BATH, Maine—A group of five boys assemble near the main entrance of Morse High School as the dismissal bell sounds and daily afternoon chaos ensues, apparently stoic, but cloaked under the teenage air of indifference.

Fast forward two hours and about three miles through ankle-high snow, and the young men, most of them in sneakers, are sprinting across the football field in the final stretch of their journey, smiling and throwing snowballs as the sun sets. There’s no pouting, slumped shoulders, complaints about the cold, or what they missed at home between 2:15 p.m. and 4:30 p.m.