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NORTH ATTLEBORO - The windmill's career has come to a close, but there will be imitators, duplicators along the sidelines for sure.

North Attleboro High senior Christian Pirnie made it an art-form, a highlight film clip - the throw-in from the sidelines for the Rocketeer boys' soccer team over the past four seasons.

"I remember the first time that I saw it done, a girl did it at a tournament in Maine when I was playing with the Bay Side United," said Pirnie of the whirlwind toss from afar and into the penalty box area to create a scoring chance for the team.

"I didn't know that you could do that, I didn't know that it was legal," said Pirnie, who along with the area's premier high school players will be congregating on the artificial surface at Mansfield High's Alumni Field (at 3 p.m.) Saturday for the second annual Sun Chronicle All-Star Game.

Pirnie will be participating in his second Sun Chronicle Classic, a showcase tournament organized by Attleboro High boys' soccer coach Peter Pereira, who has some three-dozen collegiate soccer coaches from throughout New England lined up to be in attendance. But, more than that, there will be some great soccer played and a chance to watch Pirnie in action.

Pirnie ranks among the top 20 seniors academically at North Attleboro High and has aspirations for attending either Duke, Johns Hopkins, North Carolina, Maryland or Connecticut. And truth be told, Pirnie figures that if he doesn't get a call from a college coach, he has enough skill and talent to be invited to tryouts, to perhaps become a "walk-on."

What with his throwing skill, it's a natural.

But, it's not all that easy, according to Pirnie, who has had more than his share of foot slips and bad throws too.

"It's a weapon definitely, it creates chaos," said Pirnie of foes trying to defending the ball, not looking at marking their man, but at his toss. The challenge is to get an accurate throw in front of the net so that a teammate might have a chance for a header.

What occurs too is that Pirnie's throws are so strong and so accurate, that, sometimes, in being punched out and away from the goal, second chance scoring opportunities have developed for the Big Red.

"I didn't really start doing it until I was in high school," said Pirnie, who received the encouragement from North Attleboro High coach Steve Santos, who similarly crafted the art when he was a Bombardier at Attleboro High. "I had done gymnastics from the time I was three years old until I was eight or nine, so I figured that I was agile enough to do it."

Pirnie had a stutter start to his varsity career, suffering a severe ankle sprain as a freshman and then suffering a concussion as a sophomore. Over the past two seasons, Pirnie has been a major influence on the success of the Rocketeers, reaching the Division 1-South Sectionals semifinals a year ago as the Hockomock League champions, losing to Brockton in a shootout, qualifying again for the MIAA Tournament this season despite the graduation losses of eight starters.

"I actually didn't think that we'd qualify," said Pirnie. "We were amazing last year. I thought that we'd be lucky to finish .500." As is turned out, North posted an 11-4-3 record and earned the No. 7 seed for postseason play. And who did North meet in the very first round? Brockton, of course.

"I'm used to beating people with my speed," said Pirnie, who runs the 300 and relays for North's indoor track team, the 200 and 400 sprints for the spring track team. "I couldn't believe it, those guys (from Brockton) were staying with me." While that was a hallmark and memorable game from his senior season, Pirnie's other most cherished match from the 2008 campaign was the annual Red-Blue game against Attleboro, one which the Rocketeers lost on penalty kicks.

Rather strangely, Pirnie doesn't always practice his whirlwind throw-ins, the Rocketeers didn't put aside five or 10 minutes during each training session to work on the aerial routine.

"Throwing from the left side, the right side, it doesn't matter," said Pirnie. "I just need space to do it. It's more about physics too, how hard or how far that you throw the ball. All I'm trying to do is put the ball in the box, to put the ball in position for making a score.'

"It's funny, but whenever we get awarded a throw-in, I always hear people on the sidelines, "there's the kid who does the flip."