enlarge John Ewing/Staff Photographer

After the planning and road games, Sacopee Valley finally got to do it. Finally got to take the field for a home game.

enlarge John Ewing/Staff Photographer

Cathryn Thompson helps lead the cheers as the dreams of so many finally came to fruition: a home football game for Sacopee Valley High.

enlarge John Ewing/Staff Photographer

Carl Landry brings some top-flight experience to his job as the Sacopee Valley head coach. He played guard and linebacker at Biddeford High, a tradition-rich Class A school.

enlarge John Ewing/Staff Photographer

Anthony Ward, left, and Cory Oliver show the spirit that football can help bring to a school.

enlarge John Ewing/Staff Photographer

The Sacopee Valley players pay tribute to the fans – well more than a thousand – who cheered on a victory.

If you choose the moment of conception: Last spring a flyer caught the attention of more than a hundred sixth- through 11th-grade boys interested in playing football if Sacopee Valley were to start a program.

Better though to skip the sign-up sheet and bypass all the labor pains -- the school board meetings, the fundraising, the scramble for equipment, the practices dedicated to such basics as stance and cadence and rules.

Let's begin instead with Sacopee Valley's second play from scrimmage Tuesday night, at the first home game in school history. Sophomore Jared Reynolds took a pitch from quarterback Dustin Stanton and swept right. Right toward a sideline filled with royal blue uniforms backed by peers, parents, grandparents, siblings and curious residents of the five towns that feed Sacopee Valley: Hiram, Baldwin, Cornish, Porter and Parsonsfield.

Already there was a buzz in the still night air. Never mind that this was a midweek junior varsity game. Smoke drifted lazily across the field from three grills cooking hamburgers under a concessions tent. There were cheerleaders and painted faces and a palpable sense of excitement mingled with anticipation.

For what? Nobody quite knew.

Oh, many had heard that Sacopee's nascent Hawks had lost their first two games, then won a pair, all as the visiting team. Here, finally, was a chance to show their community what all the fuss was about -- why they had been holding car washes and selling raffle tickets, how hard they had worked and how much they had learned.

Reynolds leaned upfield, planted his right foot and cut hard against the grain. A hand brushed his thigh. Another clutched at his jersey. Noise from the home sideline grew as a thousand pulses quickened, a thousand voices rose from eager buzz to anticipatory yelp to frenzied, full-throated roar as the realization dawned that ... HE ... COULD ... GO ... ALL ... THE ... WAY!

By the time Reynolds completed his 60-yard touchdown jaunt, there was celebration on the sidelines and bedlam in the bleachers. Hugs and high fives abounded behind the fence separating those with helmets from those without. Achievement had not simply met expectation, but juked past and sashayed into aspiration.

At this point, Hollywood would have added fireworks; Hiram seemed perfectly content with a canned recording of Michigan's fight song -- "Hail! to the victors valiant" -- piped over tinny loudspeakers.

The hoped-for had happened.

Sacopee Valley football had arrived.

"It was the greatest thing," Reynolds said after the Hawks finished off their 47-14 victory over Telstar. "It all flew by so fast. But it felt so good."

A valuable addition

High school football in Maine is on the upswing. In 1991 there were 56 varsity football teams. Ten years later the number inched up to 60.

Today there are 70, with more than a half-dozen waiting in the wings, including Sacopee Valley. These schools must play at least a two-year junior varsity schedule before becoming eligible to ask the Maine Principals' Association for varsity status.

The two schools who made that jump most recently are Yarmouth and Mt. View, both in Class C. Each has yet to win; Yarmouth didn't score until its fourth game.

A mistake? Not according to Mt. View Principal Lynda Letteney.

"It's absolutely fabulous," she said. "I can't say enough good things about what it does for kids' school spirit. Football brings with it an element of excitement that other sports don't always bring."

After three years as a club sport, football gained sanction from Mt. View last fall and from the MPA this fall. It didn't come without controversy and struggle, as the Sacopee Valley boosters discovered, but Letteney said the rewards ripple through the school and community.

"I'm looking at 14 cheerleaders who were doing nothing last (fall)," she said. "Now they're cheering for boys' and...