By: Ray Fisher


Sunday, February 16, 2025 | 11:01 AM

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John Doucette has been the man behind the camera at Quaker Valley since 1994.

“I started taking photos after spending two months traveling Europe prior to my student teaching experience in London,” Doucette said. “I moved to the Pittsburgh area in 1993 with a teaching and coaching position in the Butler School District.

“The following year, I was offered a teaching position at Quaker Valley, and while I loved my time at Butler, I was excited to take advantage of the opportunity to continue my teaching career at QV.”

Doucette, who retired in 2018, also has coached in the Quaker Valley school district for a long time. He mentored middle school track athletes for 24 years and cross country for 20.

“John has been a big part of Quaker Valley athletics for many years,” QV athletic director Mike Mastroianni said. “His dedication as our middle school head track coach for so many years has been the backbone of our rich track tradition.

“John was an outstanding teacher in the middle school for so many years and since his retirement, we have been fortunate to have him on our high school track coaching staff.”

Doucette has been an assistant track coach at the high school the past four years, working with the jumpers and hurdles.

“I have been coaching at QV since 1994,” Doucette, 65, said. “When I think of the greatest sports highlights, they tend to be ones that don’t necessarily make the headlines but rather are personal to the athletes and their families. For instance, when I shoot teams at their senior night, those are some of the most cherished memories I can capture for families.

“That being said, I have also been fortunate to shoot many big highlight moments such as WPIAL championships. Perhaps the most well-known QV sports highlight that I had the privilege to shoot was when the football team won the state title in 2017.”

Doucette taught eighth-grade U.S. history for 10 years, then switched to seventh-grade Eastern Hemisphere for his final 10 years.

“In addition to our work in the classroom, I always looked for opportunities to connect student thinking beyond the classroom,” Doucette said. “One of my favorite connections was the work we did with Kiva, an international nonprofit that tackles needs by connecting people through crowdfunded loans. Kiva puts the power of financial inclusion in all our hands.

“QVMS students put together an annual 5K race to raise money to be loaned through the Kiva organization and those loans have continued through today. As of this year, we have lent $174,090 in total loans all over the world. There are 2,000 schools with KIVA accounts, and QVMS ranks No. 13 in the world.”

QVMS students also did a lot of work outside the classroom after Sept. 11, 2001.

“QVMS students developed activities and fundraisers to both support and create awareness around those tragic events,” Doucette said. “Lisa Beamer, wife of Todd Beamer, came to QVMS and gave a moving speech to our community. Todd is the passenger on Flight 93 who spoke the famous ‘let’s roll’ words.”

Doucette lives in Oakdale with his wife Heidi, a beloved teacher at Osborne Elementary who recently retired.

“My son (Wesley) lives in NYC and my daughter Kathryn lives in Nashville with her husband Lou and our two grandchildren (Emilie, age 5, and Connor, age 3),” Doucette said. “My children went to Pine-Richland. My daughter played field hockey and hockey while my son was in the musical all four years of high school.”

Throughout his longstanding teaching and coaching tenure, Doucette remained loyal to his love of photography. He has shot photos of both middle school and high school student-athletes in the QVSD.

“I’ve been so blessed to be a teacher and coach in the Quaker Valley community,” Doucette said. “I was a middle school teacher, so many of my photos came from the middle school. I do have many thousands of photos from the high school as well.

“I do not take for granted that parents have allowed me to share in the growth of their children. It is rewarding to see former students and athletes, and it is a thrill to take the photos of their children as they begin their journey in the world of QV sports.”

Doucette also has watched the photo industry evolve into a high-tech digital production over the years.

“My first job as a photographer was for the UMass newspaper ‘The Collegian’,” Doucette said. “Back in those days, you had to roll and develop your own film as well as print your own photos. That was such a long and messy process.

“When I came to QV, I offered to do the yearbook and had to create a darkroom under the balcony of the old auditorium. Now it’s all digital. Clearly, technology has evolved immensely since my early years doing photography.”

The majority of Doucette’s photos taken are related to QV sports. He has been a sports advocate all his life.

Doucette is a 1977 graduate of Nauset Regional in Massachusetts and a 1983 graduate of UMass Amherst, where he majored in middle school education.

He taught in London in the fall of ‘82 on an exchange program with UMass.

Prior to college, Doucette was involved in sports in high school, competing for four years in both cross country and track.

Doucette served as captain of both squads in his junior and senior years.

“I learned the importance of building team unity in creating a winning culture,” he said. “We supported one another in all events whether it was our ‘specialty’ or not. This mindset has helped me in my coaching of various track events for QV.”

At the onset of his teaching career, Doucette lived in Stone Mountain, Ga. and taught in DeKalb County for six years.

“I taught grade 6,” he said, “then for I taught eighth grade for three years in Gwinnett County. I coached track and cross country all nine years.

“Another huge influence came from my first 10 years coaching track in Georgia,” Doucette said. “Seeing how hard those high school athletes were willing to work to achieve their goals was inspiring, and I see that work ethic at QV as well.”

Speaking of hard work, Doucette currently is training for his third Boston Marathon set for April. He ran it in 2011 as well as 1975 when he was just 15.

“I remember driving to that race from my hometown of Wellfleet, Mass., with my coach and marathon icon Johnny Kelley,” Doucette said. “If you don’t know who Kelley is, he was named runner of the century by Runner’s World magazine in 2000. It was quite an experience and a memory that I will carry with me forever.”

Doucette has seen and coached his share of great athletes at QV. So many, it would be difficult to single out even a few.

“I really do not want to single out an athlete because numbers and times are relative,” Doucette said. “I have seen student-athletes achieve many great accomplishments that had nothing to do with a place or time but with a personal goal achieved.”

And Doucette most likely snapped photos of all of them.

Tags: Quaker Valley