Inland Northwest Golf 2023: Mead’s Paul Peters showed ‘what a coach should be’, retiring after storied 44-year career

Paul Peters was the 25th man as a freshman on the 25-man Shadle Park High golf team. He introduced himself to the game by smacking balls in a vacant sandlot near the family’s Indian Trail neighborhood home.

By his senior year, he was No. 4 on the varsity and went on to play at Community Colleges of Spokane.

“I wonder if I’d been 26th,” Peters said. “Who knows where life would have taken me. Somebody, circumstances gave me a chance to get hooked on this game.”

He’s been hooked ever since, to the tune of coaching the Mead boys golf team for 44 years, the last 37 as head coach. He’s down to one more tournament – State 3A on Tuesday and Wednesday in Olympia – and one more road trip.

Peters estimates he’s taken roughly 800 road trips with his teams. He can’t begin to count the hours he’s spent at practices and matches at Wandermere, the program’s home course. Instead of doing the math, Peters offers a sincere “thank you” to the Ross Family, the course’s longtime owners.

Peters’ long career is reflected in the numbers. He’s guided four state-championship teams – three in a row from 1991-93 – and five second-place finishes, including last spring. He’s led the Panthers to 13 Greater Spokane League titles.

“It’d be nice to get another,” Peters said, “make it an even five (titles) and five (runners-up). We’ll see.”

But numbers and legacy aren’t on his mind right now.

“I kind of liken it to a player in any sport, say a golf tournament,” Peters said. “You stay with what you’re doing and focus and after it’s all over, you might have a chance (to reflect).

“But I have thought about it. I haven’t shed any big tears, but I know I’m going to miss it. Obviously, it’s been part of my DNA for a long time.”

Asked the most satisfying aspect of coaching, Peters doesn’t mention records or championships. He points to relationships built with his players – 15 to 20 former Panthers showed up at Wandermere three weeks ago when Peters was honored after the team clinched the GSL title – and stories that didn’t make the headlines.

He quickly offers an example.

About 15 years ago, a Mead player who didn’t always have great support at home fell ill during a tournament in the Tri-Cities. Peters said he did what anybody would do, taking the young man to the emergency room where he was diagnosed with myocarditis.

The youngster eventually recovered, overcame additional obstacles and rejoined the team more than a year later. He never played in a varsity match, but Peters proudly points out he’s healthy, lives in the area and works at a golf retail store.

“He always had a great heart,” Peters said. “It just wasn’t working well at that point.”

Peters, 73, has learned which players he can talk to and which ones to leave alone during competition, but his message, even without words, is unfailingly positive.

“During a round, maybe you’re not playing great and he’ll just smile at you,” said senior Benjamin Mulder, the GSL Player of the Year. “You’ll just shake your head, and he’ll keep smiling.”

Longtime Gonzaga Prep coach Dennis Dougherty first met Peters in the late 1980s. The Bullpups and Panthers have battled in recent seasons for GSL supremacy, but that didn’t interfere with their friendship.

“He’s really the exact idea of what a coach should be in high school golf or athletics in general,” Dougherty said. “He wants his players to get better, wanted them to compete, but he’s the most kindhearted and generous person out there.

“We’ve gone at it, but I’ve also had him into my home and we’ve played golf together.”

Keith Ross, Mead’s girls coach since 2009, played on Peters’ teams from 1994-97.

“My first thought of coach – I still call him coach – was all the mental and parts of golf that aren’t physical,” said Ross, who will succeed Peters as the boys coach next season. “Whether it was calming you down, breathing, how to be present, controlling your anger or even controlling when you get excited after making a couple birdies in a row.

“As a teenager, all you want to do is hit the ball as far as you could. He taught us there’s lot more to golf than that.”

To that end, Peters employed innovative methods. At practice, the team would play scrambles or three-club tournaments.

One tourney was called “miss ’em all,” meaning players weren’t allowed to hit the green in regulation. It forced players to think where they needed to miss the putting surface to have the best chance of getting up and down. If they hit the green in regulation, it cost them a stroke to putt the ball off the green before completing the hole.

To provide a different perspective, Peters once brought in a “mental guru” from the Midwest to conduct a seminar for the boys and girls teams.

“I think he’d met the guy on a flight and they got to talking,” Ross said. “I think Paul paid for it out of his own pocket. It was quite fascinating.”

Golf has changed, especially in terms of equipment, from when Peters first entered coaching. Golfers have changed, too.

“The athletes now, look at the Mulder twins,” Peters said of senior standouts Bradley and Benjamin. “They’re bigger and stronger. There were always good players around, but there are more now.”

Peters is exiting the coaching ranks with another talented team. Of the nine GSL first-team selections, six were Panthers. Peters instantly provides insights into each player.

All six have tournament wins to their credit. At last week’s District 8 3A championship, Cameron Cantillana, playing as an independent, was tops on the team and finished second overall.

“We’re really deep, I mean our seventh kid is pretty good,” said Peters, who retired from teaching in 2002 after 30 years, the majority spent at Northwood Middle School. “Some of the scores they’ve been able to manufacture (including a GSL record at Deer Park), I have just kind of stepped back and giggled a little bit and been mostly amazed. I’m not surprised.”

His perspective on 44 years of coaching isn’t surprising either.

“I’m really spiritually, philosophically about all of this,” he said. “I’ve loved the opportunity. Like anything, it’s been right place, right time. We’re on these paths together for a reason.

“What I’ve thought about a lot is how much appreciation and gratitude I have for the whole situation, the relationships and people I’ve met. They call you a legend, but also if you’re around that long sometimes that just comes off their lips.”

And sometimes it’s an apt description.