But he was about to learn.
“It took us only a little while to understand what this place is about,” said Pijl. “But I guess we really got involved. My wife Lisa teaches here--community involvement and a lifeskills class, and she coaches the cheer and drill club. My four kids all graduated from here, and come to think of it, I’ve now been here 23 years and that’s longer than any other coach. The place just grows on you.”

“I don’t know that I’m that much of a disciplinarian. I just like to have control over certain situations.”
After a roaring start, his freshman football team in 1984 went 0-9 “and I’ll never forget.” Pijl started turning things around. He took on an assistant baseball coaching job and he began to do things “The Pete Way.”

“You know some of the kids who were on that first team still come in the restaurant and we laugh about it. It wasn’t about winning, it was about trying hard and having fun and feeling good about what we were doing.”

And he coaches like that today.
St. Mary’s has grown from 700 students to nearly 1,150 today. It has happened for a reason. It has happened because of great leaders, great teachers, great coaches and tremendous community support through parents and alumni.

“Sure we want to win, but it’s beyond that,” said Pijl. “We’re going to win at St. Mary’s because we have talent. Sports is just an avenue to getting where you can have a positive influence on kids—something you remember and they remember and take with them. Everybody, I don’t care who you talk to, remembers the good things about high school. They remember the people who helped mold those memories. The journey for the kids is the most-important part for me.”
Discipline, indeed, remains a sign on the highway of that journey.
Examples?

Pijl’s players run on and off the field. The uniforms all are the same, down to the length of the pants. And, for heaven’s sake, don’t show up for the opening of practice with that hair too long.
“The first day of practice, I always bring my scissors,” said Pijl, more serious than a heart attack. “If the hair is too long, they know it’s going to get cut and a coach Pijl haircut is not a good thing. They know I’m old school, they respect it. But in all these years, we’ve never had to give anyone a haircut. At least it would be free.”
The coach finally smiles. Coyly.
“I just like to have control over certain situations.”
“I’m glad when we moved here my dad didn’t start calling me Arrow.”
Pete Pijl was born in Holland and extremely proud of his Dutch heritage.
“My brother is named Pieter and my name is really Payter, not Pete. But it became too complicated trying to explain it all the time. So when people started calling me Pete, it stuck.”
And the name of the restaurant, “Payter’s Grill?”
“We just went with the way people pronounced it,” he said.
The birth certificates show Peyter Pijl and Pieter Pijl.
Peyter in Dutch means ‘Arrow,’ said the coach “I’m just glad…
“St. Mary’s has been a big part of our life, for a very long time.”
Pete and Lisa Pijl have four children. One figures they did it for St. Mary’s.

The roll call goes this way:
• Adam, age 32, assistant football coach, assistant basketball coach at, yep, St. Mary’s.
• Bria, 29, a housewife living in Southern California.
• Shania, 25, working in Stockton in Marketing.
• Kendra, 20, going to school at Sacramento State, and working in the restaurant.

Kendra’s also Mom to the fancy of the coach’s eye—three-year old Bella, who (honest) has her own St. Mary’s outfit when she goes to Grandpa’s games.

It’s about St. Mary’s tradition. Dad coaches. Mom teaches. Son coaches. All kids graduated from St. Mary’s, all participated in sports and the daughters all were cheerleaders. And now Bella, well, you get the idea.
“We’ve been blessed with parents and alumni involvement, and that has led to this tradition.”

Picture the American Express commercial. Mowing the baseball field on a riding lawn mower? Nine thousand dollars. Keeping up with the game on a huge scoreboard? Thirty thousand dollars. Being part of the St. Mary’s tradition? Priceless.

Some coaches fear parent and alumni involvement. Not Pijl. “I meet with parents before their kids ever play for me. I want them to understand what this is about. We are where we are because of our parents. The reason we have such nice things is because of our parents. I can’t tell you the countless volunteer hours parents have put into this school to make it successful.”

It’s the St. Mary’s connection and it works this way.
The scoreboard designer donated much of his time because he had kids going to school there; someone close to the program figured the school could use a riding mower and wrote a check. And so it goes.
Here’s one even better.The infield on St. Mary’s field mostly came from the San Francisco Giants field. What’s good for the Giants is good for the Rams. “Twice a year they replace the dirt there,” said Pijl. “And the company that does it is from Stockton.”

You get the picture. It’s the St. Mary’s connection.
“They dump the dirt here at the school, and we move it onto our field,” said the coach. “The reason we get so many good teams to play here is because they’ve heard about our field and our ballpark and they want to experience it.” The wonderful workout facilities, locker rooms that compare to any college, the big television in the locker room to watch game replays, even the weekly Thursday evening team dinners (Moms bring in the food and the kids and family dine together in the locker room), even that is part of the parents’ support.

It’s like one big family. Said Pijl, with the understatement of the year, “We truly are blessed with our parents involvement.” “What these kids have done is put the team first.”

St. Mary’s has won the league title for three consecutive years, but done only so-so in the playoffs. “Our goal is absolutely to win a Section championship,” said the coach.
Maybe this is the year.

There is great pitching, with great depth. Overall, four players have college commitments—two to the University of San Francisco, one to Pacific and one to Sonoma College. There easily could be three more on the way.

It’s a team loaded with talent, an experienced senior class, and great underclassmen stepping up.
“They’ve worked so hard in the off-season to get better and they really didn’t have to. They have priorities and they have put this team first.” “We have a ton of tradition, and I’m simply here to manage it.”
Tradition. Seventeen St. Mary’s players have made their way into the professional ranks, and 14 who played under Pijl still are playing college or professional baseball.

For Pete Pijl, the journey began in the fall of 1984 when he nonchalantly accepted the challenge of something as simple as an assistant coaching position. Each year, each day, he builds upon what is the St. Mary’s tradition.

This isn’t just about a man who loves his job, or a man who loves his players. It’s even beyond taking care of the yard.

What we have here is a man, Payter Pijl, who truly believes he can make a difference.
“I know,” he said, “I just know we can make a difference in these kids’ lives.”