By Justin Pelletier,Staff Writer

LISBON – Lisbon High School’s assistant track coach Doug Sautter laughed as he remembered Emily Poliquin in junior high school.

“She was literally rolling around in the dirt,” said Sautter.

“I was looking at her like, Oh, geez, who’s this kid?'”

“That was my thing,” admitted Poliquin. “I was crazy, kind of wild, and it was fun to do. I wasn’t afraid to get dirty.”

Now a senior and a captain of the high school team, Poliquin still rolls in the dirt when she gets the chance, but it usually comes after winning a jumping event.

“We’ve been watching her grow through the rec program since she was 6-years-old,” said Lisbon head coach Dean Hall. “She’s come a long way from the girl that would stop at laps and pick up flowers. She’s always been there.”

Living in the shadows

Following an All-State jumper is never an easy task. At Lisbon, there has almost always been at least one sprinter/jumper that has been All-State quality.

“We’ve always had that one sprinter/jumper, and it kind of continues,” said Hall. “Erica McCusker before Stephanie (McCusker), and then Stephanie and now Emily.”

Stephanie McCusker set and still holds the long jump and triple jump records at Lisbon, and is currently enjoying a solid junior season at the University of Maine. For Poliquin, having McCusker around was at first an obstacle. As she completed her freshman year, though, she realized how much help McCusker had been.

“It all comes down to having fun,” said Poliquin. “As a sixth-grader I was beating all of the eighth-graders. There wasn’t much competition for those three years. I came in here freshman year and there was Stephanie McCusker. I thought to myself that there was no way I was going to beat her, or be like that. It humbled me, gave me something to strive for. She was a good captain and from that point I wanted to be that way. I wanted to be the leader of our team as a senior.”

Growing up

As a freshman, Poliquin finished third in Class C in the triple jump, and was barely on the radar as a long jumper. The following year, she gained a place in the triple jump and qualified for the state meet as a long jumper, and by her junior season was a state champion as a triple jumper, soaring more than 34 feet to a personal best.

“As a sophomore it was just her, and she got pretty good pretty quickly,” said Sautter. “She’s reached the pinnacle now and the goal is to repeat at states in the triple jump and win the long jump.”

Her abilities in the jumping events have also been enhanced by a knack for speed, something that Hall has pushed since day one.

“She is more mature than she was as a freshman” said Hall. “She’s able to handle injuries better. She’s battling an injury right now and that would have been devastating to her years ago, but not now. She’s matured as a sprinter, which has been really great for her and for the team. She was an average sprinter and now has become a superior sprinter.”

“To be on this team, to be a jumper they make you be a sprinter, too,” said Poliquin. “Working on my speed, working on block starts was a big thing for me, and I think I finally have that down this year, which makes a world of difference.”

Leading by example

Some leaders will motivate a team with words, but Poliquin’s idea of a speech is a whisper to a fellow captain in the middle of the warm-up rectangle prior to practice.

Her forte is leading by example.

“Her whole approach is solid,” said Hall. “We tell the kids to watch her as she warms up, watch how she does it, because it’s going to be the correct way. A lot of it has to do with how she learned to do what she’s doing. When she was a freshman, she learned from Stephanie McCusker, and now the freshmen and sophomores are learning from her. That’s the beauty of the whole thing.”

And she has become a leader for the whole team, too, not just for the girls.

“She’s a leader not only for the girls but for the boys, too,” said Hall. “It’s that thing where the boys don’t want to be always jumping less than her, so it’s an incentive for them, and when they, when everyone sees her staying late after practice, doing extra drills. Yesterday we didn’t get out of here until almost 5:30, just doing jumping drills. It was a great day.”

Will to win

There’s a old saying that tells people that something isn’t worth doing if you aren’t going to do it well. Apparently, Poliquin has taken that to heart.

“I am a competitor,” said Poliquin. “I can’t do something just for the sake of doing it. I want to win, no matter what I do. Even in something like the two mile run. I don’t like it, but I still try to win.”

That drive has landed her at the University of Southern Maine starting in the Fall. A mention of that made her face light up.

“I’m very excited,” said Poliquin. “I’ve already met with the coach, talked to him a lot, and hopefully I can do field hockey as well. My parents will go to every meet I’m sure.”

But first there is the matter at hand – the MVC track season and Class C state meet. For Hall, there is still one final piece to the Poliquin puzzle.

“What I see in Emily now is the last part of the polishing,” said Hall. “Seniors sometimes can have a bad last 30 or 40 days of school, but I don’t think it’s going to happen with her. I think she’s going to go out with a blaze of glory.”