Chris Hopkins has watched his team work together in practices and games, firing passes to one another, running offensive plays and communicating while taking off down the field in transition. A coach wants to see it all run seamlessly, and oftentimes with Hopkinsβs bunch, it does.
Itβs all routine until considering the players come from schools that are often at odds with each other. They come from Maine Central Institute and Nokomis Regional High School, two schools made geographical rivals by the mere 10 miles separating them β and in this case, two schools that become allies on the stage of the stateβs fastest-growing sport.
βIf an outsider were to come and spend the day at one of our practices, unaware of the composition, they would have no idea it was two separate schools,β said Hopkins, the teamβs coach and the headmaster at MCI. βThey are one team, and they donβt care what school theyβre from.β
Itβs the third year that MCI and Nokomis have been an official cooperative program, but this is the first season itβs making the jump to the varsity level. MCI/Nokomis will play in Class A North, and while itβs newcomers to the Maine Principalsβ Association picture, the players are confident that theyβre ready for it.
βIβm not going to go in thinking weβre going to lose any game,β said attackman Nick Bolliger, a Nokomis senior. βPersonally, I think we can hang with anybody. β¦ We can compete with anybody if we play our game.β
Thereβs a reason for the confidence: While MCI/Nokomis is a new team, itβs hardly a newcomer to the game. Even before their time playing together as a club team, many players on the roster played as part of the Mid-Maine Lacrosse Club, an organization for grades 3-8 that was started by Newport-Pittsfield area parents to provide a way to play a game that was proving wildly popular, but confined to the southern part of the state. Many of the parents, Hopkins said, went to refereeing and coaching clinics so that, as the program grew, they could ensure it was turning out well-trained players. Soon, Mid-Maine Lacrosse was providing the talent for what became the MCI/Nokomis club.
βThis cooperative is all the result of Mid-Maine lacrosse,β said Hopkins, a former player at Middlebury College.
As a result, even in its infancy, MCI/Nokomis had players with years of experience and an established foundation of teamwork.
βWeβve got a lot of team chemistry,β said Bolliger. βItβs a huge thing. I think not seeing each other all the time, then we reunite and we catch up really quick, I think itβs built kind of more of a bond with us, that weβre from rival schools.
I think that plays a huge part in our season and gives us an advantage.β
That time together has included early struggles, recent success and even a heavy measure of heartbreak. MCI/Nokomisβs top player in its first year as a club program was Jonny Bowman, who led the team with 59 goals in 2015. Bowman was diagnosed with cancer near the end of the season, however, and his battle with the disease forced him to stay on the sidelines as a coach last season. He died June 18 at 16 years old, and his former teammates say heβs provided a source of motivation as they make the jump to varsity play.
βItβs tough to lose the best player on the team, itβs tough to lose a friend like that,β said midfielder Hayden Boreham, a senior from MCI. βBut it gives us something to play for, because itβs more than just a game now. Weβre playing for Jonny, weβre playing for ourselves, weβre playing to win.β
Bolliger is even wearing Bowmanβs No. 1, per the latterβs request.
βHe was by far, head and shoulders, our best player,β Bolliger said. βThereβs a lot more than just wins and losses into this season. Itβs more emotional than just a sport.β
Itβs the most powerful example of the kinship and camaraderie that has defined the program in its early going, even with the differences in schooling among the players. For many of them, theyβve been teammates on the lacrosse field longer than theyβve been MCI Huskies or Nokomis Warriors, so blending on and off the field has become second nature.
βA lot of teams that form that co-op and go into the first year, theyβre just throwing that together, they havenβt been together for a long time,β Boreham said. βA lot of us didnβt know each other until we played lacrosse, and then we came together. Other schools that try to do something like that, they may not know each other. β¦ Itβs going to create that lack of chemistry.β
Thatβs not an issue at MCI/Nokomis, but there is still the variable of unfamiliar competition. The team knows something about the teams it will face, having played scheduled opponents Lawrence, Winslow and Camden Hills in preseason games before this season, but Hopkins knows facing those teams in regular-season competition will be a new challenge.
βWe went through two years of losing very few games, Iβm proud to say, but thatβs going to change,β he said. βIβm fully expecting this team to probably have some very tough games early on this year.
βBut then, (I expect) by the time weβre coming to the end of the season, as we face those teams a second time, that those teams are seeing a very different level of play than they did earlier.β
And sometimes, he added, that chance to take teams by surprise can be an asset in itself.
βWe are still the newcomers on the block,β he said, βand we will relish that underdog status and go out and have fun.β
Drew Bonifant β 621-5638
dbonifant@centralmaine.com
Twitter: @dbonifantMTM
Send questions/comments to the editors.
Comments are no longer available on this story