Traverse City West coach Doug Baumann earns coach of the year honors

Doug Baumann’s latest honor is bigger than a trophy on a shelf at Traverse City West Senior High School. It reflects a program that has stayed competitive under a coach who has spent years inside the building, on local courts and in public service across Grand Traverse County.

TCResports named Baumann coach of the year after Traverse City West finished 16-5 and won back-to-back Big North Conference titles. The recognition fits a coach whose influence has grown well beyond wins and losses. Baumann is also a Michigan State Police detective sergeant, giving him a dual public-service profile that has made him one of the more visible adult leaders connected to West athletics.

Baumann’s ties to the school run deep. Traverse City Area Public Schools named him the girls varsity basketball coach in April 2017, after longtime coach Mike Wilde died unexpectedly that February. At the time, TCAPS canceled games and offered counseling support for students and staff, underscoring how fragile the program had become in that moment. Athletic director Jason Carmien said Baumann had the experience and basketball knowledge to take the program to the next level, along with community roots and a rapport with student-athletes.

That background was not new. Baumann had helped with Traverse City West’s boys and girls basketball programs on and off since 2002, long before he was handed the varsity girls job. He has served as a Michigan State Police officer since 2008, and in 2018 the MSP Seventh District named him its Trooper of the Year. That recognition described him as a Traverse City native and a graduate of the 121st Trooper Recruit School.

His local basketball roots are even older. Baumann is a 1997 graduate of Traverse City Central High School and played college basketball at Lake Superior State University. In 2020, TCAPS moved him into the varsity boys basketball role at West, extending a coaching career that has now touched both programs.

The award signals what Traverse City West has built under Baumann: continuity, accountability and a standard that has held across personnel changes and seasons. In a school community that has already weathered loss and transition, the coach of the year honor lands as recognition of a steadier institution, not just a strong winter.