Contributed photoPAIR OF BEARS — Twin sisters Abbey, left, and Brylee Ricker shot bears within 25 minutes of each other on Sept.

The Maine Department of Health and Human Services and Department of Education are recommending the Maine Principals’ Association delay its proposed starting date for fall high school sports in light of numerous areas of concern about the organization’s proposal for a return to play.

Will there be enough game officials to cover all of Maine’s interscholastic sports events this fall, if and when they are played?   Surprisingly the answer may be yes, at least during the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020.

Grouse.

No one should be surprised that while the road to fall high school sports is being cleared step by step, additional steps — consider them checks and balances — continue to arise.

The owner of the Big Squaw Mountain ski resort near Moosehead Lake is resisting changing the resort’s name after three women started a petition and after a similarly named California resort removed the derogatory term from its name.

As part of its comprehensive efforts to provide for a return to high school sports competition this season, the Maine Principals’ Association has recommended numerous new guidelines to help ensure the safety of the athletes, coaches, game personnel, officials and spectators during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Maine Principals’ Association Interscholastic Management Committee voted unanimously late Thursday afternoon to proceed with interscholastic fall sports this year.

Playing high school fall sports, including football, received a unanimous vote of support Wednesday from the sports medicine committee of the Maine Principals’ Association.

Bear hunters who head into the woods on opening day, Monday, Aug.

DOVER-FOXCROFT — Perhaps no one in Maine is more eager for the high school football season to begin than Logan Martin.

What better way to usher in fall than spending Labor Day weekend taking part in the Chesuncook Salmon Derby, September 5 and 6? First prize for the largest salmon caught is a $500 cash prize, and another $500 will be awarded to the lucky angler selected in the fish pool drawing! There will be other prizes as well.

The group that oversees huge tracts of the state’s industrial forest is warning hunters and other potential travelers to expect plenty of company in the coming weeks, and is asking for visitors to be considerate during their trips to northern Maine.

Maine’s annual bear hunt will look slightly different when it begins in a week.

DOVER-FOXCROFT — The Piscataquis County Ice Arena and the Piscataquis Regional YMCA have reopened after shutting down due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Class C and D boys and girls soccer state championship games scheduled for Nov.

DOVER-FOXCROFT — Foxcroft Academy is set to resume its preparations for the fall sports season on Monday, nearly two weeks after two students participating in a summer conditioning program at the Dover-Foxcroft school tested positive for COVID-19.

The brook trout fishing over the past few years in Moosehead Lake has been special.