Right man for the job

BAKER – After a season-long interview, Brian Wagner can now remove “interim” from his title of girls basketball coach at Baker.

Last week Baker athletic director Bob Kellogg announced that Wagner will in fact be the permanent replacement for Kathy Combest, who stepped down at the start of the school year.

“We just felt like Brian came in and did a good job this year for taking over as late as he did,” Kellogg said. “He had a good rapport with the girls and worked them real hard. We just felt like he earned the right to continue to do it.

“We are excited about the future for him. Brian is home grown here and he knows the community and knows the kids so I think it’s a good fit for us.”

Wagner was grateful for the opportunity to continue the job he started in the fall.

“It says that I did a pretty decent job and that he’s (Kellogg) willing to give me a chance to be the head man rather than be the interim,” he said. “It’s an honor and I’m appreciative of it.”

Although his daughter, Haley is on the team, Wagner admitted coaching girls basketball is, in different ways, as tough or tougher than coaching football.

“I learned that coaching girls is tough,” he said. “I learned that what I thought I knew about coaching basketball is that I knew less than what I thought I knew.

“The girls made it easier for me. They are willing to work hard and to try and do what I ask them to do. I can’t ask for more than that.”

Even before getting the official word that the job was his, Wagner had the team in an off-season conditioning program.

“I’m used to running an off-season program to some degree but this is different, particularly working with girls,” he said. “We are lifting weights and we are doing speed and agility and change-of-direction (training).

“We are working on shooting drills, dribbling drills, passing drills and we are trying to let them have a little bit of fun while we are doing it.”

Wagner plans on taking the team to camps this summer and participating in some local summer leagues as well.
In the mean time he continues to learn and embrace the differences in coaching boys and girls as coach and team grow together.

“I’m noticing from year-to-year in female sports it is somewhat different than from year-to-year in male sports,” he said. “The more that we can learn to work together and know one another and gain experience from that, we will continue to improve and be a better team.”