LEWISTON – At 5 feet, 11 inches, 17-year-old Lewiston Maineiacs defenseman Sam Finn isn’t the tallest hockey player in the world.

But when he took the ice at a recent youth hockey practice, he was a giant.

The younger players stared up – way up – when talking to the Maineiacs player, and it was apparent there was an extra gear the youngsters found that night while doing their own drills.

He was among four Lewiston skaters who took the ice with their pint-sized counterparts.

That kind of community interaction, though less in the past couple of years, would disappear completely when – and if – the Lewiston Maineiacs leave town.

“It may affect our younger kids, our learn-to-skate, 4- to 6-year-olds, since the Maineiacs have been here, the numbers have really blossomed,” Lewiston Area Youth Hockey League President Andy Guerin said.

“In the mite and squirt divisions, we have well over 100 kids in those divisions,” he said. “In the past, we would be lucky to have three house teams. This year, in the mites, we have six, and five in the squirts. It’s got the interest of the younger kids up and going.”

When Guerin took over as the league’s president some three years ago, youth hockey had already started to grow. At the turn of the decade, numbers had dwindled to the upper 200s.

When Guerin began his term, the program had about 400 players. Last year, before the bum economy sapped a few dozen players from the program, the league had close to 600 skaters.

“It was a combination of a young, aggressive director at the time, along with the Maineiacs,” Guerin said. “Kids saw the Maineiacs, especially when we took on the team’s name, and kids wanted to be a part of the Maineiacs.”

If the Maineiacs leave town, the name would remain with the youth teams.

“The Junior Maineiacs’ logo and name belong to us,” Guerin said. “We registered it back three or four years ago, so that if this did happen, they wouldn’t take the name and we wouldn’t have to start buying all new jerseys. For the meantime, if they were to leave, we would keep the name until further notice.”

One positive, Guerin noted, would be a slight increase in available ice time. Since the Maineiacs practice in the morning, the only ice time that a move would free up would be game nights, nearly 20 nights per winter.

Guerin said that if the Maineiacs do leave, it would be in the area’s best interest to attract another team, maybe even a team in a league in which local athletes could play beyond high school.

“It would be an asset to youth hockey,” Guerin said. “If they brought in a team where more of the local high school players could step out and maybe play for them after high school, I think it would give the younger kids something to strive for, and hopefully that would build local interest.”