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Press Box Dave Reardon |
Wagner finds peace
off the fieldTHE grimace is finally gone from his face, and nearly all of the bitterness has drained from Bob Wagner's soul.
Deep inside, some resentment will always linger. He wouldn't be a human being if it didn't. This is the football coach who took Hawaii to a Western Athletic Conference championship, Holiday Bowl win, and two resounding victories over Brigham Young -- only to be fired after consecutive losing seasons.
But yesterday at the Honolulu Quarterback Club, Wagner was more upbeat than during even the apex of his head coaching career. And that was a time when the Rainbows beat Pac-10 and Big Ten teams and most of the Aloha Stadium seats were occupied.
Even during these good times, though, Wagner often wore a pained expression. The stress of his position emanated from every pore. His sweat turned his palaka shirt into a green-and-white checkered sponge.
There were smiles, for sure, but they came rarely. Usually at the end of the big wins. Almost never before or more than a day or so after. He surely savored the success, but Wagner's face didn't show it.
Then, in 1995, Wagner got a real reason to feel as down as he looked. Athletic director Hugh Yoshida sent Wagner packing with a textbook canning. Unfortunately, the manual was "How Not to Terminate an Employee."
As a head coach, the pressure seemed to get to Wagner more than most. He will never say Yoshida did him a favor, but yesterday, he hinted that perhaps he had reached the end of the line -- even though he hadn't reached the end of the season when he was fired.
"We just didn't have the horses the last two years," he said.
It wasn't always like that for Wagner. As an assistant coach under Dick Tomey, he loved his job and it showed in his personality. He was a jovial prince of the one-liner -- as he was yesterday at the Pagoda.
Now, as athletic director at Kamehameha Schools on the Big Island, Wagner endures stress of a different kind. He was asked about just that.
"As a high school athletic director, there's one word: parents," he said. "There's an old story that the best place to coach is at an orphanage."
He's the father of a high school athlete himself. Wagner's daughter, Christy, plays water polo at Waiakea High School. He saw her play in last year's inaugural state tournament here on Oahu; Wagner would have been there anyway, since he is the Big Island Interscholastic Federation's water polo coordinator.
"I've got it good," he said. "Part of my job is watching my daughter play."
Wagner, who was an assistant at Arizona and Texas-El Paso after being dismissed from UH, said there are things he still misses about coaching college football.
"But I love what I'm doing," said Wagner, who is headed into the third year of building an athletic program at a new school. "We have resources, and that's always nice. Being an athletic director at Kamehameha is probably a better situation than being an AD at a lot of small colleges."
When Wagner needs advice, he often gets in touch with Blane Gaison. When Wagner coached defensive backs at UH, Gaison was perhaps his biggest success story. Now the former NFL safety is athletic director at Kamehameha Schools.
"He's a mentor to me now," Wagner said, with pride.
Not too long ago, it might have been said in sarcastic embarrassment.
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Dave Reardon is a Star-Bulletin sportswriter who covers University of Hawaii football and other topics. His column appears periodically. E-mail him at dreardon@starbulletin.com