Petit-Clair is a popular name at Lehighton. Jake, Nate and Matt are all seniors, all athletes and all brothers: triplets to be precise, born just 58 and then 40 seconds apart.
"It was great growing up with them," Jake Petit-Clair said, the oldest brother. "I always had someone to play with and someone to fight with. No matter where I went, I always had two friends to hang out with."
"I was the one that usually got picked on and maybe bullied a little bit by them," the youngest Petit-Clair, Matt said. "But it all worked out in the end."
"We were always competitive when we were younger," middle brother Nate said. "Always getting into fights about just about basically everything and yeah, just a lot of fun. Not many people can say that about their brothers and I'm just very thankful."
All three Petit-Clairs are natural-born athletes and they pop up everywhere here at Lehighton. Jake is the oldest. He's a track star and also plays soccer. Matt is the youngest. Soccer is his sport, but unfortunately his senior season was cut short by a concussion and Nate, he's the middle child. He stuck with football. For him, it was just right.
"I go to soccer games whenever I can make it because, you know, football," Nate Petit-Clair said. "I'm usually busy, but they always go to the football games."
All three brothers did play JV football. Jake tore his ACL as a freshman and followed Matt to the pitch, but man, are they leaving an impression.
"They really epitomize what it think community-based sports programs are all about," Lehighton football coach Tom McCarroll said. "They spread themselves pretty thin, but they do it because they know it's good for the kids and my hat goes off to them. I can't say enough about how good they are for this program."
Making their mark, senior year.
"It's been really awesome to have two brothers to share this high school experience with and both of my brothers are truly my best friends and I don't know what I'd do without them," Matt Petit-Clair said.
That's something they might find out next year when they go to college; that is, if they go to different schools.
"I don't really care if we go to the same school or not, but it would be cool, I guess to get away from them a little bit, but I'd also miss them too at the same time," Nate Petit-Clair said.
"It would be very hard to get used to at first," Jake Petit-Clair added. "The longest I've ever been away from them is probably like a week, no longer that that. We're all very close."
