The Maine Principals’ Association’s new enrollment requirements for Class B forced the Campbell Conference to realign for 2011 with the addition of Marshwood, Westbrook and Spruce Mountain,.

The conference, in turn, used realignment as an opportunity to make the league more competitive. It expanded its playoff field from four to eight teams and developed what it believes will be a fairer schedule for its 12 member teams.

The schedule, which divides teams into two tiers based on their performance over the last five years, is designed to create more balanced match-ups in a league that, due to its mix of developing and established programs, has been rife with mismatches.

“I love it,” Mountain Valley coach Jim Aylward said of the tiered schedule. “If my goal is to help kids go to a game each week and have them be competitive and learn about themselves, it’s better than what’s been happening.”

Aylward’s Falcons could learn a lot about themselves this year as the team with the biggest bull’s-eye in what should be a stronger league from top to bottom. Mountain Valley has been on the winning end of many of those mismatches historically. The Falcons have been at their best when the competition ratchets up in November, however, winning five of the last seven Western B titles and four of the last seven state championships.

Never were the Falcons more dominant than in their 2010 perfect season. The defense allowed just 30 points all season and actually scored more than it gave up. Even though Bruce Campbell Award winning defensive end Christian Durland and ball-hawking safety Cameron Kaubris have moved on, opponents could find the Falcons just as stingy this fall.

Last year’s Sun Journal Player of the Year, Ryan Glover, and fellow senior linebacker Izaak Mills form the backbone of the defense.

“On paper, I think it’s our strength,” Aylward said. “I’m pretty confident that we’ll find 11 kids that are going to go to the football and tackle.”

Aylward has a lot of confidence in his new quarterback, too. Senior Zach Radcliffe takes over for Kaubris under center and brings the leadership qualities the coach wants from the position.

“He’s very intelligent,” Aylward said. “He’s a hard worker and understands everything we’re doing. He’s a good leader. He throws the ball very well. The only thing he lacks is experience.”

The rest of the backfield, which includes Mills, Matt Hosie, Kyle Duguay, is a little green, too, but should be able to carry out Mountain Valley’s hard-nosed game plan. It helps that the offensive line isn’t lacking in experience with Glover, a dominating blocker, on the inside.

The Falcons will be the first to find out just how much the conference has changed because their first three games are home against Westbrook and on the road against Marshwood and Spruce Mountain, respectfully.

Aylward called the new teams wild cards in the Campbell Conference race. Perhaps no team is more of an unknown quantity than Spruce Mountain.

The consolidation of the Jay and Livermore Falls football teams happened a year sooner than coach Mark Bonnevie expected. But Bonnevie, who coached at Jay for the last nine years (including a Western C title in 2004), said the two schools are ready to face the autumn as one.

“The kids have come together really well,” he said. “We got together in the summer with seven-on-seven and had a couple of team get-togethers and we had a chance to get the awkwardness out right there. It’s really been a fun process. These kids played together right up through the eighth grade and it’s like they never split up.”

Bonnevie still had to spend the preseason evaluating about half of his roster, finding the right mix of players and getting those from Livermore Falls in tune with his spread offense. It helps that he has his son, Zach Bonnevie, back at quarterback to run that offense and help get everyone on the same page. He also has senior running back Bill Calden and wide receiver Jake Bessey as holdovers of what could be an explosive offense.

The line of scrimmage will likely be dominated by Livermore Falls products such as Jake Richards and Tommy Lee, who helped the Andies’ Wing-T move the chains proficiently last year.

Defensively, Bonnevie has the numbers and talent to develop different packages with different personnel groupings, a luxury he never enjoyed at Jay with a roster barely half the size of the Phoenix.

“We’re definitely going to be physical up front, and we’ve got pretty good speed,” he said. “We’re going to be deep. We’re going to have a bunch of guys that are going to play one way.”

Wells was far and away Mountain Valley’s toughest foe last year, and the Warriors appear poised to challenge the Falcons again, if not unseat them. Senior quarterback Paul McDonough and senior running back Louis DiTomasso were all-conference selections in 2010.

Southern Maine imports Westbrook and Marshwood both finished 2-6 in Western A last season. In 1988, Marshwood won its last state title in the last year of its last stint in Class B (it moved up to Class A and won the state title again in 1989). Cape Elizabeth, Falmouth and York also figure prominently in the expanded playoff picture.

Growing pains continue at Gray-New Gloucester. The Patriots remain the smallest school in the conference in terms of both enrollment and football tradition. With the addition of the new schools, that gap is even more pronounced.

On the plus side, G-NG will try to rebound from an 0-9 campaign with its roster almost intact. Furnishing even more hope for the future: Only four seniors saw significant playing time a year ago.

“Rebuilding a program doesn’t happen overnight. It takes years,” G-NG coach Phil Prideaux said.

Prideaux is the first coach that the senior captains — two-way end Josh Bagdon, G/LB Colbey Bowen, QB/LB Roman Latno and HB/S John Greenleaf — have known for a second season.

Bowen makes the move from fullback to the line to join experienced blockers Colin Skilling and Cam Quintal.

“We’ll have to play hard every down,” Prideaux said. “My gut feeling is that the West will be the stronger of the two (Class B) leagues.”