Whitman men's soccer coach gets ready for retirement

Mike Washington is slowly packing up the remnants of his 17-year stint as head coach of men's soccer at Whitman College. His tenure here was a lived-in masterpiece of generosity, wit, toughness and warmth, built win by hard-fought win, conversation by deep conversation, quip by salty quip.

His office is not yet bare, but it's getting emptier by increment. Since announcing his retirement, Washington has painstakingly balanced his desire to help the program transition to the next regime against his desire to, as he puts it dryly, "get out of the way."

"It's hard," Washington said, "to get it out of your blood."

Another struggle is unfolding in every other office in the athletic department hallway of Sherwood Center, where Washington's colleagues are accepting this monumentally difficult goodbye, as sad as they are grateful.

"Just a wonderful person to be around," said Skip Molitor, assistant athletic director and head coach of women's golf. "Departmental meetings will never be the same. We were very fortunate to have Mike as long as we did. His accreditations, his contacts, his national recognition...he was mobile. He didn't need to stay at Whitman. We were really fortunate."

"Mike is a beautiful human being that shares himself with people," added Whitman athletic director Dean Snider. "He's always finding a way to give of himself. You can't replace that. We were fortunate to have him share his life with us. Hopefully, others will carry on his generous spirit and emulate it."

"Mike is all about others, about creating the next great experience for his players," said head women's basketball coach Michelle Ferenz. "He genuinely loves his players. You'd never realize his accreditations, his connections and the respect he has nationally. He could coach anywhere, but he chose to be here, because teaching the game the right way is what drives Mike.

"He always had time," she added. "It's gonna be different. I'm going to miss him, a lot."

Said Scott Shields, the head men's and women's cross country coach: "It's almost not real."

But it is time. Around Christmas, Mike's wife, Sue, asked him how much longer he wanted to coach at Whitman.

"In 44 years of marriage, I've never heard her say, 'No, you can't,'" Washington said. "It was time to listen. She wanted to live near our daughter, Sarah."

So it is that soon -- late May, early June? -- Mike and Sue will trek westward to join Sarah in the Seattle area.

Washington's soccer odyssey began in his native England, where the then-14-year-old lad helped form the Ellenboro Football Club -- coached by his father, Roy -- close to Bristol. Washington eventually transferred to the Worlebury Southside Football Club, toiling as a midfielder, forward and player-coach. He also scouted for Coventry City of the English Premier Division.

Washington worked with the Olympic Developmental Program and Washington State Youth Soccer Washington after moving to the Puget Sound region. He coached at Seattle-area high schools Bellevue, Hazen, Redmond and Lakeside, making numerous state playoff appearances. Washington was head men's coach at Bellevue Community College, before coming to Walla Walla, where he remained heavily involved in coaching at the club- and high school levels while steering Whitman from the NAIA ranks into the deep waters of NCAA-level competition.

Washington learned about an opening at Whitman during a conversation with Shields at Bellevue Community College. The two spoke on a regular basis, their paths overlapping due to the involvement of each in the Olympic Developmental Program.

This chat would change Whitman history.

"We were both working for Olympic Development," Shields said. "I was coaching Washington-East, he was coaching Washington-West. I knew Brent Houston was leaving and the (men's soccer) job was coming open. Whitman wasn't a big, publicized job; I was just spreading the word."

"Scott asked if I knew anyone interested in a college position," Washington recalled. "I said yes.

"Me."

Shields was shocked and delighted.

"In my head I was thinking, 'I never expected someone like you.'

"I never though we'd attract someone of his quality," Shields added. "I always thought it would be a young guy right out of college.

"He wanted that challenge."

Washington believes that the quest for insight, the journey to self-discovery, is a path that only opens with a push. It was an early life lesson, disguised as a sporting cliché, he absorbed from Roy.

"My father always told me that you learn more about yourself from struggle than from success," Washington said.

Thus, the mystery of coming to a remote college campus nestled betwixt foothill pleats of the Blue Mountains held great allure, as did the challenge of catapulting a collegiate soccer program into a higher division.

"I didn't know much about Division III, but it was definitely something I was interested in," Washington said. "Sometimes it is nice to be that virgin person without any preconceived notions. I remember learning about the size of the school and thinking, 'Wow, that's small.'"

He and Sue were also ready for a change of scenery after 17 years in Seattle, and on their first walk around the Whitman campus, they "fell in love" with this "little piece of heaven," Washington said.

