ROCKPORT — The Camden Hills football program has struggled in its years as a club sport and as a varsity sport. This year, to try and be competitive, the Windjammers have moved down, by petition, to two athletic classes below what is specified by its school enrollment.

There was some resistance by other schools to the Windjammers moving to Class D, but in the end the Maine Principles’ Association voted to allow it. The MPA classifies public high schools across the state according to their enrollment, which determines which teams play each other throughout a given season.

Along with a new roster of teams to play, the Windjammers will find themselves under the direction of an entirely new coaching staff.  One of the original founders of Five Town Football, Thad Chilton, is to be head coach.

Chilton has, at one time or another in the last six to seven years, coached almost every one of the 35-40 players he expects to see sign up. The first day of tryouts is Monday, Aug. 17.

Chilton is also the junior varsity boys lacrosse coach and many of the athletes play both sports.

Camden Hills Football became a club sport in 2007 and gained full varsity standing in 2009. In the past six years, the team has struggled, making the playoffs once in 2010. In the past three years, the team is 2-22 with numbers falling off each year. 

This year, Chilton expects to see 35-40 athletes show up for the first day of practice. How many will make it through the season is the question. That has been a problem in the past; players falling off the team, injuries and discipline issues have left the team without many players later in the season. 

Football is a mentality, and a mentality that appears to not be highly prevalent at the school yet.

Camden Hills Regional HIgh School has long been a soccer school in the autumn, and the football program has done little to change that. Chilton thinks he can if given the time to make a difference. He has a plan, and he has people in place to help him accomplish his goals.

While Chilton will be calling the shots, he has assembled a knowledgeable staff to assist him on the field and off:  Bill Harrison, Larry Toller, Phillip Rogers, Hutch Hutchinson, Brian Clement and Jim Walker will all be assistant coaches.  

Changes this year include the elimination of a junior varsity football squad.

When a school is limited with numbers and tries to play a JV schedule, with players participating in two games in a week, there is the possibility of added injuries. 

Chilton also was happy to see three girls sign up for football. One, a transfer student from Medomak, played on the club team. One, according to Chilton, can catch the ball, and can be an excellent receiver or cornerback.

The theme for this season is “character,” an action that the football team will be asked to understand and act appropriately on. One will be held accountable if one’s character falters.

“The theme for this year is character first,” said Chilton. “What I mean by that is to have high character in everything you do. Before you do anything, think about it. Is this the way I should be behaving, is this the way I should be studying? Have the right character all the time. You have to have a high character to come to practice every day, to decide to attend every game.”

Character is something Chilton says must improve. He talked about how players need to think before acting, to be sure what he or she does is something that will not adversely affect the team and teammates.

Time management is important, he said, and the more developed one’s character is, the easier it becomes to be a person of high character. 

The following is a Q&A with Coach Chilton. We wanted to know what the third head coach in the history of the team was going to do to change the program. How was he going to make it a program that the school can be proud of on the field, and more importantly in the classroom and the halls of Camden Hills? 

PBP: Thad, what is your plan to fix the ailing football program?

Chilton: Coaches come in all different shapes and sizes. I’ve been around the ones who yell, and I have been around the ones who try to use a lot of rah-rah. My answer is this: Remain calm and be confident. It all starts with the coaches. You have to be a teacher. These are teenagers.

This is a poor football program. These kids come out of a feeder program where they were pretty good players. Some of them have won gold balls at the state level. They come to high school, and they lose it all. They need to be better football players. That requires coaches who know what they are doing and have a responsibility always to be there; kids have to be able to count on them.

The first time a coach shows up late for practice or doesn’t do what he says, it affects players in a way that puts doubt in their minds. You have to be bulletproof.

If you are bulletproof, you study, you develop systems that match the capabilities of your kids. Then, you are well on the way of giving them the best opportunity to be successful that they can have. That is what we are going to work to have happen. We are not going to put a system in front of them that they cannot excel at. If we have to go right down to the very basics of football and we are going to, we have to allow these kids to be successful.

