lacasse said. “We just hope that practices keep running smoothly. In games, go in there, win, get out.”

If only things were that simple.