Sideline Stories: Northern Maine Pioneers, Aroostook County

One County, One Team: How Junior Hockey United Northern Maine

On any given Sunday, Aroostook County residents could comfortably fill the seats at Foxboro’s Gillette Stadium. With roughly 67,000 people spread across a landmass large enough to fit both Rhode Island and Connecticut, The County’s Scale Is Vast. But it’s true measure isn’t square miles. It’s character.

This northernmost region of Maine holds a foundational place in the American story, shaped by agriculture, military service, and an ethic of neighbor helping neighbor that’s more than talk. At its peak, Loring Air Force Base stood among the largest Strategic Air Command installations in the United States, anchoring the region during the Cold War. Alongside that military legacy, Aroostook County became one of the nation’s most productive agricultural regions, renowned for its potatoes and supported by broccoli, grain, dairy, and forestry industries that still define life here.

More than 98 percent of Maine’s businesses are small and locally owned, and The County lives that independence. Self-reliance isn’t a talking point. It’s daily practice. When storms come, neighbors check in. When someone is away, a driveway gets shoveled without being asked. Sugar gets borrowed, returned, and rarely mentioned again. These aren’t romantic notions. This is how life works.

Change Without Losing What Matters

Like many rural regions, Aroostook County has seen population decline as bases closed, farming modernized, and some residents sought opportunity elsewhere. The 2020 census counted 67,105 people, down from 71,699 in 2010. Yet The County endures, strengthened in recent years by tourism drawn to its authenticity. Summer 2025 saw nearly double the visitors compared to 2024, with approximately 511,000 tourists discovering The County during the season.

Visitors come for the quiet, the wilderness, and the values that remain intact. Outdoor recreation defines the rhythm of seasons. Snowmobilers and side-by-side riders traverse thousands of miles of interconnected trails. Hunters and anglers pass traditions down through generations. The Northern Maine Woods offer a rare sanctuary with moose, bear, deer, and stillness increasingly difficult to find elsewhere. Even President Theodore Roosevelt once traveled north, drawn by the land and the people who steward it.

Life here can be harder. It’s certainly colder. But it’s warmer in the ways that matter.

Sport as Common Ground

As communities evolve while holding tight to their roots, sport connects people. For generations, athletics have brought The County together through local school rivalries, whether its basketball, soccer, semi-professional baseball, biathlons, sled dog races, and the multitude of community tournaments where competition mattered less than showing up together.

Out of that tradition came a modern expression of something familiar: hockey.

Recognizing the opportunity to anchor the community through sport, Brandon Johnson and Greg Heffernan established a junior hockey franchise in Presque Isle. From that vision, the Northern Maine Pioneers were born, built with a simple but powerful idea: one team, for the entire County.

The goal was never exclusivity or spectacle. It was accessibility. A team rooted in hospitality, pride, and belonging where residents from Fort Kent to Houlton could say, without hesitation, that’s our team.

Junior Hockey With Real Purpose

Across the country, junior hockey has grown as communities seek connection and affordable shared experiences. In rural regions like Aroostook County, it fits naturally. The experience is high-quality yet approachable, offering young people visible role models and clear pathways forward.

Competing in the National Collegiate Development Conference, the Pioneers are part of a 32-team league where players don’t pay to play. Instead, they pursue collegiate opportunities while learning accountability, discipline, and teamwork. The roster represents nine countries, bringing global perspective into a place that values local roots. That diversity breathes new life into dormant housing, underutilized ice time, and long-standing facilities.

“It’s just a great community, it really is. People up here are so nice,” (WAGM) said head coach Jack Lowry, who moved to Maine 40 years ago and calls Aroostook County the Maine he remembers from those early days.

The team even travels to away games by school bus, an uncommon choice in modern junior hockey. As the organization puts it, “It builds character. We earn comfort.”

The Community Shows Up

From the beginning, The County answered the call. Hundreds of fans attended the first home game in October 2025, with average attendance growing each weekend. Local businesses stepped forward as sponsors, recognizing not just exposure but stewardship. These young athletes become ambassadors for Northern Maine wherever life takes them next.

