Although winter is in full effect and the Boothbay Region High School boys and girls basketball and Nordic skiing teams are competing every week, fall is in the air at the high school.

Boothbay Region High School students are being asked to sign up for fall sports now as a way for the school to see where interest is for fall 2013.

Principal Dan Welch said the aim is to gauge what sports have interest for 2013.

“Sports can be cyclical,” he said. “We're doing this to see if there is a trend and just to see where the interest is.”

Welch said the incoming freshmen, this year's Boothbay Region Elementary School eighth graders, will also be tasked to fill out fall sports to see what sports the class will play.

There are several coaching vacancies for the upcoming fall season, including an opening for an assistant football coach. But, vacancies or not, Welch said there will be a full regiment of Seahawks sports in 2013.

“There's nothing to read into; we are just trying to get a sense of what everything will look like,” he said. “We do this on occasion. We're just trying to get all of our ducks in a row.”

Even if the sports landscape has shifted or changed, BRHS isn't about to ax a sports team, Welch said, reiterating that the process is simply to see where current interest is.

“We're not considering it,” he said. “We will have all of our programs in place with plans to grow them. Cutting a sport isn't even being discussed; we plan on having a full slate for next year.”

Ben Bulkeley can be reached at 207-633-4620 or bbulkeley@boothbayregister.com. Follow him on Twitter: @BBRegisterBen.