So Wiscasset is facing another season of one high school sport not having enough players for a regular, Mountain Valley Conference season. It is not the first time, but we all can help it be the last time.

Sports promote health, work ethic and social skills – all of which, in one form or another, are part of an education. Physical education, assignments with deadlines and other expectations, and small group work help the academic side of school foster health, work ethic and social skills.

Students and their families can add to that with the team sports schools offer. If more are not, why not? If it is due to sports programs outside school, that is not a bad thing. The students still get the above skills, and if some teammates in those other programs are from other schools, friendships may result that otherwise would not have. On school teams in a town Wiscasset’s size, everybody is usually a familiar face from school.

Of course, a school team can turn two lunchtime or recess acquaintances, or two who do not even say hi to each other in passing in the hall or on the bus, into friends, maybe even lifelong ones.

Jobs, appointments, or other schedule demands may be a big reason a family does not do high school sports. And that is a great reason, as those demands all need to be high priority. Is there any innovation that has not been tried for practice and game schedules, transportation, etc.?

No? Maybe no isn't good enough.

When you lose something, it is always in the last place you look. Yes, you stopped looking because you found it, but you also didn’t stop looking until you found it. Everyone, from employers and other taxpayers, to students’ families, schools and the MVC, legislators, Maine Department of Education and coaches help schools provide the best education they can. 

Collectively, that is a lot of brain power. We continue to hear it takes a village to raise a child. Maybe it takes one to get and keep teens on a team. The plans to keep Wiscasset’s younger students active in feeder programs, and have this fall’s high school soccer players keep playing and building skills, are good and can only help.

What else would help? Any ideas?

Week’s positive parting thought: Enjoy a safe and relaxing and/or profitable Labor Day Weekend.