Over the last five years, there are few Maine teams, if any, that can boast the same type of football success Belfast has enjoyed.

Four Eastern Maine titles and one state championship in five years.

But perhaps even more remarkable, at least on a statistical level, is the success Belfast Lions running backs have enjoyed in that time frame: five seasons, five 1,000-yard rushers.

The succession of great running backs who have graced the Lions’ backfield started with Eddie “The Lion” King, who zigged and zagged his way to 1,135 yards in 1995.

Troy Sprague took over King’s vacated tailback slot the following year and rushed for 147 yards in his final game – a 32-18 win over Mountain Valley in the 1996 Class B state championship – to finish with 1,020 yards.

In 1997, Tim Parenteau took over the hot seat as a little-known junior and responded with 1,217 yards. Last year, he rushed for 1,347.

Belfast coach Butch Arthers said each successive back has benefited from a form of peer tutoring.

“They’ve had excellent role models. I have to go all the way back to Eddie, who was the first Lion King, as we called him,” Arthers explained. “He kind of set the stage and ever since then, each of these kids have had a person like him as a role model, and it’s just had a domino effect.”

And this year? Say hello to the newest domino, Robbie Skillings.

“I’m just glad to be put into the same category as the rest of those guys,” said Skillings.

After running wild for 348 yard on 43 carries against Winslow last week, Skillings may vault ahead of those guys.

“What I really see in Robbie is a combination of Eddie King, Troy Sprague, and Timmy Parenteau all in one,” Arthers said. “He has Eddie’s good lateral movement and in terms of Troy and Timmy, he can hit that hole hard and explode through it like they did.”

Skillings also has impressive cutback ability in traffic or the open field. It’s that ability that lent him his nickname.

“Last year he returned a lot of punts and kicks for us and we nicknamed him Crazy Legs because his upper body is still, but his legs seem to be going in three different directions,” Arthers said. “He just does some amazing things out there.”

Offensive coordinator Butch Richards agrees, adding that Skillings’ size is something the other three didn’t have.

“He’s bigger than Troy, Timmy, and Eddie, and thus we’re able to do things differently with him that we weren’t able to do with them,” Richards said. “So his size, combined with his speed, is really a special thing.”

That kind of praise was the last thing Skillings expected to receive at the start of the season. That was before he read a quote by Arthers in the NEWS preseason preview.

“I didn’t feel that much pressure until I read in the paper where coach said he was expecting to have another 1,000-yard rusher,” he said. “Then there was a little pressure on me.”

But nothing the 6-foot, 190-pound back’s broad shoulders couldn’t handle.

In fact, Skillings will try to do something only Sprague has done at Belfast: rush for more than 1,000 yards and win a state title.

The first goal has already been achieved as Skillings enters Saturday’s state final in Augusta (1 p.m., Cony High School’s Alumni Field) with a whopping 1,701 yards and 17 touchdowns on 212 carries.

Beating Kennebunk for the Class B title at Cony High in Augusta on Saturday will accomplish the second goal.

“That would be so great. That’s all we’ve been working for,” Skillings said.

Of course, all this success also shines the spotlight a little brighter on the next Belfast tailback. Who will be the next Lion King?

“I don’t know yet, but I firmly believe that whoever’s our tailback next year is going to be a 1,000-yard rusher, even though we lose four of our linemen to graduation,” Arthers said.

That certainty is rooted in the confidence the coaches have in an offensive system that has helped send Belfast into the playoffs each of the last six seasons.

“That has a lot to do with it,” Richards said. “A lot of things go into it. We use a lot of misdirection and trapping, so the tailback is featured. Eddie King, Parenteau, Troy, and now Robbie have just been able to step into that role successfully.”