b'Gone and GoneOver the span of a persons life, so many other lives are touchedMitch Black will be missed BY BART POTTERGOLF TOOK UP A LOT OF SPACEon Mitch Blacks planet, and he left room for the rest of life to crowd in around it.They say he knew a million things about a million things, and he could talk about them all, and would, with anybody, any time. Even high school kids. Black could relate. And he talked, with everybody, through a full career as a classroom teacher and an extended tenure39 yearsas a high school golfMitch had an enormous and infectious enthusiasm for life, among his passions coach in this small town on Washingtons Olympic Peninsula. being fly-fishing, which he shared even with his young golfing proteges. He was able to have a conversation with a high school kid about whatever, said Torrin Westwood, who played golf for Black at Chimacum High for four years (2006-2009). He was kind of a kid at heart himself.Its a small and tight golf community on this peninsula, in Port Townsend and Nordland and Chimacum, and it hit hard around here when word came in May that Black had died, in Bang Saray, Thailand, at age 70.I was just shocked, said Gabriel Tonan, who played against Blacks Chimacum High teams when he was a student at Port Townsend High and later coached against Black when he took over as golf coach at his alma mater.He was someone I considered a close friend. We had a mutual love of golf and life.Every good friendship has an origin story.Tonan, now manager at Port Townsend Golf Club, competed at the state Class 1A tournament three times as a member of successful Port Townsend teams under Coach Jim Kerns.But he wasnt even in high school, maybe 13 or 14 years old, when Tonan first encountered Mitch Black, one day at Port Townsend. Black and his buddy, Dean Rigsby, had noticed the kid around the place with obvious passion for the game, and that day they invited Tonan to play with them.He was a lighthearted, fun dude, Tonan said. He didnt necessarily influence my game. He gave me tips, but mainly it was friendship.Black, a Port Townsend native, went to the University of Washington and returned to the peninsula to take a job at Chimacum, teaching history, world problems and PE through his career. Black founded Chimacums golf team in the mid-1970s, prodded by Ted Wurtz, then the PGA head pro at nearby Port Ludlow, whose son Mark Wurtz became Blacks first state champion, winning 1A titles in 1981 and 82. Mark later played on the PGA Tour. Chris Johnson won a state title for the Chimacum Cowboys in 2008.Black stayed in the job long enoughthrough the 2015 seasonto coach sons of players hed coached in the early years, according to a tribute to Black by sportswriter Mike Carman in the Peninsula Daily News.As a player, Black was known as a good stick, with a swing outside the norm.Golf is a very individualistic game where you have to have some room for errors, and Mitch was a great definition of that, said Adam Barrows, next door neighbor, close friend and teammate of Westwood on the same Cowboy teams of 2006-09. He had his own unique swing. He was a great ball-striker, controlled, never tried to overpower anything. That to me, as a student, its realizing you dont have to have a picture-perfect PGA Tour swing.Westwood said Black, during his peak years, might have been the best player on the peninsula. 4 GOLF WASHINGTON|SEPTEMBER 2020'