Success can be measured in a lot of ways. It can be measured in wins, in achieving goals. We can measure success in a lot of ways that have nothing to do with winning. As long as you have goals set out in front of you, and the whole team knows those goals. Maybe you lose the game by two points, but you held the team to less than 200 yards, you forced three turnovers, you have three runners with 150 yards running. You have achieved some things that you can build on the next week. 

So setting goals and putting a system in front of the kids that will allow them to be successful. 

PBP: The program is playing down two classes with no playoffs for the first two years. What is it like for you as a coach to go into a season knowing that?

Chilton: I’m fine with it. In fact, Steve Alex [Camden Hills athletic director] and I talked about this before we ever approached the Maine Principals’ Association about it. I’m not saying this is my idea, but it is an idea I have long supported. When we first started with club football in 2007, we had one year where we played JV squads mostly. Some of those teams looked more like varsity squads, but we played what we got.

The second year of a club they gave us what they called an Exhibition Schedule. We played the varsity team for every team we played against in Class B. That was not good for a developmental football team, and we took a pounding.

The next year we achieved varsity standing. The protocol is the first two seasons is to step down one class. Camden Hills did not, it stayed a Class B team. So we never got our two developmental years. We were at a disadvantage from the beginning. We never got the ability to step down and have a fighting chance to win and build the program. I do not know what the factors were in us staying in Class B during those developmental years.

I also do not know the rational of us playing that exhibition schedule our second year of club, but it all put Camden Hills Football at an enormous disadvantage. 

PBP: Has the lack of success at the high school level started to affect the numbers of players coming into high school who want to play?

Chilton: No, I do not believe it has. The lack of winning has effected the older kids much more that the younger ones. I have a lot of freshmen coming in, 12 or 13 and they are all eager to play. The feeder program is getting us the players. I even have some that as freshmen have never played before and I have kept them informed and hope to see them Aug. 17 for practice.

PBP: Can you tell us about your staff.

Chilton: I have had a staff in place for awhile. Bill Harrison, who has coached for a number of years. Bill will be dedicated to defense this year and getting the defensive system in place. With him will be Larry Toller, who played football in high school in Rockland and comes with experience as a player.

With him is a Camden Hills graduate Phillip Rogers, who played two years of semi-pro ball so he has football experience at a higher level on the field and he will work with me on offense. 

We have a couple of other guys who have volunteered who cannot always be there because of other commitments, but will be they to help when possible.

A recent graduate, Brian Clement, who will be starting college in the spring, will be around to learn more about the game to help prepare him for playing in college.

Anthony “Hutch” Hutchinson will work on the defensive side when possible.

Jim Walker, who coaches Pen Bay Lacrosse, is a former college player and has expressed an interest in being the guy in the press box with the headphones keeping me up to date. So a whole new staff, all with different experiences and all eager to get to work.

PBP: What is it you love about football?

Chilton: I am a student of the game and that has its good side and its bad side. I can’t watch a game with my family anymore because I am always analyzing the game and they hate being in the room with me. But what is great is when you can take that knowledge and begin teaching it to the kids.

I was going to be a teacher before I got caught up in the world of advertising so this gets me back to what I really love and that is teaching young people. For me, it’s when that individual player gets it and realizes this is a team sport and they commit to being a team player which will help to make everyone successful. 

Chilton has the knowledge of the game, the desire to teach it to the players, wants to keep them playing and has tutor help available to any student that needs it. He has people in the school that can watch for behavior problems he might not know about otherwise. He has the desire to make these young people successful and he has the fortitude to keep the kids in line and help them to become a person of character.

The Camden Hills football team will have it’s first controlled scrimmage Monday, Aug. 24, at Dexter High School. The first regular scrimmage is Friday, Aug. 28, at 4 p.m. when the team hosts Medomak Valley.

The first regular season game will be Saturday, Sept. 5, at 1 p.m. in Thorndike as they take on Mount View. 

Ron Hawkes can be reached at sports@penbaypilot.com