By Rick Anderson

For the Grays Harbor News Group

Twin Harbors athletes who fall short of their goals should not, in Don Marbut’s view, use geography as an excuse.

“You can be just as great from right here,” Marbut told the Aberdeen High School volleyball team earlier this month. “There’s been a ton of great athletes who have run through these halls.”

Marbut is one of them, a three-sport standout for the Bobcats who later spent 11 years as head baseball coach at Washington State University. He was visiting his alma mater as a speaker for the Championship Culture Consulting firm.

That’s one of several hats the 45-year-old Marbut currently wears. Now an Olympia-area resident, the 1992 AHS grad is also a co-owner of a printing and graphics company and plans to continue as a college baseball television analyst, primarily for the Pac-12 Network.

With Championship Culture Consulting, Marbut has been focusing on speaking at Grays Harbor and Thurston county schools. This month’s session with the volleyball team was one of eight he has planned for Aberdeen. He filled a similar role at Hoquiam High School last year and Elma and Ocosta this year in addition to some sessions with the Grays Harbor College baseball team.

He considers himself a bit more specialized than the standard motivational speaker.

“We want to change the culture and create leadership through athletics,” he said.

A supplementary goal is to give something back to the community where he grew up and went on to earn all-league recognition in baseball, football and basketball.

His subject material includes such topics as “Leadership Qualities” and “Smart Goals.” With the AHS volleyball team, he spoke on “The Six Levels of Commitment.”

Athletes, he said, fit into six groups — those who are compelled, committed, compliant, existent, reluctant and resistant. The first two groups, he added, are the ones who provide the foundation for successful teams.

Marbut said compelled athletes (defined as “players who feel a true sense or mission and purpose in what they are doing”) are exceptionally rare.

“I wasn’t compelled (although) I thought I was,” he acknowledged. “If you have a compelled player, (he or she) can change the program.”

Many teams, in Marbut’s view, are composed primarily of compliant players — ones who will “do what is asked of them and usually do no more or no less.”

When asked if that was a positive attribute, the majority of AHS volleyball players raised their hands. Marbut disagreed, emphasizing that successful players need to go beyond that minimum job description.

“Compliant sucks,” he asserted. “If you want to be average at best, be compliant.”

One of Marbut’s main themes at Aberdeen was that sports, while ideally enjoyable, aren’t necessarily easy. That means athletes should be receptive to the direction of coaches who push them.

“If a coach is on you, you must be good,” Marbut told the volleyball team. “Feel good if a coach is on you, he wants to make you better.”

Perhaps not coincidentally, Marbut was known as a hard-driving coach at WSU. He was fired in 2015 despite a resume that included more than 300 wins and two NCAA regional appearances.

He is currently eyeing a return to baseball as a professional manager, coach or scout.

“I don’t see myself going back to the college level,” he said. “I’d love to manage in the Northwest League, but beggars can’t be choosers.”

In some respects, Marbut seems to be borrowing from the message he delivers to students.

“I want a new type of challenge,” he said. “I really appreciated my time as a college coach, but I’m looking for a different challenge.”