AUBURN —  Whether it was behind the plate, in the goal or tucked away in the corner of a track meet, Ann-Marie Caron often competed in relative anonymity.

And that’s the way she liked it.

Being a goalie or being a catcher, you’re behind the scenes,” Caron said. “If the team wins, it’s (because of) the high scorer. If the team loses, the goalie screwed up. In softball, you’re behind the plate. You’re not the starting pitcher. I had decent batting, but being in the field, I was always kind of behind the scenes.”

It was the same competing in track, especially in the shot and discus events.

“You’re a small chunk of change at a huge track meet,” Caron said.

Competing in such obscurity never bothered Caron. She didn’t play sports to get noticed or get accolades. She just wanted to compete and find ways to do it the best that she could.

“As long as I felt good about what I did, I didn’t need anything else,” Caron said.

So when Caron was told she was going to be inducted into the Auburn/Lewiston Sports Hall of Fame, she was honored but also didn’t see what the big deal was about her athletic accomplishments.

“I still kind of look at it as, it’s what I did,” Caron said. “It’s really hard for me to toot my own horn. I’ll get kudos, but I just smile and say ‘Thank you.’ I didn’t do anything special.”

Caron was a graduate of Lewiston, Bates and the University of New England. She played softball and field hockey at Lewiston and continued to excel in those sports while at Bates. She also started competing in indoor track at Bates.

She set a goal of earning 12 letters during her four years at Bates and achieved it.

“I just wanted to keep up the competitive edge,” she said.

After college, she has been active in Maine Corporate Track. She also did some coaching at Bates and later coached field hockey at Kents Hill and assisted with the boys’ hockey team there.

She’s still active athletically, competing in various CrossFit events. The desire to compete and push herself that she had as a young athlete hasn’t changed much.

“I’m not used to doing stuff for awards,” said Caron, who admits she has plenty of trophies and plaques at home. “I do it because it gives me a personal goal. Like any individual sport, you set your own personal goal. That’s what drives me to keep getting better.”

Initially, Caron was a product of her environment. Her father was active in sports. So too were her two older brothers.

“We always had an ice rink in our yard,” Caron said. “It was either a baseball field, an ice rink or a football field. It was always the hub of sports.”

So Caron was always active in sports but couldn’t get involved in organized athletic until she joined a youth softball league. It was the first sport she found that offered opportunities for girls.

“I remember the first day of tryouts,” Caron said. “The coach is out there just hitting. He hits a short pop-up. I run in and scoop it up. He’s like ‘We’re good.’ I ended up behind the plate because I was the only one that could reach second base with a throw.”

She later got involved in organized hockey with a local team and started playing field hockey in high school. It was first offered her sophomore year.

“Whatever opened up, I tried it,” Caron said. “Everybody else was doing it. Sitting around at the table, my Dad was a coach. My brothers played Elliot (Little League), Legion and stuff. Around the table, everything was about baseball. You get dragged around to all these games.”

She was intrigued by the opportunity to play field hockey and create some dinner table dialogue of her own. The program was in its infant stages at Lewiston. When she first went to practice, the sticks were still on order.

“We’d play with these plastic street hockey sticks,” Caron said. “Coach was trying to explain that we could only hit it with one side of the stick. I got in the cage. The cage was huge. I thought ‘There’s no way I’m doing a split save across the net.’”

She enjoyed the competitiveness of organized sports and enjoyed the camaraderie as well, but it was also a place where Caron simply felt at home.

“It was such a natural thing,” Caron said. “People grow up in families with music in the house. They end up being musician and artists. For me, everything was sports around the house. Everything was based around athletics.”

When she went to Bates, she really began to excel. She set numerous field hockey records and set a new women’s indoor shot put record. After her playing career ended, she got into coaching. She was an assistant coach with the field hockey program in 1983 and assisted with the softball team from 2006-2010. She coached at Kents Hill from 1984 to 1986.

“My Dad had coached and my brothers were coaching,” Caron said. “The opportunity came up at Bates a year after I graduated to help out with field hockey. I thought it would be a nice opportunity. The same with softball at Bates. It let me stay involved with the young athletes and see how things have changed and how they have changed.”

She graduated from UNE with a degree in Physical Therapy. When she isn’t still competing herself, she’s helping others do so at Central Maine Physical Therapy.

kmills@sunjournal.com