Longtime javelin thrower Steve Pelletier continues to compete in the sport at 72 years old. Kathy Stewart photo
Steve Pelletier doesn’t really understand what folks mean when they harp on about the glory days — in a sense, he’s still living them.
At 72 years old, the Auburn native and Scarborough resident still competes in USA Track and Field Maine and Maine Senior Games events, as well as events throughout New England and Masters national championships outside Maine. Last year, Pelletier qualified as an All-American athlete, as he does most years, for javelin throws surpassing 100 feet.
Auburn native Steve Pelletier, 72, poses between throws at a September 2023 track and field competition. Kathy Stewart photo
Competitive in nearly every fiber of his being, he won’t tell you he’s the best at throwing javelin or that he ever was the best, but he will ask how many people you know who compete at a high level in their sport for nearly 50 years.
When Pelletier stepped onto the javelin runway for the first time in 1969, in his senior year at Edward Little High School, he didn’t know he was taking on a sport he’d pursue throughout college, let alone competitively for the rest of his life.
“I was a newbie thrower for the first weeks, just learning how to throw the thing,” Pelletier said. “But I progressed enough so by the end of the year I qualified for the state meet.”
Pelletier wound up with the second-best throw in 1969’s Maine Class A Championship. He said it gave him the incentive to keep throwing when he went to the University of Maine in Orono. He dominated there as well, walking onto the team as the best thrower his freshman through sophomore year.
“Then my junior year, they brought up this hot shot, a guy from New Jersey who was bigger and stronger than me and already a 200-foot thrower,” Pelletier said. “So, I was back down and being number two on the team, stayed number two for my final three years, but I did beat him in the state collegiate championship my junior year when I first threw over 200 feet.”
Pelletier contracted mononucleosis in 1973, during his senior year at UMaine, and couldn’t compete. While bed-ridden in the infirmary, he received news that he was among a few athletes from Maine honored as Outstanding College Athletes of America. He stayed enrolled for a fifth year to complete school and compete in his fourth collegiate season of track and field.
From there on, Pelletier stayed involved with javelin throwing in many capacities as an athlete and as a coach.
After about 50 years of throwing javelins off and on, Auburn native Steve Pelletier, 72, still regularly qualifies as an All-American athlete. Kathy Stewart photo
When Pelletier graduated from UMaine he came straight back to Auburn, but a month later was offered a one-year position as an assistant business manager of UMaine’s athletic department. He stayed in that area for about 12 years, coaching at area high schools including Orono and Brewer, before taking over as interim throwing coach at UMaine in 1986.
Pelletier competed regularly in Maine and in New England throughout the second half of the 1970s, but the 1980s were a big decade for Pelletier as an athlete as well. From 1981 to 1987 he competed in six national masters tournaments all over the country. He started off by taking silver medals in 1981 and 1982, then gold in 1983 and 1984. In 1985, Pelletier would take silver again.
Pelletier moved back to central Maine and spent the summer of 1986 coaching youth track and field in Augusta, and in the fall was assistant football coach under Blue Devils head coach Skip Capone in Lewiston. Other coaching stints included ELHS and a year at Bates College in Lewiston. He was inducted into the Lewiston-Auburn Sports Hall of Fame in 2008.
Pelletier moved farther south to Kennebunkport for the next 30-some-years, except for periods when he moved closer to Sunday River ski area in Newry, where he worked at a ski and snowboard center. He worked as a car salesman throughout the 1990s and 2000s and coached at Kennebunk High School until he retired — “sort of” — in 2013. He most recently coached at Scarborough High School until 2022.
“They still have a Maine Masters championship, and I try to go to that each year when it doesn’t conflict,” Pelletier said about his continuing competitive nature.
His wife, Kathy Stewart, is his biggest fan and hardest critic and continues to push him.
As for coaching at 72, he said he’s still open to the possibility. “I’ll stay active in the sport and maybe coach in a couple of years if another good opportunity comes about,” he said. “Most likely I’ll return to coaching at some point, at least in some degree.”
Pelletier said he wants people to know that just because someone is out of high school and collegiate athletic careers, it doesn’t mean their favorite pastime has to stay in the past. Maine and nearly every state has opportunities for masters level athletes in almost any sport, not just track and field, he said.
“Get a little excited about it, whatever age (you’re) at,” Pelletier said. “Opportunities are there for anybody who wants to take advantage of it. You don’t have to be a world-class athlete.”
Steve Pelletier, 72, throws a javelin at the 2023 Maine Senior Games. Kathy Stewart photo
Off The Court is a monthly series that profiles people in the region who made or are still making an impact on local sports directly or indirectly. To suggest someone to profile, email writer Joe Charpentier at jcharpentier@sunjournal.com or write to him at the Sun Journal, 64 Lisbon St., Suite 201, Lewiston, ME 04240.
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