Thousands sign petition to name Pitt Meadows gym after late coach
Posted April 26, 2021 10:54 pm.
Last Updated April 26, 2021 11:07 pm.
PITT MEADOWS (NEWS 1130) — There’s a push to rename the gym at a Pitt Meadows school to honour the life of Rich Goulet, a coaching legend who recently passed away.
Goulet coached basketball for half a century, spending 40 years at Pitt Meadows Secondary. Some of the kids he coached would go on to make it big, including Rob Sacre, Kelly Olynyk, and Steve Nash.
But Doug Plumb, who started the petition to get the gym renamed, says Goulet taught a lot of kids to live the game.
“He was a mentor to myself and a lot of people. Over the course of 40 years you can touch a lot of people’s lives,” he says.
“He was kind of a shoulder for myself and all of us to lean on, and taught us not just to play basketball, but how to do things the right way. He was also just an amazing facilitator of so much opportunity and so much programming for kids across the province.”
Plumb is now the head coach of the London Lightning in the National Basketball League of Canada. He first met Goulet in Grade 3. At that time, he wanted to play hockey and wasn’t thrilled that his mom put him in a basketball program called “Little Dribblers.”
“After day three, he walked up to my mom. My mom goes, ‘How’s Dougie doing?’ And he goes, ‘Your boy’s got talent.’ That was that. It was off to the races for me and basketball.”
According to Plumb, the school district has said naming the gym after Goulet is a tricky proposition since there are a lot of people in the community who deserve to be honoured.
“We’re not trying to say that he was better than anyone else but at a certain point, there’s people that you break policy for — people that are trailblazers,” he says.
“People that dedicate their whole lives, it’s the very least that we can do. When [Goulet] got to Pitt Meadows there wasn’t even a gym there, they were playing in the cafeteria. He was instrumental in helping fundraise, and build that. I think it’s the very very least that we can do after all that he’s done. In 50 years, he hasn’t taken a dollar.”
After several years of declining health, Goulet passed away on March 28 at the age of 74.
