MT. ARARAT HIGH SCHOOL will continue to play its home games this spring at area locations within the community. Boys and girls lacrosse, baseball and track squads will each host events on local fields off the high school campus this spring.
Pictured above is Sara York during the high jump during a meet in May 2018. (Eric Maxim / Times Record Staff)

TOPSHAM — Despite the wet white stuff falling over the region in recent days, the high school spring sports season is scheduled to get underway this week.

Most of the action this week involves play on local tennis courts, but soon hereafter, teams will hit the fields in baseball, softball, lacrosse and track.

As construction began on Mt. Ararat’s new high school in Topsham in the fall, teams were displaced from their usual playing fields. Again this spring, some teams will relocate to host home events.

Both the boys and girls tennis teams along with softball will continue playing at their normal sites, while the lacrosse, track and baseball teams will all be displaced.

But with a lot of hard work and a community coming together, the Eagles will have homes for the upcoming season.

“I feel very fortunate and very happy that the fields that we have been able to secure and the people and the organizations that control those fields have been very gracious and kind to help,” Mt. Ararat High School athletic director Geoff Godo said. “I was very happy how it worked out in the fall. It was different at the beginning, but our teams were able to make those places a home for them.”

As Godo noted, the fall schedule ran smooth with the help of everyone involved, with teams playing at Riverside Field at the Foreside Recreational Facility, the Topsham Fairgrounds and Mt. Ararat Middle School.

This spring will have similar changes during the construction.

MT. ARARAT HIGH SCHOOL will continue to play its home games this spring at area locations within the community. Boys and girls lacrosse, baseball and track squads will each host events on local fields off the high school campus this spring. Pictured above is shot-putter Abby Cons during a meet in May 2018. (Eric Maxim / Times Record Staff)

“In the fall there was a lot of anticipation on how things were going to work. The feedback we got, given the situation, people were happy with it,” Godo said. “The Fairgrounds and B.A.Y.F.L were great with us in football, the middle school was awesome for field hockey as well as the Rec. for soccer, which is great because we’re going to be doing this for a few years.”

Like the fall, this spring will present different obstacles as the Mt. Ararat teams will be playing home games on multiple sites. And the spring itself brings a lot more challenges overall because there are many question marks with regards to how any field is going to come out of the winter, with the snow this week not helping as fields will need time to dry.

“I would argue that this spring will be more challenging. Our teams are going to be playing at multiple sites,” Godo said. “At the end of the day, the final word is to be as close as we can, minimize travel and make it as much of a home game as we can.”

While Godo has a schedule drafted, things can change quickly as the weather in Maine can vary so much.

“Postponements are going to be difficult, but we’ll figure it out. It’s spring in Maine, we’re going to have weather issues,” Godo said. “The hard part for us, is we must rely a lot on everyone else as every other field we’re playing on has others playing on it as well, so we’ll work with them.

“We play most of our lacrosse games on turf, (and) barring a major thunderstorm, those games will go on as scheduled.”

As both boy’s and girl’s lacrosse teams both played on the football field at Mt. Ararat High School, where the new school will stand, these Eagle squads will host contests at Ryan Field at Bowdoin College, McMann Field in Bath, Hyde (girls only) and Brunswick High School. For practices, the teams will continue to use the fields on campus at the high school and middle school.

In track and field, the 85-plus athletes are spread about depending on their events. The school typically hosted a meet or two during the regular season, but this year will travel for all of its meets.

“The biggest thing is practice. The team is able to go to Bowdoin (starting this week), but some of the track is unavailable, so depending on the athlete’s events, they might not go over there yet,” Godo said. “We have some track set up over by the middle school that is primarily used by them, and with over 100 kids going out for middle school track, we’ve been working with them to try to create a scenario so we can co-exist.”

Baseball has taken a more convoluted, different path getting to this year’s slate. A new high school baseball field was constructed behind the middle school fields over the past couple of years. According to Godo, the original construction plan was that the field was going to be ready for this spring, but this past fall, the administration did not feel comfortable going forward with playing on it this year.

“This past fall, we identified and noticed enough things that we didn’t feel comfortable accepting that yet,” Godo said. “The bad part is we don’t have a field yet, but the good part of it is it gives the field more time to mature and gives us more time to finish the dugouts, put in the flag pole and the fence in place.”

With that being said, the baseball team’s schedule involves a lot of moving parts on multiple fields and will rely on good weather in April and May. They will practice on the middle school fields for fielding and there are plans in place for an outdoor cage in the area of the new field.

“That’s been a challenge with baseball, trying to find the right dates,” Godo said. “The baseball team is going to have to coordinate some moving around between those spaces.”

The Eagles will play varsity games at Bowdoin College, Brunswick High School, Lisbon High School and Mt. Ararat Middle School. The junior varsity team will also play games at Edwards Field in Brunswick.

The games scheduled at Lisbon and the middle school may eventually be moved to Bowdoin College. That will depend on the Polar Bears and if they host an opponent in their postseason tournament. If they are not hosting games on those dates, the plan is for the Eagles to move those home games to the Brunswick campus.

With all of the moving parts, postponements and the ever rapidly-changing weather, the best way to look up the Eagles’ schedule is by checking the website at https://sites.google.com/site/mtararateagles/ for up-to-date changes.

MT. ARARAT HIGH SCHOOL will continue to play its home games this spring at area locations within the community. Boys and girls lacrosse, baseball and track squads will each host events on local fields off the high school campus this spring. Pictured above is the boys lacrosse team during a game last May. (Eric Maxim / Times Record Staff)