AUBURN – With football and basketball seasons over, Steve Pelletier wanted to stay active.

He liked the idea of being a three-sport athlete. It seemed unlikely any sport could rise to the level of football or basketball, but he went in search of a new challenge.

“I was very fortunate to grow up in a sports-minded community, one that encouraged spirited athletics and competition,” Pelletier said. “I was always influenced that three sports was a good thing to do. Not a lot of people were three-sport lettermen. So, for some reason, I wanted to be a three-sport athlete.”

Though he played baseball as a kid, Pelletier wasn’t drawn to it like the other sports. Figuring he’d get cut, he opted for track.

Little did he know that track would become the sport that defined him.

“Basketball was my love,” Pelletier said. “I played it all the time. Football was my game. That was my best sport. Track became my name, but not right away.”

When Pelletier first went out for track as a sophomore at Edward Little, he enjoyed little success. Even when he tried different events the following year, the results were meager. It wasn’t until his senior year that he found the javelin.

“It just intrigued me,” Pelletier said. “I felt I could do OK with it. I obviously had some arm. I had a football throwing arm.

“Nobody discouraged me. The first meet, I threw 106 feet. The second meet, I threw 108 feet. I slowly and steadily kept improving.”

Pelletier eventually became one of the state’s best throwers, enjoying a storied career at Maine and as an adult competing in the amateur ranks. He won championships at every level, and became one of the state’s premier track coaches.

Pelletier will be among the five inductees at the 25th induction ceremony for the Auburn-Lewiston Sports Hall of Fame at Lost Valley on Sunday, April 27.

Pelletier’s own drive to succeed helped to pave the way for his success, but he also had supportive people who helped his cause along the way.

“I was so fortunate to grow up in the Auburn community,” he said. “I had the support of my parents. Little did they know they’d be following me around watching me in track meets 20 years after high school.

“I was very fortunate to attend the University of Maine, where Ed Styrna was the top javelin coach. I was very fortunate that the Maine Amateur track and field program was very strong in the 1970s and beyond. I was very fortunate that Steve Ross (a member of the Maine Running Hall of Fame) was so involved in it. I was very fortunate to have the chance to coach at Orono High School (with) a strong program to start with.”

Pelletier was a standout linebacker and a halfback and thrived on the basketball team, but it took time to find his niche in track. First, he tried running the mile.

“After the first meet, mom and dad were like, ‘How’d you do?'” he recalled. “I was like, ‘Well, I beat one guy.'”

After deciding the mile wasn’t right, he opted for the pole vault and the 440-yard dash in his junior year.

“Pole vault, I wasn’t getting anywhere,” he said. “After two weeks, I said, that’s it. I became a quarter-miler. The highlight there was I almost placed in one dual meet.”

He tried the other field events as a senior. The shot put was too heavy. The discus was too cumbersome for his hands. But, the javelin felt just right. As he began to improve, he saw potential. By the end of the year, he was the state Class A runner-up and qualified for New Englands.

Pelletier wanted to play basketball at the University of Maine. When 76 players tried out, he was the 17th player on the depth chart, but the coach kept 16. Pelletier became the manager, instead.

But, he stayed with the javelin. The event was a specialty for Styrna, the Maine coach. Though Pelletier wasn’t the best thrower when he arrived, Styrna’s guidance helped him climb the ladder. He won the Maine champion in 1972.

“It gave me some confidence that maybe this is a sport I could see some success in,” said Pelletier.

Frank Daunis, the EL track and football coach, gave Pelletier access to Walton Field to practice during the summers. Ross, one of the directors of the Lewiston Recreation Athletic Club, served as a mentor and got him involved in the summer competitions.

After graduating in 1974, Pelletier expected to pack up his javelin. A job offer to work as an assistant business manager in Maine’s athletic department changed that, allowing him access to the school’s training facilities.

He continued competing at the AAU level and eventually the National Masters. He was ranked first in the State Masters from 1978 to 1984 in two age groups. He won the National Masters championship in 1983 and 1984 and runner-up in 1985. In AAU, he won 11 state championships and was runner-up nine times.

“I saw that Mark Plummer always seemed to win the Maine Amateur, and if he didn’t win, it seemed he’d always be the runner-up,” Pelletier said. “I wondered if I could do that. I set that goal for myself beginning in the early 70s. That if I didn’t win it, I’d at least be the runner-up.”

He began coaching in 1976 at Orono High School, when he was also the assistant throwing coach at Maine. He eventually took the head job at Kennebunk and later was an assistant at both EL and Bates. He said coaching helped him to improve his throwing technique.

“My best level, I held for about a 20-year period,” he said. “My peers might have outdistanced me in college, but out of college, particularly in my 30s, when I got involved in the National Master’s Championships, guys that were throwing 230 are throwing 190. I was still throwing 190 or 200 or a little better.”

Pelletier stopped coaching and competing in the mid 90s. He stays active in the sport and expects to return to coaching. Now living in Kennebunkport, he’s currently in sales at Rowe Ford in Westbrook.

“I still play with it,” he said of the javelin. “In another month, I’ll be able to throw outside again. It doesn’t go very far anymore, but I’m purposefully staying in tune with it because I will coach again.”