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Biddeford High and Thornton Academy of Saco are about two miles apart, separated by a winding river that defines the boundary of one of Maine’s most intense interscholastic rivalries.

Each athletic contest between the schools is highly anticipated. This spring the softball teams from those schools should be among the best in Western Class A.

And their first game is actually Saturday – some 1,400 miles away. That’s right, 1,400 miles. They will play a preseason game in Orlando, Fla., as part of their April vacation trip.

“Pretty ironic, huh?” said Tigers Coach Leon Paquin. “We go to Florida, we get to play Thornton. We can go over the bridge and play them and it will cost nothing.”

Biddeford and Thornton are among several softball and baseball teams traveling to Florida, many to Disney’s Wide World of Sports complex, to prepare for the short spring season.

Softball teams from Oxford Hills, Noble, Falmouth, Scarborough and Wells are heading to Disney, as are baseball teams from Cape Elizabeth, Falmouth and Windham. Yarmouth’s baseball team is going to Vero Beach.

The trips provide coaches an opportunity to gauge their talent while also providing a team bonding experience many will never forget.

“When you’re with your teammates 24-7, it’s a great bonding experience,” said Alana Peoples, a senior first baseman at Scarborough. “I know that for me, if you’re close to your team, you’re going to play better together. I think that’s huge.

“At the end of the week you’re tired but you feel accomplished with what you’ve done as a team. When you come back you’re just so much closer and tighter and ready to play and ready to get the season started.”

And they get pretty close. The Scarborough players were giving the opportunity to split up into groups when they went to Disney’s parks but chose to stay together, producing some memorable moments.

“We were in Epcot,” said senior Lauren Aceto, “and we had spent two hours in line (waiting to get on a ride) as a team and we had so much fun, starting slow clap, playing games.

“That was so far. Just being together as a team, it’s fun doing everything.”

EARNING THEIR WAY

The trips are made with no cost to the schools. Teams either raise the funds through various events, receive money from booster clubs or simply have the families pay the cost — usually between $1,000 and $1,300 per person — which includes hotels, food and a day at the amusement parks at Disney.

Since reservations have to be made a year in advance, it is important the teams know where the money is coming from. Some teams have car washes, bottle drives or cake sales to raise money. Biddeford had a Krispy Kreme doughnut sale.

In other cases, parents pay some of the costs, as do booster clubs.

The Yarmouth boosters, for example, paid about 50 percent of the cost of this year’s trip. The rest was raised by the players, something very important to Coach Marc Halsted.

“We want the kids to feel like they’ve worked hard to go,” he said. “There’s no entitlement; you’ve got to earn your way there. And these kids worked hard.”

Yarmouth will send 23 players to Vero Beach, which is a new destination for the Clippers. In three previous trips south they went to Cocoa Beach. But Halsted switched because he felt Vero Beach had better facilities, even if it is a little more expensive.

They’ll spend a day at the beach, he said, but “we’re down there for baseball activities.”

The Clippers will have three intrasquad scrimmages and seven games against opponents from New York, Florida and Vermont. Halsted tries to get each player 20 at-bats and 25-30 innings in the field.

“It’s a chance to prove yourself,” said Halsted. “It helps form the varsity and junior varsity rosters and starting lineups. And there’s a lot of team building going on. It just breeds a good team culture.”

TIME WELL SPENT

With the Maine Principals’ Association limiting the number of dates teams can schedule non-regular season events to five, teams that go to Florida get the most out of their dates.

Falmouth’s baseball team will play eight games over three dates in addition to a couple of practice days. Thornton, Wells, Falmouth and Scarborough will play four doubleheaders. (Wells is actually bringing 26 players and will field two teams, each playing eight games). Noble will play 12 games, three each on four dates.

Knights Coach Rick Melanson, who will take 16 players south, said he surveyed his players last year after they went to Florida and found they wanted to play more games. Last year they played eight.

“The weather is such a big advantage down there,” he said. “There’s no sting when you hit the ball.

“We’ve got eight starters back this year and they’re really looking forward to it.”

Falmouth baseball coach Kevin Winship is using this trip to educate his players, as well. He’s taking them to see a game between Central Florida and Florida so they can see what Division I baseball is like.

But the emphasis is still on playing.

“It’s just a good experience for everyone,” he said. “We get to practice and play outside in good weather. The kids will get quality playing time and see game situations.”

John Keyes, bringing the Falmouth softball team to Florida for the fourth time, said he enjoys the competition.

“You face a lot of different types of pitchers there,” he said. “We try to learn from whatever we do wrong down there and hopefully we can do it right when we get back.”

And, added Keyes, “We’ve developed some pretty good relationships with some of the teams we’ve seen down there. It’s a lot of fun.

BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS

Scarborough’s Tom Griffin said the value of such trips goes far beyond what happens on the softball field.

He’s taking 15 players, three coaches and two adult chaperones and said the Red Storm will receive some sort of award for making their fifth trip to Disney’s facilities.

“The biggest thing I’ve found is that when you’re with the team 24-7 for a week, you get really close,” he said. “You learn to trust each other, learn to treat each other at a different level, as a friend rather than just a teammate.

“And it gives the coaches a chance to learn about the kids more on a personal level rather than when you’re just at practice screaming and yelling at them.

“It’s nice to see them away from the field; it helps you understand them a little better, what motivates them and why they’re even playing softball.”

The players, as much as they want to have some fun, know what’s at stake when they go to Florida.

“Two years ago we went to Florida and won the (state championship),” said Scarborough’s Aceto. “And I think that was a big reason why.”

Staff Writer Mike Lowe can be contacted at 791-6422 or at: mlowe@pressherald.com