BIDDEFORD — Nick Gagne and Amethyst Hersom enjoy playing sports. They enjoy it so much, that they have dedicated their high school careers to competing in at least three sports per season, something that takes dedication and time.

While their desire to play three sports per school year is nothing new to high school athletics, it is becoming less common, which is why Biddeford High School is strongly behind a program that awards athletes for taking on the challenge of being three-sport participants, said Dennis Walton, athletics director at the school.

“A really big topic in high school sports today is the demise of the three-sport athlete,”Walton said. “Every school is looking at ways to increase athletic participation. When you look at the benefits of participation I think we are obligated as a aschool, and as athletic adminstrators to find ways to encourage participation.”

The program, called Iron Tiger – Three Sport Athlete Award, started in 2009 as a way to increase participation in sports during a time that sees more athletes become specialized in one sport, Walton said. Athletes who participate in three sports receive, at the spring sports award ceremony, a trophy of an iron tiger head. The program has worked. In 2008-2009, 88 students participated in three sports. That number is now 108.

“The program started last year when we got the idea of recognizng and rewarding any student athlete who participated in all three seasons at BHS,” Walton said. “This is for all grade levels because we felt that getting kids involved as ninth graders was pivotal.”

For Hersom, a 17-year-old junior who plays field hockey in the fall, basketball in the winter and softball in the spring, playing three sports always seemed like the right choice, she said.

“I like to always be busy,” she said. “I get sick of playing just one sport ”¦ You also meet three times as many people and work different parts of your body that I think gets you into better shape.”

Gagne, a 17-year-old junior who plays football in the fall, hockey in the winter and baseball in the spring, said that not playing three sports seemed odd.

“I just like sports,” he said. “I like being able to play for different teams and I’ve competed in many different sports since I was a kid and this just seemed natural.”

Playing any sport, whether an athlete specializes in just one or plays three, is time consuming, both Hersom and Gagne said.

Including going to school, athletes can spend up to nine to 10 hours per day, six days per week either studying or competing. That is more than a full-time job, Hersom said.

“It’s difficult at times,” she said. “You need to balance your school work with practice and with your social life. But it’s worth it.”

Biddeford boys basketball coach Mike Fecteau, who also is an assistant coach for the softball team, said he encourages athletes to compete in more than one sport per season.

He said he believes that it helps prepare them for other sports and makes them better athletes.

“I think that an athlete that plays multiple sports will be less likely to burn out, over train, overuse injuries, lose interest and reach a competitive plateau than an athlete that plays a sport all 12 months of the year,” Fecteau said. “By them playing other sports, they’re putting themselves in a position to compete. I think when you have to make a free throw in basketball, you find something about yourself and how you can handle pressure.”

With the creation of numerous AAU travelling teams and improving recreational departments, athletes today have more access to a sport that allows them to compete in that sport all year, Walton said.

This has increased the talent level not only in Maine, but throughout the United States, but both Hersom and Gagne question if it’s always the right move for an athlete.

Hersom recalls that last year she competed in a national field hockey camp and at the time was contemplating only playing field hockey for her final two years of school. That idea changed as soon as she stepped onto the field with players from across the country.

“A lot of them focused only on field hockey and they were incredible players,” Hersom said. “All the girls there were probably going to get a Division I scholarship and I realized that’s who I was competing against for scholarships and I realisitically thought I’d be better off enjoying my last two years playing all the sports I love to play.”

Gagne said that, while he’d love to play at the Division I level, he realizes the competition level is greater and he’d have a better chance playing at lower level college, which allows him to enjoy all the sports he loves.

“I don’t want to look back one day and regret not having played the sports I wanted to play,” he said. “Some day I will be older and I want to look back at my time in high school fondly.”

Walton agrees.

“Today kids are being promised potential scholarships by outside groups if they forgo a high school sport to join their programs,” he said. “In many cases what they really are doing is making sure they can fund their program. In most cases they are empty promises that have very little benefit to the athlete”

In addition to the trophy, the school will now hand out t-shirts that say Iron Tiger on them.

“It’s nice being recognized,” Hersom said. “Not everyone can they lettered in a sport, but we’re being rewarded for taking the time to letter in three sports.”