Have you ever had a passion that lasts a lifetime where  you have devoted, dedicated and grown young people into Adults, who admire and respect you as an individual.

One such individual is three Provincial Championship Pitt Meadows basketball coach Rich Goulet, who will no longer be on the bench this season.

Thirty nine years and more than 1,000 wins putting players such as Steve Nash who has 2.622,433 million followers and counting on Twitter is now entering the discussion, say’s “He was lucky to play for Coach Goulet.”

Another comment from Steve Nash on Twitter ‘Coz there’s cash in the walls. Don’t you watch Ozark???

Other comments on Twitter from Kelly Olynyk that stated Learned a ton from coach Goulet, wouldn’t trade the opportunity to have played for him ever, helped me immensely on my path to where I am.

Other writings on Twitter are from Jaclyn Edwards who mentioned “This is absolutely reprehensible. I had Mr. Goulet as a teacher and spent many hours with him and his teams on trips for tournaments. He is loud, he can be intimidating but he is always fair. He always expects 100% effort and if you were slacking off you just didn’t play.”

“Seems that too many kids/parents are “sensitive” these days and can’t take criticism that is meant to help you improve.”

Parents – yes parents who probably know far less than Coach Goulet on basketball went to the school administrators about god knows what.

One can only imagine that their Son was not getting enough playing time or upset at his style of coaching which demands discipline and maybe they are not used to getting that at home, but we can only speculate?

I personally have seen Rich Coach in various tournaments, regulation games as well as BC Final Championships and – yes he does demand a certain amount of dedication and desire from all his players and no one is free from the criticism.

Last season for Coach Goulet was difficult to say the least and he pushed his players to reach their potential, but in today’s world all you can do is offer advice and the lazy or poor players are holding the better players down.

Goulet mentions “They think I was negative, because I gave a lot of speeches about what they needed to do to get better.”

He continued “We weren’t even competitive at triple-A … My goodness.” he said. “I never ask anyone to like me when I coach them. I just ask them to do what I want them to do.Maybe I got cranky.”

Goulet mentioned “that it was a frustrating season, where many of his Grade 12 players were simply not willing to work up to the standards of the program”, which he is not used to and he mentioned that “he had to fight with players, and bench them, to get a basic effort.”

This is no different from other players whose Parents are all about the “kids being winners” and try to live their  lives through their kids rather than let them “just play” and have fun.

He mentioned that “some, but not all of the players were also disrespectful to him and when asked Assistant Coach Ron Wallsmith doesn’t recall any incident that would have led to Goulet losing his status as coach.

Goulet said the school board conducted an investigation into parent complaints, and afterward he was asked to return and help run the program – but not on the bench.

His reply was simple – “Why would I do that? You just fired me as a coach and I’m not here to impose myself to people who don’t want me.”

Pitt Meadows Secondary Principal Mike Keenan nor any member of the school board would comment, saying that “all personnel matters must remain confidential.”

Not just from Goulet feelings it is probably most of the basketball community that feels he (Goulet) was not given a fair and impartial hearing.

He retired from teaching 14 months ago, but continued to coach as a Volunteer, and we all know that volunteers can be released at any time.

The loss isn’t just for Goulet, but for all Coaches around the Province as many have withdrawn from the annual Pitt Meadows’ Annual Air Show Tournament, and threaten to boycott games against the Pitt Meadows team, so it’s fair to assume that their schedule could be affected.

One thing for sure is that Rich won’t miss getting up for practice at 7 a.m. in a freezing cold gym.”

He loves the game and while he was released from Coaching, he’s still the clear winner and the loser is the Pitt Meadows basketball program.

Big shoes to fill whoever they bring in, but it’s clear to say that whoever comes in might have second thoughts about how they might be treated.

Oh wait – didn’t UBC go through something similar to this a few years back where politics played a huge role.

Not to the Administration – Leave Coaching to the Coaches and step aside for the betterment of your school program!!!

I saved the best comment for last and it goes like this:

A player from last year’s senior AAA team at Pitt also weighed in.

Braeden Fletcher wrote:

”I just graduated and played for this man full time basically 24/7 the past 5 years of my life and camps before that.

In grade 8 we started with 28 kids by grade 10 it was down to three.

The kids that quit figured it out either they didn’t like playing or they didn’t like Coach Goulet so they stopped playing.

They didn’t cry to their mom and dad and get them to complain and what happened was pathetic and those who complained don’t deserve a spot on the team anymore.

I’ve had plenty of coaches whether it be soccer, football or basketball, they all yelled and said some things that in all honesty shouldn’t be said but i loved the sports I was playing so I kept my head up and pushed forward.

I had my fair share of disagreements with Coach Goulet but I would always move on afterwards usually end with both of us apologizing to each other.

The man has a heart.

“I think what bothers me the most about this article is that it features all these past players saying how great he was and how thankful they are for turning them into the men they are today.

I’d just like to know … how are they helping to rebuild the program back to what it was?

Now I’ve just graduated so I’m still figuring out my life (job, planning school, etc) but as soon as I have all that figured out I’m going right back through those gym doors and putting every bit of effort into that program as I possibly can because without basketball nobody would know where pitt meadows is.

If there’s one thing I want to thank Rich Goulet for it’s for never giving up on me and the two other grade 12s from last year.

He had chances to just cut us from the program when we went from having a full grade 9 team to having three of us left on the bench going into grade 10.

Three years he was given the opportunity to tell us we weren’t on the team, three years he made sure we were on that bench.

So for everybody saying how Goulet demeans players and how he’s gotten worse he hasn’t. He’s the same he has been and he shouldn’t have to change.

If he would choose to keep three grade 10s around for three years when he could have replaced them you know you’ve got a coach who’s not out there to tear kids down.

He’s out there to make Men out of Boys.”

Goulet’s accomplishments

• Basketball B.C. Hall of Fame inductee;
• Prime Minister’s Volunteer Award winner;
• Three-time provincial champion coach;
• Coached approx. 4,000 games at all levels
• Has been coaching high school basketball in 1965;
• Coached provincial and national teams;
• Founded and administered the Steve Nash Youth Basketball league in Pitt Meadows.