Wagner named girls' basketball coach

BAKER – A little more than a week after Kathy Combest suddenly resigned as the Baker girls basketball coach, the position has been filled.

Longtime Gator assistant football coach and boys weight lifting coach Brian Wagner has been named interim coach for the 2009-10 season.

“I’m not replacing Kathy,” Wagner said. “You can’t replace Kathy for what she’s done for our girls and our girls program. All I can do is take the opportunity coach (athletic director Bob) Kellogg and Mr. Shipp (Baker principal Tom) have given me as an interim to try and keep the program as at high a level as you can, but you can’t replace Kathy.

“Because it is so late (the timing of Combest’s departure) it gives me an opportunity to see what I can do and how well I can do it. Certainly if I can’t get the job done to his satisfaction he should have a right to go a different route. I don’t feel it is going to be that way.”

Kellogg said when Wagner e-mailed him and Mr. Shipp expressing interested in taking over the program during the transition period it seemed like a natural fit.

“We just felt like that was the best thing and we were real fortunate that Brian stepped up and said, ‘I’d be glad to take this thing,’” Kellogg said. “We are excited for him and I think he’s excited for the opportunity and I think it’s a great fit for Baker.

“Brian knows the people and he knows the community. I think he can continue to rally them like Kathy did. So there’s a lot of pluses in him stepping up.”

Wagner has never coached basketball at a middle school or high school level, but he’s confident he can get the job done.

“Good coaches can coach anything,” he said. “It just like being a good teacher. Good teachers make good coaches and good coaches make good teachers.

“If you are there for the right reasons good things can happen for you.”

Kellogg has worked with Wagner for four years and knows what to expect from him as he takes on the new job.

“Brian’s a hard worker,” Kellogg said. “Brian’s competitive. And I think Brian brings a lot to that program in the work ethic he will have. So we feel real good about the selection.

“I know Brian and everything he does he’s going to put his heart into it and work hard.”

Wagner, who’s daughter, Haley, is a member of the Baker basketball knows Combest has left a good foundation for him to build from.

“We have a good group of girls that are coming, but there are going to be challenges and we will try to meet those challenges,” he said. “I don’t know what others might think, but there are many ways to do things, and the fact of the matter is it has to get done.

“Kathy has laid a wonderful groundwork for kids playing hard, giving their best effort and thinking the game of basketball -- they’ll be ahead of the curve of me on that. But I believe that one thing I do have, and certainly Kathy had it as well, is intensity and the ability to motivate and in whatever I’m involved with to be as competitive as possible. Hopefully that will carry over into the girls that are involved.”