GUILFORD – Peter Nelson grew up a football player, first at Dexter Regional High School and later at Plymouth State College.

But he made his coaching mark on a quite different venue – the soccer field.

Nelson, boys varsity soccer coach at Piscataquis Community High School for the last two years, died early Saturday from injuries suffered the night before in an all-terrain vehicle accident. A Mass of Christian Burial was held Tuesday at St. Anne’s Catholic Church in Dexter.

Nelson, 32, led the Pirates to the Eastern Maine Class C championship in 2001. Last fall, his club went undefeated during the regular season and advanced to the regional semifinals. His teams posted a combined record of 21-5-8.

Before taking the varsity job, Nelson was an assistant soccer coach at PCHS for two years.

“One of his friends who was at the funeral put it best,” said PCHS principal Bruce Lindberg. “He said, ‘Peter was a high school and college football player, but when he was asked to coach soccer, he won an Eastern Maine championship. That says a lot about him.'”

Nelson, a Corinna resident, worked at PCHS for five years, initially as an education technician but more recently as a math teacher.

“His college background wasn’t in education, he majored in business administration, but he was wonderful with kids on the soccer field and in the classroom,” Lindberg said.

“Peter had the magic. He knew how to treat kids and get kids to work in a very special way. He knew how to get kids to do what needed to be done.”

Nelson also helped coordinate the school prom and annual Spring Fling barbecue at PCHS, and was the timer for home basketball games.

Among those games was the Feb. 5, 2002, encounter between PCHS and Valley High of Bingham, when the Pirates defeated Valley 80-75 in overtime to end the Cavaliers’ 101-game winning streak.

“It was down to the final seconds, and Valley shot the ball and we got the rebound,” said PCHS boys basketball coach Jamie Russell. “We tried to call timeout because the game was tied, and the buzzer went off. We had a meeting with the officials at the scorer’s table. We wanted two or three seconds back on the clock, and [Valley coach] Dwight Littlefield wanted overtime. There were 1,200 or 1,300 people there, it was kind of crazy, and Peter’s right in the middle of it. Finally he said, ‘It’s over, we’re going to overtime.’

“That’s the way Peter was, very honest and very straightforward.”

Among Nelson’s survivors are his wife Jennifer and children Rachyl and Steven.