A group of hockey people in Houlton has discussed the possibility of sponsoring a club team at Houlton High School with Houlton Superintendent of Schools Bill McDonald.

The group would eventually like to put a varsity team on the ice but they haven’t established a timetable as yet.

The hockey boosters will provide the money for the ice time, insurance and equipment but they would like the program to receive an affiliation with the school so the players would be required to conform to the guidelines established by the school for extra-curricular activities.

“We intend to take care of all of the school’s problems (i.e. financial responsibility and liability) and we will go by all of the school’s rules,” said Jon Millar, the past president of the Houlton Hockey Association who has been involved in youth hockey in Houlton since 1968.

The Houlton Hockey Association has 93 players in the hockey program from ages 5-17. But Millar and Rick Baietti, the former Stearns High School coach who is also involved in the hockey move, indicated that the program tends to lose players once they reach high school because with no high school affiliation, there is a lack of games and player commitment.

There is one combination junior-midget team (ages 14-18) but they wind up with a fluctuating turnout for games against teams like Fort Kent and Madawaska because the players have jobs or are involved in other activities. Being affiliated with the high school would lead to greater dedication and involvement.

“We may have 10 kids to go to Fort Kent one day and 20 the next day,” said Millar who, along with Bill Weber, has met with McDonald.

Millar and Baietti also said they would anticipate a much higher turnout at the younger age levels if there was a high school team they could set their Houlton has an indoor ice arena, the Jon A. Millar Arena, but it doesn’t have artificial ice. However, its youth league teams play in nearby Woodstock, New Brunswick, in the fall and reciprocate by offering its ice to the Woodstock program during the cold-weather months.

McDonald has asked the group to write him a letter and detail all of its plans before he will discuss it with Houlton Principal David Wiggin, Athletic Director Wayne Quint and the school board.

“I am not opposed to the concept of having hockey at the high school but I have some reservations about it,” said McDonald. “My reservations relate to the institution of a new sport and what type of liability will be established for the school once we put our name to the activity.”

He is also concerned about the transportion issue.

“It raises a lot of quetions,” said McDonald.

If it is eventually approved, Houlton would schedule exhibition games against varsity programs in the state.