The best is yet to come. That’s what javelin coach Joe Boutin has been telling athletes at Newberg High School for 37 years and after mentoring 12 state champions, several high school and NCAA All-Americans, and three Olympians, who’s to argue with him?

“That was something that was instilled right away,” said 2005 NHS graduate Alex Wolff, who went on to become an NCAA Division I All-American at the University of Oregon. “You’re always working toward something else, trying to get better no matter what.”

Wolff didn’t quite know what to think when Boutin told him, just after his first-ever practice session throwing the javelin, that if he stuck to it, he would be able to earn a college scholarship.

“Just his passion about javelin led me to believe that he was right,” said Wolff, who owns the NHS record in the event and won the state title on the final throw of his high school career. “He was 100 percent correct.”

A basketball and baseball standout at Powers High School in southwest Oregon, Boutin didn’t pick up the event himself until his freshman year at Lewis & Clark College, where his basketball coach was also the track coach.

To say he’s stuck with it ever since is a gross understatement.

After graduation, Boutin joined the Marines and threw for the Quantico track team during one of his three years of service.

After his time in the military, Boutin became head track coach for three years at Clatskanie High School beginning in 1962, then spent 10 years teaching and coaching basketball and track at Taft High School in Lincoln City.

Boutin came to Newberg for the 1974-1975 school and taught, coached and served as an administrator until his retirement in 1991. But even when he wasn’t head coach or while he served as assistant principal or since he retired, Boutin has volunteered to coach the javelin at the school each of the last 37 years.

Besides his love of the sport, which includes how well javelin lends itself to seeing visible progress over time, connecting with young people is what brings him back to the field each spring.

“It excites me if I can be a small part of changing attitudes and developing different habits kids have been able to do with the success in the javelin,” Boutin said. “I think that’s all any coach can ask for.”

Boutin has an uncanny ability to connect with his pupils in a deep and long-lasting way, which has drawn athletes to him in droves just as much as his skill as a teacher of sport.

“I think it’s a reflection of the type of person he is, how caring he is, how he really commits to people and sees things through,” 2012 Olympian Rachel Yurkovich said. “Once you’re one of his athletes, that’s what you are for the rest of your life.”

Yurkovich meets with Boutin regularly throughout the year to work out and to feel his calming influence in her training, but also because he’s a trusted friend whom she can’t go long without seeing.

“For me, he is the person I really want to be proud of me, the person I am outside of track and the things I accomplish in track,” she said. “He’s just such a caring, giving person and will do anything for you.”

Building those kinds of off-the-track relationships are the norm, not the exception with Boutin, and he volunteers his time to work with any willing athlete, whether they’re a star or a complete newcomer to the high school team.

“Coach Boutin is one of the most amazing people I’ve ever met and will ever meet in my life,” Wolff said. “I feel pretty blessed to be able to have him as a coach and a mentor.”

 And just because he specializes in coaching one event, don’t mistake Boutin for a coach who demands 365 days of focus on just one sport. In fact, it’s quite the opposite, as most of his highest-achieving throwers were multiple-sport athletes, including several who didn’t come out until their senior years before going on to star in college or beyond, like 2012 Olympian Cyrus Hostetler and 2012 NHS grad Cody Danielson, who will compete for UCLA next spring.

“He encouraged and supported those kids when they were in other programs,” NHS athletic director Tim Burke said. “That sends a huge message to both coaches and kids that whatever you’re doing, be balanced.”

Many of his former pupils, including Wolff, have followed in Boutin’s footsteps to become coaches themselves, which along with the throwers he’s helped guide to the highest levels of the sport, makes his impact on the sport and on people’s lives staggering to estimate.

“It’s a sign of a great coach,” current Tigers head coach Brandon Ramey said. “I get more questions and inquiries about javelin and about paying him to work with their daughter or son, to take private lessons. He just does it and I think it’s because he just likes being around the kids. It’s not about the money. It’s not about the fans. It’s about the relationships and just being there coaching.”

With the continued support of his wife, Angie, and health willing, Boutin sees no reason why he would ever stop unless he’s no longer wanted — a caveat that is both typical of his humble personality and bordering on ludicrous considering his impact.

“I don’t see that ever happening,” Burke said. “I don’t see how anybody could ever want to lose somebody who can connect with kids like that and make them feel good and grow with success and confidence.”

Seth Gordon, Newberg Graphic

Photo By: Seth Gordon
Longtime Newberg High School javelin coach Joe Boutin (right and below) works with Cody Danielson, who will throw for UCLA next spring after taking up the sport in his senior year in high school. Joe Boutin continues coaching young track and field athletes even though he retired as a teacher and administrator in the Newberg School District in 1991.