Pelletier: You know, old man, I can’t believe this thing is almost over. We have slogged our way through another high school football season. My waistline is bigger, my kids have grown, your hair displays more distinguished colors and your snark has risen in volume. All in all, a normal campaign.

Now that we are down to the top teams in each region, with only eight teams in each class (32 total, for you math-o-phobic types), I ask you, Mr. Football, which of these remaining teams has evolved the most throughout the season?

I am going to disqualify Leavitt and Spruce Mountain from discussion off the top. In the immortal words of Dennis Green, “They are who we thought they were.” (For anyone needing a pause in their day, look that GIF up on the Web. It never gets old.)

We knew going into the season that Spruce Mountain and Leavitt would be the teams to beat in Western C. Sure enough, there they are, 1-2, though I will admit Leavitt has done so with players younger than normal “superstars.” But come on. It’s Leavitt. Under Coach Hathaway.

My pick? I am going out of the area on this one and saying Biddeford. It’s very, very sad to think the Tigers will abdicate their position in Class A in the near future, but if it is to be, they are certainly going out with a bang. After an upset win over South Portland, the 4-5 Tigers have their sights set on Bonny Eagle (5-3) this weekend. Though they lost by 20 in the first meeting, neither team is the same as it was then.

Captain of the Football Mothership, what say you?

Oakes: And you couldn’t even mention that my waistline got smaller, for once. It isn’t because of the flu, either. We all know I won’t come down with that until state championship week.

Wow, talk about going off the board for that one. I’ll miss Biddeford in their traditional state, but I look forward to seeing them play Mt. Blue in a state final in a year or two. That will be fun.

The correct Class A answer to this question is Oxford Hills. While it might be cheesy for some places to excited about a .500 regular season, the Vikings hadn’t experienced one in nine years. They battled through soul-crushing defeats (68-0, anyone?) a year ago. If football strength and tradition were the barometer instead of enrollment, they would be a better fit in the PTC, where they spent a gazillion years before the reclassification.

But nobody Ga-whined or got a Complex about it. The Vikings just put in the work and beat the teams they were supposed to beat, including a short-handed Bangor bunch on the road for the second time in three years. Coach Soehren and the gang are doing great things. The future’s bright. Oh, and if Davis Turner isn’t on the Fitzy ballot, I’m taking hostages.

Among the smaller schools, I like what I saw from Lisbon, Maranacook and Winthrop/Monmouth. Obviously the Greyhounds are a state title contender, but I don’t think some of us expected them to be quite this good after graduating Quincy Thompson and Jordon Torres.

As for the Ramblers and Black Bears, each will have more than 80 percent of the roster back next year from teams that threw scares into upper-echelon clubs in 2014. So I’d say their evolution is still in progress. Like my hair, your kids’ sleeping habits, and the race to be Senate Majority Leader.

Pelletier: Since you sniped my next pick in the co-op from Win-mouth, which I have to mention did a remarkable job rebounding from a horrendous start. With a new coach. Under horrific circumstances. And as you said, that roster was loaded with youth.

One Class D school I feel it necessary to mention under the “evolution” tag is Dirigo. While many still see them as the weakest of Western D’s triumvirate of title contenders, they have ascended to that level with a rebuilt roster, and have, ahem, evolved, into a legitimate title contender. The line was too small, too inexperienced, people said. The offense was going to be too predictable. The defense, too porous. 

I suppose when many of the teams on which these athletes play have become perennial title contenders, winning just comes with the territory in the Valley, eh, Oaksie?

Oakes: I don’t think either one of us underestimated the Cougars. Anybody who did, well, they haven’t been paying attention the past 10 years or so, in any game played with a ball. Sometimes simplicity is good in football. And sometimes it has to evolve into a science. Dirigo has done that in all phases of the game under Coach Hersom.

Next year will be an interesting year for evolution. We’ll have (presumably) teams in different classes. Lewiston will have a new coach. Mountain Valley will be a year older, bigger and stronger. Coach Aylward played the “I hate to say we’re a year away, but” card with me more than once in my visits to Mt. Blue this fall.

If your team didn’t meet your expectations in 2014, give it time. They tend to grow more quickly and efficiently than aging sportswriters.