Austin grad Adrian Wagner didn’t take the conventional path to becoming a high school coach, but he’s sure glad he did it.

Wagner, who graduated from AHS in 1990, played a little baseball and golf for the Packers, but he was more into observing sports than playing them. Wagner started working at the Austin Daily Herald as a sports writer when he was still in high school and his sports writing career lasted from 1988 to 2005. Wagner worked at various newspapers, including the Owatonna People’s Press, the St. Cloud Times, the Faribault Daily News and the Northfield News.

But when Wagner and his wife found themselves with two kids within 11 months of each other, they decided it was best for him to stay home with the kids. It wasn’t long before he missed the rush of going to games on a nightly basis.

“It lasted about a month and I was bored silly,” Wagner said.

Wagner had always coached on the side with C squad and junior high teams, so he began to look for coaching jobs nearby. Eventually, Wagner applied to be the JV coach for Benilde-St. Margaret’s in St. Louis Park and after he was hired, the head coach took another coaching job so they turned to Wagner to lead the team.

“They said let’s give it a whirl and 12 years later were still giving it a whirl,” Wagner said.

BSM took a chance on Wagner, who was 32 at the time and had no varsity coaching experience, and he hasn’t forgotten about it. Although he has to drive about 25 to 45 minutes to get to BSM from his house, Wagner hasn’t looked for any other coaching jobs.

Though he has yet to lead BSM to the state tournament, Wagner has enjoyed his time coaching the team, which has played in three section title games in the past 10 years.

“They took a chance on me 12 years ago,” Wagner said. “There’s a certain quality of kid that goes there and a quality of parent that I don’t think you can find in the public sector at this point.”

Wagner learned a lot about coaching from all of the various coaches he covered over the years. He certainly picked up some pointers from Austin head softball coach Al Eckmann.

Wagner and Eckmann were back in the same venue again this spring when Wagner brought his BSM team to Austin to scrimmage in the Dome. There he showed the team his hometown and brought them to Steve’s Pizza. Wagner was also glad to get a chance to see Eckmann again.

“When I worked with Al that was a long time ago,” Wagner said. “He was a serious guy, but he had a good way of dealing with the girls. He certainly knew his stuff and he’s one of the pioneers of the game. I worked mainly with a lot of veteran softball coaches and the game was a lot different back then. I picked up things and I saw things they did in games.”

If Wagner wouldn’t have pursued sports writing, he probably would’ve ended up teaching and since he doesn’t teach, he has plenty of time to set things up and show how invested he is in the team. Wagner, who now has three kids, said he enjoys coaching at the high school level, where he has compiled a career record of 166-87 headed into this season with the Red Knights.

“While all of the wins have been great, I’ve established a lot of lasting friendships with some of my players and their parents,” Wagner said. “That’s probably the highlight in the end.”

Wagner’s mom and both of his grandmothers still live in Austin and he gets back several times a year to visit family.

“Austin has certainly changed a great deal since I was a kid, and even since I have left,” Wagner said. “But it will always be my hometown and I enjoy coming back to some of the familiar haunts and touching base with those people who are still around.”