Beyond the rink, players read to students, assist with ski area maintenance, host youth clinics drawing participants from across the state, and volunteer wherever help is needed. They’re visible in grocery stores, churches, and restaurants, listening to stories, signing autographs, and forming relationships that last longer than any season.

“Honestly, I just come to the rink on game days, seeing all the kids wearing their jerseys asking for us to sign stuff,” (WAGM) one player shared, highlighting the connection between team and community.

“We’re not here simply to use untapped resources,” owner Brandon Johnson shared. “We’re here to give back meaningfully.”

What sets the Pioneers’ game-night experience apart is scale and sincerity. This is modern sports on a human stage. There are no luxury suites or inflated ticket prices, but there’s something increasingly rare in professional sports: accessibility and genuine connection.

The result feels less like an event produced for spectators and more like something built with the community. It mirrors Aroostook County itself: resourceful, proud, and rooted in people showing up for one another.

In a world of increasingly commercialized sports, the Northern Maine Pioneers offer something different. Professional-quality experience powered by local hands, local talent, and collective belief that community still matters. Junior hockey isn’t a small investment, with franchise fees, player costs, and production expenses in the hundreds of thousands each year.

A Renovated Venue With Classic Soul

Home games happen at The Forum, a renovated arena on the Northern Maine Fairgrounds. Supported by private donations and community investment, the 45,000-square-foot facility hosts year-round events, from figure skating and car shows to conferences and the Shriners Circus. Despite upgrades, it retains its classic barn feel, something players and fans say enhances the experience.

“The ice is tighter, the fans are close, and it’s loud,” noted Minnesota forward Grant Matushak. “It feels like playing back home.”

Game nights offer modern sports on a human scale. No luxury suites or inflated ticket prices, but something increasingly rare: sincerity. The house band is made up of local high school students, aspiring musicians performing for neighbors and classmates. Behind the scenes, operations staff arrive after day jobs. Teachers, tradespeople, business owners, parents coming together to make the night possible.

“We all wear multiple hats,” one staff member said. “But we do it because it’s for our neighbors, our friends.”

Coaches Who Build People, Not Just Players

That culture gets reinforced behind the bench by Head Coach Jack Lowry, a longtime fixture in the New England hockey community. Lowry played collegiately at Boston College before earning a brief stint with the Washington Capitals. He later transitioned into coaching, spending decades guiding junior and collegiate programs across New England.

“The County is the Maine I moved to more than thirty years ago. It still values people, work ethic, and doing things the right way,” (WAGM) Lowry said.

Lowry brings depth of life experience and genuine care to the franchise, an approach that goes beyond systems and scoreboards. His influence extends past player development, shaping young men not only as athletes but as people learning how to carry themselves with humility, accountability, and respect.

Assistant Coach Hunter Parker hails from Missouri, bringing a balanced and modern approach to player development. Having played both junior and collegiate hockey, Parker understands firsthand what it takes to reach the next level. His influence extends well beyond the rink, ensuring athletes train with discipline and intensity in the weight room while also encouraging balance through yoga sessions, mindfulness, and community engagement. The result is holistic development that emphasizes physical strength, mental clarity, and personal growth.

“There’s so much passion and energy in our guys. They’re so young, they’re gung-ho, they wanna commit to college. They give their all every night,” (WAGM) Parker explained.

Where We Already Gather

Gillette Stadium represents one great place to gather: tens of thousands united in a single moment. Aroostook County already has that sense of gathering, it just looks different. It happens across town lines and kitchen tables, in barns and rinks, on trails and front porches. Community here isn’t an event. It’s a way of life.

So yes, on any given Sunday, The County could fill Foxboro. But there’s no need.

When the goal horn sounds at The Forum, conversations continue long after the final whistle. Values get shared. Young men from across the world learn what it means to show up for others. They leave better players, but more importantly, better people, carrying those lessons far beyond Northern Maine.

In that way, the Northern Maine Pioneers are more than a hockey team. They’re a modern expression of an old truth: places endure when people gather with purpose.

This is The County’s Team.
And this is the way life should be.