Lebanon
Eldest son Travis Pelletier, then a Lebanon High sophomore, played three sports and had developed a quick wit at the golf course, hockey rink and baseball diamond. He didn’t miss a beat.
“Couldn’t you have just gotten a dog?” he asked in jest.
These days, that baby is 14-year-old Kyle Pelletier, a Lebanon High sophomore. Travis, 31, is his Lebanon Post 22 junior American Legion baseball coach on a 9-1 team that features players from throughout the Upper Valley. There’s no talk of how a dog would have been better because Travis Pelletier and his brother, Pat, relish the chance to help raise their younger sibling.
“Kyle was always in the backpack at the hockey rink or on the golf course, and then he would be down on the ground throwing the ball around with the baseball players at his brothers’ games,” Karen Pelletier said. “Now, it’s kind of come full circle.”
By the time Kyle was a toddler, his brothers were in high school and Travis, an eventual 2003 Lebanon High graduate, was halfway out the door to Keene State College, where he became a savvy and tough second baseman. He also played five seasons for Post 22 under coach Dustin Broughton before returning home and guiding his alma mater’s junior varsity baseball team for five years. He works for a screen-printing company in town.
After a season directing Rivendell Academy’s varsity, Travis Pelletier has spent the last four at Kearsarge, improving to 9-7 last spring with a callow team.
“It’s very similar to this group,” he said after a recent Post 22 practice. “Everyone’s so young.”
What could be a problem actually plays to Travis Pelletier’s strengths. He took over the junior Legion squad this season from former college teammate John Grainger, now the Hanover High coach. The men are both poised, cerebral mentors who keep their players on their toes. Miss a sign, botch some baserunning or overthrow the cutoff man, and there will be constructive criticism waiting for you in the dugout.
“He won’t yell at you in the field, but he’ll let you know how to get better when you come off it,” Kyle Pelletier said of his brother. “But we’re hardest on ourselves about it, so he doesn’t have to be the guy who comes down on us very often.”
Kyle Pelletier, who’s an infielder and pitcher and one of the junior team’s youngest players, doesn’t start at either position. He’s done well as a reliever, however, coming in to finish off games as Post 22 has built the best record among the seven teams in its New Hampshire region.
“I treat him like everybody else, and I’d hope the rest of the team sees it that way as well,” Travis Pelletier said. “I try not to think about it beyond this is my team and this is how I’m going to coach them. There are times after games where I end up hanging out with him and we talk about what’s happened, but when we’re on the field, he’s just one of 15 guys.”
Kyle Pelletier throws strikes and plays good defense, traits dear to his coach’s heart. The older brother encourages the younger one to work on his strength, conditioning, agility and speed and admits he’s a little less forgiving in judging him. At the same time, Travis doesn’t want to put additional pressure on a player who’s adjusting to a higher level of competition.
“We had 30 kids try out, and I told him beforehand he’d have to earn his spot,” said Travis Pelletier, who’s assisted by Dan Griswold. “He was a little nervous and really wanted to prove himself to me, but I told him to relax because I didn’t want him coming out here and not having fun.”
Karen Pelletier, a Norwich native and 1980 Hanover High graduate who played field hockey for the Marauders, enjoys watching her boys on the same team. However, she’s also nervous for them, which leads to stress in a lawn chair.
“It’s very exciting, but you don’t get down time, because even if Kyle’s not in the game, Travis is still coaching,” said the employee of Dartmouth College’s economics department. “I’m the least-competitive person in the family, so I’ve never cared if they get a hit or a win, but I always feel bad for them in something goes wrong. I feel it when they’re disappointed.”
The boys’ father, Tom, is a former Lebanon High athlete who coached Travis in baseball, and the Pelletiers’ extended family is filled with athletes. The older brothers, however, have learned to pick their spots on cornering Kyle and offering advice. He’s their buddy first and a ballplayer second.
“You want to be level-headed and help set him up for a good future,” Travis said. “But you also don’t want to lose the brother aspect, so you give him a hard time and throw him around a little bit.
“Having a comment come from your brother makes you listen a little bit more. Now that I’ve finally gotten him here on the field, I’ve taken that step more often but not too much.”
Notes: Post 22’s next local game is slated to be Thursday against visiting Weare at New London’s Colby-Sawyer College. … Travis Pelletier notes for the record that while he never changed Kyle’s diapers, Pat did and deserves credit for tackling that task. … Pat Pelletier played golf at the University of Rhode Island and won that state’s open championship last year.
Tris Wykes can be reached at twykes@vnews.com or 603-727-3227.