BIDDEFORD— The University of New England recently kicked off its first-ever football training camp as its inaugural season will begin Sep. 2 at Curry College.

UNE will begin as a junior varsity team for the 2017 fall and will advance to a varsity program in 2018. 2017 will be a year of formation and transition, however, many familiar faces from southern Maine highlight the UNE roster.

Hometown standouts Joey Curit, Patrick Pearl, Austin Dutremble and Trevor Therrien will represent Biddeford at UNE. Cam Cadorette will be representing nearby Thornton Academy this fall as well.

Other locals include Kennebunk fullback Pat Saunders, Scarborough’s Dakota Joy, and recent state champion Owen Berry, of Wells.

Some may be weary of building a program from scratch, however, many of these players look forward to competing with familiar faces, and feel that having those southern Maine ties will only help the formation of the team.

“It’s been cool because the closest (college football) programs have been so far away but now southern Maine has a football team. There’s been five or six kids that have said, ‘yeah I remember playing you,’ and now we’re teammates together,” said Curit, who will be occupying a defensive back position for the Nor’easters.

“Growing up, obviously, Austin (Dutremble), Pat (Pearl) and Joey (Curit), I knew all of them and sometimes I would work out with them in the summer, but on the field I always played against them. It’s a lot better now having Joey on the opposite corner rather than trying to chase him down,” added Cadorette, who will be competing at cornerback this fall.

Although the Nor’easters have enjoyed hitting the field with their local peers, they also have a bigger goal in mind, and that is to start the program off on the right foot and establish their place on the team.

“It’s been a lot of fun to start off this program and I’ve made a lot of friends quickly. We talk about high school sometimes but that’s all behind us, we’re playing with the guys here now,” said Saunders, who will be part of the running backs group. “We’re ready to move on to the next step. We’ve come together really quickly, quicker than I thought we would. We’re going to grow as a team, these will be my brothers for the next four years.”

“It’s just a lot of fun being a part of history here. We’ve just been working hard to bond together as a team,” said Therrien.

The transition from high school to college has been a challenging one, and the young Nor’easters are trying to adapt to the increase in competition each day at practice.

“It’s a lot different, more up-tempo, more fast-paced,” said Joy. “Usually when you go to a new school there are guys already there and there are older guys you can look to but right now it’s just younger guys taking the reps.”

“It’s a big jump – it’s been really intense but that’s what we expected it to be at the next level,” added Pearl. “It’s been hard work but it’s going to be a big jump, we’re all freshman so we’ll be playing against kids that are older so we need to work.”

The Nor’easters have also enjoyed their time playing for head coach Mike Lichten, and have learned a lot along the way on and off the field.

“He’s a great coach. The whole coaching staff is great. They are bringing a lot of energy to every practice and meetings. It’s really good to see,” said Berry.

UNE will finish up camp in the upcoming weeks, and hope to be ready to compete for the season opener at Curry. The Nor’easters are confident, and feel like the sky is the limit for this fresh program.

“We have a lot of great talent and a lot of great coaches. The coaches are really invested so I think that we have great potential,” said Curit. “Getting better every day has been the goal for the team, get out on the practice field and getting better each and every day.”

“The thing that coach has really been emphasizing is that we’re a team, like it’s all of us and it takes everyone to come together,” said Cadorette. “We are starting obviously at the bottom here but the goal is to get to the top. Our motto is ‘take a step to the top.’ Coach says ‘take a step,’ and we say, ‘to the top.’”

— Associate Sports Editor Alex Sponseller can be reached at asponseller@journaltribune.com or at 282-1535 ext. 323. Follow the Journal Tribune Sports Department on Twitter @JournalTsports.