During preliminary interviews, men's tennis coach Jeff Northam asked Washington how long he planned on staying.

"I told him I was here for the long haul," said Washington, grinning. "I was honest."

Tallied in years, or road-trip miles, or wins (124, a program record), it was a long haul, indeed. But Washington has always taken measure of self and service by less tangible metrics.

"Mike cared about building excellence in sport, but he was always a voice in the department that solidified the perspective that we're here for the students," Snider said. "His voice has been about keeping the focus on the students we serve."

Coaching "was never a status symbol" for Washington, Ferenz noted. "He's a throwback. We could use more like him. He treats people with respect and warmth."

And humor.

Oh, that legendary Mike Washington humor.

"So quick. So spot-on. Self-deprecating when necessary," said Ferenz. "He always knows how to make you smile. And his humor comes from a genuine place. I've never seen him embarrass a player. It's never at anyone's expense."

Except his own, perhaps. Washington wields his dry, British wit like a martial art, leavening the driest departmental meeting with guffaws, gently prodding his players, and generally making life a little funnier for everyone blessed to find themselves in his impish crosshairs.

"My dad is a Londoner. It's what we call 'banter,'" Washington said. "If no one is bantering with you, it means they don't like you. Life has to have a sense of humor. I was fortunate to find a life partner who also likes to laugh about stupid things. I expect to be bantered back."

"He does the Brits proud," Molitor added, laughing.

Washington's sense of humor complements his deep reservoir of soccer, coaching and sports knowledge. He has an English Football Association Coaching Badge and the United States Soccer Federation's 'A,' 'B' and 'C' licenses, certifying him to coach collegiately or professionally.

Washington's wit and expertise are rendered all the more potent by his integrity and toughness, physical and mental.

"He's very even-keeled," Shields said. "Whether he was coming off of a great weekend or a brutal weekend, it was always 'What's next? What's the next challenge?'"

"There's very clearly a toughness there," added Molitor. "As a person. As an educator. There's a real substance underlying Mike's rapport with student-athletes. Not many coaches and not many teams are successful without mental toughness, and Mike has a real gift for balancing his competitive drive with a sense of humor."

Washington has channeled those traits into coaching players, mentoring other coaches and every conceivable form of giving, whether planning a trip to England for the women's soccer program and first-year head coach Laura Williamson last fall, or instantly replying to a recent text message from Shields, soliciting a one-on-one goalkeeping tutorial for Shields' oldest son, Cameron, with the text, "We're on."

"Mike is the epitome of what it is to be mindful of other programs, not just your own," Williamson said. "He is a very, very selfless guy."

That legacy is immutable, but part of Washington's retirement and departure entails the dismantling of certain emblems of his giving nature. For Shields, there was poignant symbolism, for instance, in looking out his Sherwood window and seeing a well-known piece of Washington's office furniture in the back of his truck.

"It was his couch -- that big, cushy, leather couch -- in the back of his pickup. He was one of the first coaches to have a couch in his office," Shields said. "That's the first time it really hit me; 'Oh yeah. He's leaving.'"

The couch -- headed to Washington's next office -- was handed down from his late mother, Elsie.

"My wife asked me, 'Where are you going to put it?'" Washington said. "I thought, 'Why not my office?' I try to create an environment that draws people in. Who wants to sit on some hard chair?"

For years, colleagues and student-athletes could sink into the couch -- comfortable and inviting, with a sturdy frame -- and enjoy an audience with its owner, possessed of similar constitution.

It's simply time for Sue and Sarah to have the couch to themselves.

"I'll miss him, but I'm really proud of him," Snider said. "It's hard to hang it up. But Sue is one of the most wonderful people I have ever met. She said, 'Sarah,' and that was all she needed to say to Mike.

"As much as we'll miss him, I'm proud that he's going to spend time with his wonderful life partner and wonderful daughter."

"It's time to get out of the way," Washington said. "Whitman has taken me in so many different directions...

"This was not an easy decision, but maybe it's a good time to go out," he added. "Not to go out 'on top,' but as I always asked of my players, to leave the program better for having you in it.

"My mom, when she had Alzheimer's, used to ask me , 'Now, what is it that you do?' And I'd tell her I coached soccer. And she'd say, 'That's not a real job.'

"She was right. Coaching is pretty fun."