Bingham’s Pelotte a big man at Plymouth State

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He might not be the biggest guy on the basketball court, but Nick Pelotte makes up in production what he lacks in size.

Just as he did at Valley High School in Bingham, the 5-foot-10, 150-pound guard is making himself an indispensable part of the Plymouth State College men’s basketball team.

Pelotte is currently the leading scorer in the Little East Conference with 196 points in nine games. He also ranks among league leaders in free throw percentage (fifth), 3-point shooting percentage (sixth), steals (eighth), assists (ninth), and field goal percentage (18th).

Given his rankings, it’s not hard to see how he has accomplished the rare feat of being named LEC Player of the Week three of the first four weeks of the season and getting named to the honor roll in one of the two weeks he did not take the top honor.

“That is unusual because we might get that three or four times in our 14-week conference season,” said Panthers head coach John Scheinman, a former assistant at St. Joseph’s College in Standish. “Last year, we had a couple honor rolls and one player of the week in the whole season.”

However, the Panthers also had a player win rookie of the week honors three times. Care to guess who did that?

“It was nice to do that, but I just want to win,” said Pelotte, who has helped lead the Panthers to a 7-2 mark this season.

After finishing as the third-leading scorer during the Panthers’ 18-11 2001-02 season, the sophomore point-shooting guard is averaging 21.8 points, 3.0 assists, and 2.0 steals per game this year.

“He has the potential to be the best player to ever play here,” said Scheinman. “He’s a joy to coach. Coaches say that, but I mean it and I’m grateful he chose Plymouth State.”

It’s a wonder PSC even surfaced as an option for Pelotte as the Panthers’ fourth-year head coach never recruited him.

“At the time I had a roster cap and I already had four guards, so when someone e-mailed me about him, I basically said thanks but no thanks,” Scheinman recalled.

So how did he wind up in Plymouth, N.H.?

“[St. Joseph’s coach] Rick Simonds called me about him one day and said he was very good. He had a full roster and guard on the team who was a good friend of Nick’s and didn’t think it was fair to put them in that situation,” said Scheinman. “Then in one of the most bizarre coincidences ever known to me, [Southern Maine coach] Danny Costigan called me less than 20 minutes later to tell me about him too.”

A week later, a PSC alumnus called Scheinman to tell him about Pelotte.

“Then I started doing my homework on the kid,” Scheinman said. “Within a week, I contacted him and told him we wanted to have him come here.”

So the guard with extraordinary quickness, intense competitiveness, and relentless drive joined the Panthers.

“I love his enthusiasm and the way he plays the game,” Scheinman said. “He never had a doubt he could play here. You can’t be his size and be successful in this game and not be confident. When the game’s on the line, I like to have the ball in his hand because he’s ice water.”

For his part, Pelotte is simply relishing the chance to make a difference in close games.

“Playing at Valley, we hardly ever had any close games,” he said. “We even tried to play scrimmages just to get some close games, so this is great.”

Basketball Beacons

As the early winter began, Veazie native Tony Staffiere wasn’t expecting to be embarking on his first season as a college basketball coach.

Although that was the main goal of John Bapst Memorial High graduate, it was not a realistic one in late November. Most teams were already into or getting ready to start their preseason and regular season schedules.

Then Staffiere’s roommate told him about a suddenly vacant position as NCAA Division III Regis College’s women’s coach. One day he was working at Basketball City in downtown Boston as the man in charge of youth programming, the next he was a head coach at the Weston, Mass., school.

“I took the job Nov. 20 and the season started Nov. 22. We opened up with perennial power Salem State,” said Staffiere, with a chuckle. “We were kind of their homecoming game.”

The 27-year-old Staffiere has coached the young Beacons to an 0-7 record overall and 0-1 mark in the Commonwealth Coast Conference, a 13-member league encompassing four states with the University of New England as the only Maine school.

Regis’ 12-member roster includes eight freshmen, two sophomores, and two seniors – one of whom has just two years of collegiate experience. Three of the five starters are freshmen.

Despite their inexperience, Staffiere is enjoying his new job.

“I love it. It’s a dream come true for me,” said the former Bapst varsity boys assistant and JV head coach, who is also teaching personal fitness at the school full time. “It’s what I’ve always wanted to do.”

Staffiere was an assistant men’s coach at Onondaga Community College last season, an assistant women’s coach at Le Moyne College (2000-01) and men’s assistant at Maine Maritime Academy (1999-2000).

Andrew Neff can be reached at 990-8205, 1-800-310-8600, or aneff@bangordailynews.net