500 wins and counting: GHHS Coach Pete Jansen just keeps winning

For over 32 years, Pete Jansen has suited up as head coach for the Gig Harbor High School baseball team.

In his career he’s won two state championships, league titles, sent players off to college who made their way to Major League Baseball and coached countless kids.

Now he can add another milestone to his lengthy career. In a 7-5 win over crosstown rival Peninsula on April 12, Jansen locked in his 500th win as a head coach in baseball.

“One of my friends congratulated me on 500 wins and I just texted him back saying ‘500 = old’,” Jansen said. “The team didn’t even know it was my 500th win, I told them afterwards. I told them I want you to know that it’s a special game for me and one of kids asked ‘1,000 wins?’. It was really nice because we swept Peninsula. We’re friendly rivals.”

Started in youth leagues

. Ever since Jansen was eight years old, he has been on the diamond.

After playing through all the youth and high school leagues in his native Southern California, Jansen attended California State University, Fullerton to earn his Bachelor’s Degree in mathematics. And of course, he played ball for the Titans.

He loved being around the game so much that he and a friend coached a little league of their own when they were 20 years old.

“I’ve played baseball my whole life… played on three softball teams and I was usually the guy that would be the person in charge,” Jansen said. “It’s just normal for me. We played in a semi-pro league for four or five years and I was the player-coach. I wanted to play, so I got my friends involved and I organized. I guess that’s why I was the coach.”

Jansen was then inspired by several of his baseball friends who became teachers to follow that profession himself. He decided to attend the University of La Verne in La Verne, California to earn his teaching credential.

He wanted to both teach mathematics and coach high school baseball. In his third year teaching at Bonita High School in La Verne, he got his opportunity. Coaching the Bearcats, Jansen earned his first 72 wins in his high school coaching career.

The big move

A visit to his sister in Gig Harbor inspired Jansen and his wife to move here. He got his chance to first coach the Tides in the ’90-1991 school year and has been a stalwart ever since.

“The first year we’re here, I’m going on the first bus ride with the varsity team and we are crossing the Narrows Bridge. I’m looking out over the bay at the water and it’s beautiful, it’s just gorgeous,” he said. “I’m thinking to myself, these guys on this team can’t really appreciate how lucky they are to live here.”

Over the course of his many wins and many years of coaching, Jansen has made a ton of different memories including winning State in 1997 and 2017.

Playing the game for fun

But Jansen hopes his teams will also remember how much fun they had while winning.

“A lot of players that have played at Gig Harbor have had a lot of fun. I’ve had some players tell me that they’ve played on lots of teams, but the most fun they ever had was playing for ours,” he said. “I think my legacy will be that we’ve had some success, but we’ve had a lot of fun doing it.”

For someone that has dedicated a much of his life to the game of baseball, Jansen has earned back quite a bit himself. He’s says he’s learned a form of humility, knowing that baseball is not the most important thing in the world.

In fact, that’s another lesson that he tries to pass onto his players. He tells them to not get bummed out about negative results and to enjoy the once-in-a lifetime experience of playing high school ball..

“We talk a lot about pressure. We tell them over and over again that there is no such thing as pressure,” he said. “You really need to view it as an opportunity to perform. So that’s what we’ve been focusing on the last three weeks with this team.”

The Tides are waiting to see if their season will continue any further after playing all their scheduled games.

If they do, then it will be as the number-one seed in the South Puget Sound League north division playoffs.

This story was originally published April 28, 2021 at 5:30 AM.