Back in Lewiston, Jim Spaulding gives the Devils a multiple threat on the track and in the field.
LEWISTON – As he crossed the finish line, Jim Spaulding’s hands went immediately to the top of his head as he staggered to the infield. Wobbling like a Weeble, he flopped to the ground and lay on his back.

“He’s a bit dramatic,” said Lewiston coach Ray Putnam. “We call him our big baby of the team.”

Then again, Spaulding does have a natural flair for the dramatic. Last fall, Spaulding led Lewiston High School to the PTC playoffs in football, rushing for more than 1,200 yards and scoring 16 touchdowns, seven of which came in the final two games of the season. Against Edward little in the final game, Spaulding rushed for 233 yards on 46 carries and scored three touchdowns and was named the game’s MVP.

Earlier in the year, while playing baseball in Washington, Spaulding batted nearly .500 and dominated from the mound, garnering yet another MVP award.

“I just want to be the best at everything that I do,” Spaulding said. “I know I can be. It sounds like I have a big ego, but that’s OK. It drives me to be better.”

Back in Lewiston for a spring sports season for the first time since his sophomore year, the senior has fast become one of the best track athletes in the conference.

“We can throw him in almost any event and he has a chance to win,” Putnam said. “He’s the most versatile kid by far. He has top-end speed in the 100 and 200, he has jumped over 22 (feet) in the long jump in practice. His shot put is in the high 40s.”

At 6-foot-3, Spaulding is built more like a football player than a sprinter, but his dedication in the gym has really paid off for both him and his team.

“He’s a big, powerful kid,” Putnam said. “When a lot of kids get weak in the last 80 meters of a 200, Jimmy’s picking up speed.”

For Spaulding, the drive to win is more a fear of losing.

“I hate to lose,” Spaulding said. “I hate not being the fastest on the team, and I hate when coach tells me how fast he was in school, or that his time then beats my time now. I push hard all the time to get better, to reach those times and those marks.”

“He’s one of the hardest working athletes on the team,” coach Kevin Russell said. “He had a few shortcomings during the indoor season, but I think being outside will help a lot.”

One of those flaws, according to the coaches, is Spaulding’s penchant to lag when he is not chasing another runner.

“To win he needs to focus on his own body and his own time,” Russell said. “He can’t worry about what is in front of him, or what isn’t there. If he performs to his peak potential in certain events, he won’t get beat.”

If there is any other weakness to Spaulding, it is his patience, which he describes as “non-existent.”

“Certain events, when you are learning how to do them, take patience,” Spaulding said. “Technique is so important in the throwing events, and I don’t have much of that.”

Still, he qualified for the state meet last week in the shot put, and this week will try the discus.

As far as missing baseball, Spaulding admits he does, but not as much as he would have missed track had he chosen baseball.

“After the indoor season, and after going to the New England meet for indoor, I really had no other option in my own mind. To see and to run with some of the best runners in the country was just awesome, and I hope I can do that again here with the outdoor team.”
jpelletier@sunjournal.com

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