When your high school’s football team has won five Eastern Maine titles, notched two state championships, and reeled off nine straight seasons in which the primary running back has rushed for 1,000 or more yards, it’s hard to make a lasting impression.

But at least until the next Jeff Parenteau comes around, that’s exactly what the Belfast Lions’ tailback has done the last three seasons.

Parenteau will lead his Lions into Saturday’s s Class B state championship game in Portland against Scarborough as the school’s all-time leading rusher and possibly one of the few players in Maine schoolboy football history to gain 5,000 career rushing yards. He is 99 yards away from 5,000.

Parenteau is something of a rarity at Belfast. Not as a 1,000-yard rusher, but as a three-year starter. Since Butch Arthers took over the head coaching position for the Lions 11 years ago, Parenteau is only the second running back to be a three-year starter for him.

Given the numbers he has put up the last three seasons, it’s easy to see why he’s been the team’s primary offensive weapon.

“When he played peewee football, no kid could tackle him. They’d give him the ball and he’d run the length of the field. He was someone who grabbed your attention,” said Arthers. “I just said, ‘Boy, this kid is going to be something.’ I think he is one of the few players I can say I really did think would be a great back.”

“We knew we had an heir-apparent with Tim,” said Belfast co-coach Butch Richards. “As a freshman, he was our best special teams player, did kickoffs and returns. He was a good hitter, and he just became the natural choice as our tailback the next year.”

It was a good choice. After gaining 139 yards on 13 carries and scoring three touchdowns as a freshman, the not-so-big back (5-foot-5, 150 pounds) started putting up huge numbers with 1,486 yards and 21 TDs on 193 carries his sophomore year.

“First I wanted to get in the lineup,” Parenteau said. “Once I did that, I wanted to get 1,000 yards, and then I wanted to improve every year and make fewer mistakes.”

His numbers got better his junior year as he accounted for 1,611 yards and 21 TDs on 217 carries, and his numbers went up again this year as he has gained 1,665 yards on 213 carries and scored 25 TDs with still one game to play.

Even more remarkably, Parenteau has missed only one practice (he had to go to a doctor’s appointment in Portland) and not a single game in his varsity career despite the constant pounding he takes and the amount of work he gets.

“Pound for pound, Jeff is probably as strong as any of the backs we’ve had. He benches 280 and I don’t think any of ours did that while they were playing,” said Arthers. “Plus he’s elusive enough so he doesn’t take a lot of big hits because no one really gets a clean hit on him, and when someone does get him, he knows how to take a hit.”

Sure, he’s had many bumps, scrapes, bruises, and sprains, but the durable back plays and practices through all of them.

Not even a torn bursa sac on his elbow his freshman and senior years, nor a left shoulder which has been dislocated three times in games and five times in practice this year – and too many times to count since his sophomore year – can keep Parenteau off the field.

“I love playing the game. It’s a big part of my life,” Parenteau says simply when asked what motivates him.

So what does he credit for his innate ability to spin, sneak, fake, and drive by tacklers?

“It just comes with instinct,” he said. “Probably everything I do does, pretty much.

“I don’t think of anything. All I know is to keep my legs moving and my head down.”

It’s a great formula. The only thing that has stopped those legs from moving is the end of the season, and this year, the end of the season could come with a gold ball.