Brandon Pugh, Baseball Coach, Inspired Students

Brandon "Brandy" Pugh of Redmond built his life around sports, music and young people.

A former Lake Washington High School wide receiver and the varsity catcher who helped the Kangaroo baseball team win the 1984 KingCo Conference title, he went on to be an inspirational baseball and football coach at Rose Hill Junior High and Mercer Island High School.

Mr. Pugh also managed the former Oz (now DV8) teen nightclub in Seattle's Denny Regrade area.

Everything was geared to giving youngsters confidence and ability.

"He just liked working with kids and treated them all the same regardless of their ability," said his father, Pat Pugh of Redmond.

"Even from the time he was 15 or 16, going to junior college, he spent a lot of time helping kids with sports during the day in the summers. That freed him to work nights for Entertainment Unlimited at the nightclub. He loved music of any kind."

Mr. Pugh died Monday (March 15) of leukemia. He was 32.

Born in Seattle, he grew up on the Eastside and attended Ben Rush Elementary School and Rose Hill Junior High. He graduated from Lake Washington High School in 1985.

He earned a bachelor's degree in speech communications in 1991 at Portland State University and then went to work for Entertainment Unlimited.

From the mid-1980s through the mid-1990s, Mr. Pugh also coached sports at Rose Hill. He became Rose Hill's head football coach in 1994.

He became Mercer Island High School's head baseball coach in

1996. Many team members he worked with that spring, before his leukemia forced his retirement, earned a KingCo title the next year under a new coach.

"He was a wonderful role model for kids," said his father.

"He was a hero - a nonsmoker and nondrinker who really believed in kids. He would take normal kids who weren't great athletes and tell them, `Before you quit or give up, give 100 percent.' "

Mr. Pugh tried to help all his players play to the best of their ability, but he was deeply disturbed by the death of one - David Bosse, 14, a Rose Hill Junior High football player who collapsed and died during a game in fall 1995.

Mr. Pugh called Bosse "a modest hero" at a community memorial service. He learned of his own leukemia a few months later.

"David's parents have sent us flowers," said Pugh. "Their note reads, `David and Brandy are now throwing the football again.' "

Also surviving are Mr. Pugh's mother, Sally Pugh of Redmond; his brother, Graham Pugh of Kirkland; his grandfather, Robert Walker of Wenatchee; his grandmother, Bette Pugh of Bellevue; and his fiancee, Leslie Burk of Seattle.

Services are at 11 a.m. today at Holy Family Catholic Church, 7355 120th Ave. N.E., Kirkland.

Remembrances may go to the Brandy Pugh Memorial Fund at any U.S. Bank branch, to fund a bench in his honor at Peter Kirk Park in Kirkland, or to Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, 1124 Columbia St., Seattle, WA 98104.

Carole Beers' phone message number is 206-464-2391. Her e-mail address is cbeers@seattletimes.com