enlarge Michael C. York/Special to the Telegram

Games are played on soccer fields, and there’s no need for football goal posts because there are no extra-point kicks or field-goal attempts. Pictured from left to right are members of the Caribou-Presque Isle Huskies: Codie Robbins, Jake Cyr, Landon Keiser, Justin Chaput, Jordan Mitchell, Drew Long, Kyle Ledue and Tyler Grant.

enlarge Michael C. York/Special to the Telegram

Stu Wyckoff, a former resident of the high school football hotbed of Texas, helped start football in Caribou seven years ago and still serves as head coach of the Caribou-Presque Isle squad.

enlarge Michael C. York/Special to the Telegram

Jordan Mitchell, center, says he and his teammates aren’t discouraged by the small crowds that usually attend Caribou-Presque Isle home games.

enlarge Michael C. York/Special to the Telegram

An assistant coach instructs Caribou-Presque Isle players at a recent practice. Caribou-Presque Isle and the other three teams in the Maine State Eight-Man Football League play six regular-season games before the playoffs begin Oct. 24.

enlarge Michael C. York/Special to the Telegram

The Caribou-Presque Isle Huskies is one of four teams in the Maine State Eight-Man Football League, which is entering its fourth season.

EIGHT-MAN FOOTBALL RULES AND NOTES

OFFENSIVE FORMATION: 5 on the line, 3 in the backfield. Two ends eligible for passes.

DEFENSIVE FORMATION: Typically, 3 on the line, 3 linebackers, 2 defensive backs.

FIELD SIZE: Typically 80 yards long by 40 yards wide.

EXTRA POINTS: One point, run or pass, from the 3-yard line, or two points, run or pass, from the 7-yard line.

CLOCK: Four quarters, 12 minutes each.

PLAY: Typically, more emphasis on speed rather than size. More trick plays, higher scores.

CARIBOU — The discovery of what had been missing from his new life in Aroostook County hit Mike Hohnadel hard, like an unblocked linebacker coming from his blind side.

"There were no goal posts (on the playing fields)," said Hohnadel, who grew up in Georgia, last lived in Louisiana and was suddenly confronted with life without high school football. If he was someplace in America, he assumed football had to be part of the scenery.

He was like the church-goer who surveyed the landscape and found no steeples.

"Oh, no," Hohnadel remembers asking himself that day, several years ago, "what have I gotten myself into?"

Hohnadel, who lives in Madawaska, chuckled as he described first impressions that didn't last. Aroostook County has gotten religion. Football crossed its last frontier in Maine about seven years ago when 13 players signed up to play. Few noticed at the time. Those who did might have expected a flirtation that wouldn't last.

On Sept. 12, the four-team, Maine State Eight-Man Football League begins a new season. Nearly 120 players will don helmets and shoulder pads when the Houlton Knights travel to Madawaska to play the Valley Mustangs, coached by Hohnadel. The Caribou-Presque Isle Huskies will cross the border for a game with the Fredericton Gladiators in New Brunswick.

Goal posts still don't reach up to the sky in Maine's far north, where fields shared with soccer programs tend to be 80 yards long rather than 100, and 40 yards wide instead of 53. Eight players, not the usual 11, line up on each side of the ball. They don't wear familiar school colors because there is no connection. This is a private endeavor not affiliated with school systems who are grappling with shrinking budgets and enrollments.

Eight-man football means two tackles and a wide receiver are eliminated on the offensive side, two defensive backs and a defensive lineman on the other side. Emphasis tends to be on speed rather than size. Play-calling tends to be more imaginative. Think direct snaps and wildcat formations.

But make no mistake, the game is football.

"Does this have legs? I'd say so," said Stu Wyckoff, one of the founding fathers. "Look at the numbers (in the league)."

Wyckoff is a transplanted Texan who relocated his psychiatry practice to Caribou some 18 years ago. He and Dick Engels, an attorney with New York roots, were at a Rotary meeting one day, lamenting the absence of football in their communities, when someone suggested they stop talking and start doing.

The two men sounded a call for players in 2002, and the 13 who responded were split into two teams for flag football. Word spread, and more boys and a few girls signed up. Six-man football, popular in Texas, was played the next year. After three seasons, there were enough players for the eight-man version.

"All it needed was a spark," said Vincent Sirois of Madawaska, the de facto general manager of the Valley Mustangs. His twin sons, Marc and Kenny, begged to let them play when the league was still playing six-man. Like many in The County, the Sirois family had no tradition of playing football. The sport wasn't part of their culture. His tall twins were well known in the Upper St. John River valley for their basketball skills.

But Sirois couldn't deny his sons' enthusiasm for football. "There would be five or six inches of snow on the ground and they'd say it was perfect for football. I had to go outside and throw them passes."

"It's football," said Hohnadel, who begins his second full season as coach. His roster includes about six players from Edmunston, the Canadian city on the other side of the Saint John River. Many in his fan base of 200-300 have no trouble following the Mustangs on the road.

"I wouldn't compare them to Indianapolis Colts fans, but they're learning when to cheer."

Hohnadel doesn't claim extensive coaching experience. His last gig was a midget...