It took hard work to get here — work that some of Xavier Smith’s former teammates weren’t given the chance to put in.

With only limited exposure to football when he began at Gardiner Area High School as a freshman in fall of 2021, Smith played three years of junior varsity before making it to the varsity level this year. He’s now a senior captain for the Tigers, something that might not have been possible without those three years.

“It would have been really tough. I think we could have done it, but it would have definitely been a lot harder,” Smith said. “Football is all about reps, so being able to (play three years of JV), that was really important for me to do.”

This is the first time in five years that a graduating class of Maine high schoolers has been able to play four years of football after the COVID-canceled season in 2020. Some coaches say that continuity has made a noticeable difference in this year’s senior players, as well as the state of the game as a whole. Others, however, aren’t so sure.

Gardiner head coach Pat Munzing consistently preaches physicality, which can’t be attained exclusively in a weight room. It also must be learned on the field, through taking hits and learning the speed of the game. An extra year of that has been critical to the Tigers’ physical development.

“You really need to mature physically as much as you do mentally,” Munzing said. “Having those three years of development, for some of those kids who physically weren’t ready to step into that role because they got to play that extra year of football, that’s made all the difference.”

Gardiner senior Ben Tobey, like Smith, began playing football as an eighth-grader in 2020 (Gardiner’s program ran its own in-house activities separate from the school) and said playing three years of JV ball helped him learn the Tigers’ scheme.

“It was helpful to just see everything in our offense from a JV standpoint, and run through it at our own speed,” Tobey said. “(Not having that) would have definitely been a lot more difficult. It wouldn’t have helped our development.”

MORE COMMITTED

Cony head coach B.L. Lippert echoed the physicality point. With each passing year, he said, players have come into the season in increasingly better physical condition. He said it took time for the Rams to return to where they’d been pre-2020 in terms of commitment in the weight room.

Lippert said that seems to have been corrected now that none of the players have been deprived of a year of football. From the Rams’ physical and mental toughness to the routine of doing the little things right on game days, he said this year’s team is more prepared than those of the past few seasons.

“I think this year is the first time (since then) that I feel like everyone kind of understands the expectations of what it takes to be a high school football player,” Lippert said. “It’s had to come back a bit, but now, I think we’re finally all the way back into the rhythm of what it had been in the decades before.”

Cony’s Bohdy King Jones is evidence of that. At 6-foot-2, 260 pounds, the burly junior is key to the Rams’ push up front. He spent his lost seventh-grade season in 2020 trying to get in better shape, and now that he has, four straight years of full-go contact football have seen him emerge as a top lineman.

“I wouldn’t be where I am now (had I missed a high school season),” King Jones said. “Getting to play JV my freshman year was definitely important for learning the plays. That made starting my sophomore year in varsity way easier. (Missing a year) would’ve made it so much harder. I can’t even imagine that, actually.”

Cony’s Casey Mills was one of the four classes of football players to miss a high school season. He started as a sophomore for the 8-1 Rams in 2019 before missing out on his junior season in 2020 and then winning the Frank J. Gaziano Defensive Lineman Award as a senior in 2021.

Mills said the thing that affected the sport the most when it returned in 2021 was the lack of continuity. In addition to returning players losing a year of development, it took time for many of them to relearn what it took to commit to football and the process behind that.

“I think getting people to commit again (was the hardest part),” Mills said. “After a year and half, people found other things to do, and that included kids who play sports. People just got into different things, and that was certainly a problem, being able to get everyone to focus back in.”

Mills believes Cony’s current crop of players benefited from not having that disruption at the high school level. One reason, he said, was that many 2020 players opted to continue working at their jobs instead of playing football when the sport was cleared to resume. Middle school players, not of working age, didn’t have that option.

“I think when you look at the commitments that people in high school form over one or two years, it’s a lot to come back from,” Mills said. “I think these guys now having that four years to keep working on their craft without that, it really helps. They’re not going to sink down to what they were before.”

SHARPER SKILLS

Oak Hill head coach Chad Stowell also notices a difference. Like Munzing, Stowell said the physicality of football is something that can’t fully be replicated outside of the game. The fourth year of football, which the three previous groups didn’t have, has made this year’s seniors tougher and more cognizant of what it takes to succeed.

Stowell also feels this group of players’ skills are more advanced. The lost season of football, he said, severely hindered the skills of players who returned after COVID, a phenomenon that he doesn’t see on Oak Hill’s 2024 squad.

“We feel like this group is much more developed than groups the past couple years, and I think that has to be the reason,” Stowell said. “I think that awareness and skill development was hit during the last couple years because of kids missing out for a whole season, whereas this group having that, it’s helped.”

Matt Friedman has been on Mt. Blue’s coaching staff since 2019, when the Cougars went 6-4 and earned a Class B North semifinal berth, one of their best campaigns in the past decade. Had the 2020 season been played, Mt. Blue would have been a top Pine Tree Conference team with a large senior class.

Instead, that year was a wash, which both wiped out the Cougars’ championship hopes and hindered the development of their younger players. Now Mt. Blue’s head coach, Friedman agrees with Lippert that the 2024 season is the first time his program has truly had a pre-2020 feel to it.

“Just in terms of the overall engagement to the game, this is the closest thing it’s been to 2019 and previous, for me,” Friedman said. “I think we’ve got players that are back to understanding the work that’s involved and are more willing to jump right into that with two feet than maybe they’ve been the last couple years.”

Friedman equated the stoppage of football in 2020 to “turning off a faucet.” Yes, football resumed in 2021, but it took time to fully flow the way it did before. It was even harder at Mt. Blue than at other places because the Cougars, unlike most other teams, didn’t even participate in 7-on-7 touch or flag football, as the school district withdrew from all fall sports.

Mt. Blue players agree that the 2024 season has felt more wholesome. Stevie Galkowski said the level of buy-in this fall has exceeded that of previous seasons. Joey Hayden said missing his seventh-grade season was far less impactful than those who missed a year of high school or even eighth-grade ball.

“(My senior teammates this year) missed their eighth-grade year, and that’s a big transition, too,” said Hayden, a junior lineman. “I feel like people just want it a lot more this year. I definitely feel more guys know what they’re doing and want to be here. There’s more involvement and commitment.”