Wiscasset students could be playing football next fall with the Seahawks of Boothbay Region High School. In a 4-1 vote April 28, the Wiscasset School Committee favored the move.

The lone dissenter, Chairman Steve Smith, cited his concern for maintaining numbers in Wiscasset’s sports program.

Vice Chairman Eugene Stover asked if Wiscasset might lose soccer players to football. Probably very few, Wiscasset Middle High School athletic director and assistant principal Nate Stubbert said. Maybe ones who only play soccer because there is no football, but not the dedicated players, he said.

Opening Wiscasset’s sports ranks to BRHS players would change Wiscasset’s class for soccer, Stubbert said. “It just wouldn’t make sense.”

He projected five to seven Wiscasset students would sign up for football.

BRHS’ athletic director and dean of students Allan Crocker and BRHS football coach Bryan Dionne joined Stubbert in pitching the collaborative football team idea. They said it gives Wiscasset students a chance to play high school football and helps BRHS maintain Class D junior varsity and varsity teams as enrollments decline.

“I think this would be an opportunity for (Wiscasset students) to participate and add it to their high school experience,” Dionne said.

BRHS gets something else in the proposed deal: use of WMHS’s outdoor track twice a week in the spring, officials said.

According to the men’s presentation and papers Superintendent of Schools Heather Wilmot received, BRHS would provide transportation for Wiscasset students from the Wiscasset Fire Department to the practice field on days the Bath vocational bus is running. When it’s not available, Wiscasset students and families would need to arrange transportation. BRHS would pick up Wiscasset students at WMHS for all away games, officials said.

Students would follow their own school’s eligibility policy; BRHS would hire and evaluate coaches, officials said. One year in, both schools could decide whether to keep the collaborative team going. If so, there would be more decisions to make, including a team name and mascot and possibly new uniforms. The officials said they’re seeking a one-year waiver on the name and mascot. It’s up to the Maine Principals Association to approve that request and the application for the collaborative team, officials said.

Committee member Michael Dunn wondered how a small contingent from one school and a majority of a team from another would mesh.

Dionne described the Boothbay Region program as being like a family — not perfect, but when issues arise, they are addressed and corrected, he said.

Although WMHS does not have a football team, a couple of students have been playing for Lincoln County Football, Stubbert said. It’s a grades one through 12 program in the Maine Independent Football League and is not affiliated with the Maine Principals Association, Lincoln County Football’s head coach for grades nine through 12, Allen Tomasello, said in a phone interview.

In addition to its league games, Lincoln County Football has played scrimmage, or exhibition, games with Class D teams including Boothbay Region, Tomasello said.

“If Wiscasset players have an opportunity to play varsity football, I’m very supportive of that,” he said.