HOULTON, Maine — With the winter sports activities season proper across the nook, one faculty will noticeably be lacking from the basketball courts.
Athletes from Higher Houlton Christian Academy, a personal, Christian establishment situated in Houlton, will commerce their faculty colours of inexperienced and white, in addition to the Eagle mascot, in favor of the black and white Judges of Houlton Center-Excessive College as a part of a brand new cooperative settlement between the 2 colleges.
The cooperative was permitted by the RSU 29 faculty board and the Higher Houlton Christian Academy board of administrators in early fall and was ultimately permitted by the Maine Principals Affiliation. The 2 colleges had been speaking in regards to the thought for a number of months, and have already got expertise co-oping in soccer, cross nation and observe and area.
Beforehand, if the Academy didn’t provide a specific sport, college students participated with different colleges based mostly on their locations of residence. For instance, college students who resided in Hodgdon had been in a position to take part with the Hodgdon baseball and basketball groups.
Underneath the brand new settlement, college students will solely be capable of take part at Houlton.
As well as, eighth-graders will not be allowed to take part on a highschool crew. Underneath present MPA pointers, small colleges can use eighth grade college students if there may be an inadequate variety of excessive school-age college students. These college students shall be eligible to take part on the center faculty squads.
The concept to merge the 2 colleges for athletics and extracurricular actions has been talked about for a number of years, Jon Solomon, athletic director at Houlton Center-Excessive College, stated. He felt the time was proper to see it to fruition.
“We had talked again within the spring about [the two schools] coming collectively and co-oping the entire actions we have now to supply,” Solomon stated. “For the final a number of years, we have now co-oped in soccer, cross nation and observe and area. We really feel this shall be a greater alternative for the entire youngsters.”
By forming a cooperative, college students at Higher Houlton Christian Academy can take part in all MPA-sanctioned actions, together with teachers and drama. The transfer is not going to bump Houlton into the next classification by MPA’s requirements, Solomon added. Nor will there be any downside with college students needing to be reduce for any explicit crew.
Higher Houlton Christian Academy has about 26 college students in grades 9-12.
Looking for sufficient athletes to compete for the varsity has been an more and more tough proposition, John Corridor, athletic director on the Academy for the previous 4 years, stated. By becoming a member of forces with Houlton, these athletes can keep collectively on one crew reasonably than be break up up based mostly on the place they dwell.
“For instance, we had 4 ladies who performed collectively by means of center faculty, however now that they’re in highschool, one could be taking part in at Central Aroostook, one would play at Southern Aroostook, one would play for Houlton and one would play for Hodgdon,” he stated. “We by no means have the chance for households to have one single recreation to go to. I wish to see our college students that sit in school collectively, have the chance to play collectively.”
Corridor added that the transfer would deliver higher unity to the varsity’s household as they cheer on their college students.
Higher Houlton Christian Academy final fielded an official faculty crew in the course of the 2019-20 winter sports activities season, with the Eagles boys basketball crew incomes a spot within the Class D North match. The Eagles gained a preliminary spherical playoff and superior to the Cross Insurance coverage Middle, the place the crew fell within the quarterfinals.
There shall be no change to the colour scheme or mascot for Houlton.
This text was up to date to mirror that GHCA is a personal Christian establishment.