Big Bend, Moses Lake coaching legend Pete Doumit passes away

MOSES LAKE — Longtime Columbia Basin resident Pete Doumit was many things to many people. He had a special way of making everyone in the room feel as if they were the most important person in his life.

It's a gift, really.

To some, he's a teacher listed in the Who's Who for Washington Teachers. To others, he was their Midway Elementary School principal. To some, he was the author of “What I know About Baseball Is What I Know About Life,” which he published in 2007. But most just called him coach.

Doumit devoted over four decades of his life to the game of baseball. He's one of the top high school coaches in Washington state history and won more than 500 games over his 45-year career. He was elected to the Washington Baseball Coaches Hall of Fame (2006), received the American Baseball Coaches Quarter Century Award and was recently elected to the Big Bend Community College Athletic Hall of Fame.

Doumit, along with Vanderbilt University manager Tim Corbin, will receive the prestigious ABCA/Dave Keilitz Ethics in Coaching Award in 2019. The award presentation will be during the ABCA Convention in Dallas.

Pete won't be there to receive that one, even though the recognition sums up his character and a life well lived. You see, Pete passed away early Saturday morning, at the age of 69, leaving a big hole in the very fabric of a community he cared about and loved. Whether you considered him a former teacher, principal, baseball icon or even a girls basketball coach, everyone that ever met Pete Doumit was considered a friend.

“Moses Lake is great place to raise a family and it's because of people like Pete,” said Kerry Garbe, whose son B.J. was part of the great 1999 Moses Lake team that was ranked No. 4 in the nation and was drafted No. 5 overall by the Minnesota Twins.

“I still remember when B.J. came home with that note, 'Wins and losses are forgotten, but the kind of person you become is not.'

“Pete used to have all kinds of sayings like that. He'd write down for the kids to remember.”

Doumit was blessed and surrounded by a kind and loving family. His wife Faith, sons Pat, Pete Jr. and Ryan and daughter Amy were by his side. Both Pat and Pete Jr. played college baseball. Ryan was a selected in the second round of the 1999 MLB Draft. Pete was proud of all, of course. But for a baseball guy, it was a pretty special night when he got the call from his boy (2005), “Dad, I'm going to The Show.”

Ryan spent the first six years of his professional career in the minors, working his way through the farm system to Class AA Altoona, Penn., in 2004. He made his Major League debut in 2005 with the Pittsburgh Pirates, where three years later he shared the National League Player of the Week award for the week ending June 16, 2008, hitting .400 and four home runs during the week.

“Dad always told me not take it for granted. He inspired me to play for the love of baseball,” said Ryan, who spent seven seasons with the Pirates, two with the Twins and finished up his 10-year Major League career in Atlanta.

Pete's coaching career included two stints at both Moses Lake High School and Big Bend Community College where he wrapped up his 45-year-coaching career May 13, 2017.

• 1979-82: Big Bend Community College
• 1983-85: Moses Lake High School
• 1995-99: Moses Lake High School (1999 team was ranked fourth in the nation)
• 2003-12: Moses Lake freshman team
• 2012-17: Big Bend Community College

He was also an assistant coach at Washington State University, Linfield College and Lower Columbia College.

Here's what the Columbia Basin baseball world remembers about Pete Doumit.

BJ Garbe: (Gatorade National Baseball Player of the Year, drafted No. 5 overall in 1999).

“Pete is a genuine success story,” said Garbe, who is currently the CEO at Ten Pin Brewing Company. “His success is measured by the impact he made on people. He didn't just teach us about character, integrity and different values; he showed us. He never wavered from what he was trying to pass on in the 33 years I've known him.”

Jason Cooper: (Drafted No. 63 in 1999, earned his bachelor's degree at Stanford in three years).

“He taught me how to be a man at a young age, and I think that's why we were able to find success later in life,” said Cooper, who is currently a special assignment scout with the Chicago Cubs. “Integrity, character, passion and work ethic were persistent mantras while in the presence of Coach Doumit. He challenged each and every one of us to put our individual egos aside and showed us all what it felt like to pull from the same end of the rope at the same time. He was a true Renaissance Man with a humble spirit and insatiable thirst for knowledge.”

Dave Heaverlo: (1968 Moses Lake graduate, broke into the big leagues on April 14, 1975, with the San Francisco Giants and later pitched for the Seattle Mariners and Oakland A's.

“He devoted his life to raising a very solid family. Not just his immediate family, but his athletic family too,” Heaverlo said. “I can't even put it into words how he's touched the lives of so many people. During my Major League career, whenever I was back in town, he'd gather up the baseball team and I'd share what it takes to not only to play at the collegiate level, but at the professional level. One of the guys sitting in the class was his son Ryan. Maybe I helped him in some small way.”

Dave Johnson: (Washington Baseball Coaches Hall of Fame, started his career in 1971).

“He has a real love for kids. He coached at the high school and Big Bend, but between head coaching jobs, he even coached the ninth-graders. He was always willing to share his knowledge of the game he loved,” said Johnson. “He's an educator and he loved history. I remember one time Pete and I went on a (sponsored) trip together back to Washington D.C where we spent three days going through the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum learning about the history. A good coach is a good teacher. He's just a good guy ... a class guy.”

Randy Boruff: (NW Senior Babe Ruth League commissioner, Columbia Basin River Dogs manager).

“The Columbia Basin and baseball is a better place because of Pete Doumit,” Boruff said. “Pete and I coached the 1997 River Dog team that went back to Arkansas and finished third in the nation. That team had Jason Cooper, BJ Garbe and his son Ryan on it. There were seven guys on that team that ended up getting drafted. It was that '97 team that set up the national championship run the following year (in 1998). Pete was an influence in all of that.”

Mike Rios: (Drafted by Oakland A's, managed the 1998 River Dog team, Big Bend Hall of Famer).

“Pete was a great coach, but an even a better man,” said Rios, who wrapped up his Big Bend career in 1992 as the Vikings' most valuable player with 107 strikeouts. “He's the staple of baseball here in Moses Lake and coached Babe Ruth, high school and college for as long as I can remember.”

Gabe Boruff: (Drafted by the Kansas City Royals, Washington State University assistant coach).

“I played with both of his sons (Pete Jr. and Ryan) and actually coached against Pete. His character is the biggest thing I think of when I think about Pete Doumit,” said Boruff, who managed the West Coast League Moses Lake Pirates to a WCL championship. “Pete's one of the good guys. He's always been invested in the kids and you could really feel that. He invested in each individual. When he teaches the game of baseball, he was really teaching you ways to live.”

Steve Keller: (Big Bend assistant, American Legion Spuds manager).

“Pete is one of the best human beings I've ever met,” said Keller, who managed the Moses Lake Pirates (2009-10). “The success he's had on the baseball field is great, but the lasting effect he has on people comes from his true nature, and that's even greater.”

Rodney Harwood is a sports writer for the Columbia Basin Herald and can be reached at rharwood@columbiabasinherald.com.