Ashland’s Pistol Pete
By Robert Morrow
Special to The Star-Herald
Editor’s note: This article was originally written at the end of the 2010 soccer season for the Ashland District School newspaper. We include it here to highlight Peter Belskis’s retirement, which will take place in April of 2011. We wish him well.
Contributed photo
PETER BELSKIS, a physical education teacher at Ashland District School, plans to retire soon. Not only is Belskis a gym teacher, former health teacher and a soccer coach, but is involved in a number of different organizations and was recently inducted into the University of Maine at Presque Isle Hall of Fame.
Ashland vs. Van Buren, Ashland down 3-1 in a women’s soccer game. When you look toward the Ashland crowd there is a sense of fear and urgency about winning this game. Except for one person: Peter Belskis, Ashland lady soccer coach. He has been coaching girls’ soccer for about five years. Before that, he coached boys’ soccer for 32 years. He rallies his team back from a 3-1 defeat to win 4-3. Ashland stays in first, giving them home-field advantage throughout the playoffs.
Growing up as a high schooler, Belskis was a three-sport all-star. He aspired to be a professional baseball player. His dreams were crushed when he destroyed his leg in a football game going for an interception.
Belskis never played or thought about coaching soccer. He was offered the job so he took it. He didn’t know anything about soccer, so he took the soccer referee test to learn about it. To show his dedication in his 37 years of coaching, he has only missed one game. The only reason he did that was to go to his father’s funeral.
Belskis is not only a soccer coach, gym teacher, and former health teacher. He is also involved in many other activities. He is a member of the Basketball Board 150 referees and an inactive member of Northern Maine Approved Soccer Officials. Belskis also umpires softball games and is president of the Ashland Area Teachers Association since 2000. Recently he became an UMPI hall of fame inductee.
Belskis may have more opportunities to win a state title, but as far as teaching is concerned, Belskis plans to retire. When you think Ashland soccer you think one name: Peter Belskis.
“I’m rich. I have a treasure chest full of memories. When things go bad, I open that treasure chest and pull one of them out. Not the average person has that … I do!” Belskis said.
