Joel Sankey is beginning his 26th year as a head football coach in the Little Ten Conference (Class D North), and as he sees roster sizes shrinking around the region he grows more concerned about the league’s future. “I just wonder how long the LTC is going to be around because of the numbers for a lot of teams,” the Bucksport High School coach said.

Here are a few concussion-related statistics to consider as the fall sports season moves into full swing this week.

Last week the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife’s advisory council approved a rule that sounds ominous, but will actually change very little for the state’s anglers. Simply stated, in the state’s north zone, the general fishing law will ban the use of live fish as bait.

One of the tradition-laden high school football programs in eastern Maine will take a year off from varsity play this fall. Orono High School, citing low numbers and a lack of linemen, will forego its 2019 Little Ten Conference schedule and instead pursue a slate of junior varsity games for this fall.

My love for fishing brooks and streams started when I was a kid catching small trout in a tiny brook in the woods up the hill behind my house in Winthrop. After we purchased our camp on Nesowadnehunk Lake on the edge of Baxter Park, I started fishing Nesowadnehunk Stream – and eventually fished the entire 23 miles of the stream to where it flows into the west branch of the Penobscot River. There are pools full of brook trout the entire length of that stream.

Maine’s new fish and wildlife boss, Judy Camuso, who has been at the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife helm since January, shared her views recently as a guest on my Sunday night statewide radio program Maine Outdoors (103.9, 101.3 and 95.1 FM).

Fewer kids are playing high school sports, both in Maine and around the nation, according to statistics released this week by the National Federation of State High School Associations.

The main event for New England Fights’ mixed martial arts debut in Orono on Sept. 7 has been changed, with undefeated Josh Harvey -- a Dexter native -- now set to face Dominic Jones at a catchweight of 160 pounds.

Upcoming sports events around the region.

At this moment around the state, bear hunters and outfitters are erecting treestands and servicing their bait sites. The bear season opens officially the last week in August. Bears are about as plentiful as they have ever been. First-time bear hunters, and those they share their wild game with, invariably ask the question: “What does bear meat taste like?”

There have been few University of Maine teams with as many Maine natives on their rosters as the 2019 Black Bear field hockey team. There are nine Mainers, all from different high schools, among the 20 players on the roster (45 percent). Maine-produced players have served the program well over the years.

Miles of new trails specifically designed for mountain biking have opened in the Katahdin region this summer, with plans for more biking trails to be added over the next few years.

Upcoming sports events around the region.

When it comes to speed cutting, precision felling and sawing of trees, there is no better arborist in Maine than Andrew Marquis of St. Agatha, according to the results of the Game of Logging at the 28th annual Forest Heritage Days, which took place in Greenville on Saturday, Aug. 10.

According to a newspaper story that made the rounds earlier this week, those of us who choose to release fish that we would, by law, be allowed to keep are not being as helpful as we had thought. That’s the story some are telling, anyway.

New England Fights will bring its own brand of art -- mixed martial arts -- to the Collins Center for the Arts at the University of Maine in Orono for the first time Sept. 7.

Not surprisingly, it took some time for Maine’s fish and wildlife regulatory apparatus to loosen up when it came to accepting the crossbow as a legitimate and acceptable hunting device. Compared with other states, we have been a long time coming around.

Brothers Jackson and Landon Smith of the Foxcroft Youth Track program combined for a trio of top three performances 14 & Under USATF-Maine Association State Championship on Aug. 10 at the Brewer Community School.