There are a couple things about Bill Wagner that strike you almost immediately. First of all, the Penn lightweight football coach is a very busy man. You notice how busy he is while you walk with him from Hollenback Annex to his office at Franklin Field. The previous night he helped with a telethon to raise money for lightweight football. So Wagner suggested you use these spare 45 minutes in his day to speak with him. Your first question is what a typical day is like for him. "It's pretty busy, particularly during the season," he says. A major understatement. Wagner wakes up every morning at 5:45 to get ready for his other job as a teacher at Cherry Hill East (N.J.) High School. After teaching five classes he has "to bolt from school at 2:30 when last period is over and get to Philadelphia at 3," Wagner says. After heading to his office to take care of any administrative duties, Wagner goes back to Hollenback for practice at 4:30. Practice usually ends around 6:30, but "by the time I get out of the locker room on a normal night, which is after 7, I usually get home between 8 and 8:30." Even then Wagner's day is not done. He spends many evenings working on his team's schedule, recruiting or contacting alumni. And things are just as hectic in the spring, during which Wagner serves as an assistant coach for the Penn baseball team. This particular day becomes hectic as you walk with Wagner to his office. He has to stop three times on his way to discuss which teams can use the "B" practice field used by the lightweight team. Finally Wagner enters his office and is just settling down when the phone rings. You wonder if all this is just another day at the office. "Yup, this is normal," he says. What makes this even more remarkable is Wagner is not a full-time coach. This is something he hopes to change. Wagner points out that most of the varsity sports at Penn have full-time head coaches, and of all the two-sport coaches, he is the only part-timer. "I think every head coach should be a full-time position. There are too many things in the '90s that have to be done no matter what priority that particular sport has," Wagner says. Wagner has been trying to gain full-time status for the last five years, arguing that he puts in as much time and as much work as other full-time coaches. "As long as the University is demanding all this time, all this effort, all the responsibilities of coaching -- recruiting, managing budgets, planning, counseling and coaching -- for the same amount of hours, I think it's a full-time spot." But for now, as he has for the last 24 years, Wagner works part time. Considering how long he has been doing this, with such a hectic schedule and such little reward, you wonder why he keeps doing it. The simple answer is Wagner is a jock who clearly loves the game, whether it be football, basketball or baseball. Even now he is active in various over-40 baseball leagues throughout the area. "I love to play," Wagner says. "I played 30 games this summer. I still hustle, I still dive for balls. I still can run, and I can still hit." As a student at Woodrow Wilson High School in Camden, N.J., Wagner "lived and died" to play football, basketball and baseball. "It was my whole life," Wagner says. "I went to high school everyday because if you missed a day in high school you weren't allowed to practice or play that week. So I had 100 percent attendance because I played all three sports." At Trenton (N.J.) State College, Wagner won 11 varsity letters in 12 seasons. He was All-American in football, and after graduating in 1961, Wagner received a $3,700 offer to play for the Dodgers' minor league affiliate in Spokane, Wash. But he turned it down and accepted a $4,500 position at his old high school as a teacher and head coach of football, basketball and baseball. "I didn't think I was going to be able to play at that level," Wagner says. "I decided to have a family and be a coach." In 1970, the coach of the baseball and lightweight football teams at Penn resigned. Bob Seddon, who had been the freshman baseball coach at Penn, became the head baseball coach. Seddon's promotion led to Wagner's hiring. "He was recruiting a player I was coaching at Cherry Hill," Wagner says. "He had heard about me being a coach in South Jersey and asked me if I was interested in becoming freshman baseball coach and lightweight football coach." Wagner accepted, of course, and is still here. There is still the excitement of the event. There is still the love of the game that keeps him here. Only now the challenge is instilling that love into his athletes and watching them grow. "The enthusiasm, the effort, the energy that's needed to perform, the competitiveness, you turn it over to your kids," Wagner says. "They've got to do it. If they believe in what you're saying, if they have respect for you and you have some good kids to go along with, you can win your share of games and be successful."
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