Hilltop football coach and athletic director Bryan Wagner is aware he’s had a blessed life.
Wagner was a star athlete at Hilltop. He played college football at Cal Lutheran and Cal State Northridge. He had a nine-year NFL career as a punter, including a Super Bowl appearance with his hometown San Diego Chargers in 1995.
And now he’s come full circle.
Prior to kickoff for Friday night’s Lancers’ homecoming game against Bonita Vista, Wagner was inducted into Hilltop’s Hall of Fame
“I feel so honored to be selected,” said Wagner, a 1980 Hilltop graduate. “It’s a great privilege to be considered a part of the school’s history. It will be tough for me to step out of my mindset of being the head coach to appreciate the moment. I know there will be friends there I haven’t seen in a long time.”
Among those who came to see Wagner was his high school coach, Stan Canaris.
“Bryan was always a class act,” said Canaris, who had the Eastlake football stadium named in his honor as the first principal of the school. “He deserves any recognition he gets.”
Canaris assembled one of the top staffs in South Bay. It included the legendary Gene Alim, former Eastlake coach Alan Duke and former USD quarterback Jan Chapman. The results followed.
Wagner, who also starred in soccer and baseball at Hilltop, played just two years of football in 1978 and 1979.
“I hate to say it, but Hilltop was always considered a patsy in football,” admitted Wagner. “But my junior year, we beat Sweetwater and we started to get the feeling, ‘Yes we can.’”
That year the Lancers finished 8-2 and won the Metro Conference Championship. The next year Hilltop went a perfect 9-0 before losing to San Pasqual 28-21 in the playoffs. Their defense was outstanding, posting four shutouts and only allowed more than one TD in a game just twice.
Wagner was a record-setting kicker and punter those years — and, he said, the team’s “disaster quarterback.”
“I was really the third quarterback, so if I got in there, it was a disaster for somebody,” he joked.
In his senior year against Castle Park, Wagner broke the section record when he kicked a 53-yard field goal. He was also credited with punts of 79 and 73 yards, both of which still remain among the longest in section history.
What does he tell his players today about all he’s accomplished in life?
“It’s all been preparation getting me to where I am, here and now,” he concluded.
Friday’s game was scoreless at halftime.
Bonita Vista High School’s Ta’Vyon Moore runs by Hilltop defender William Resendiz during Friday game. (Photo by Sandy Huffaker for The San Diego Union-Tribune)
In the present
Wagner’s defending league championship squad entered this week’s battle for Metro South Bay control with a 5-3 record. After starting the season with a pair of victories, the Lancers hit a bit of a skid, losing three straight.
They righted the ship with road wins against Vista, Mar Vista and Sweetwater.
“Last year, everyone counted us out,” said Wagner. “We got on a roll in our league games, and quite honestly, we manhandled everyone doing it.”
About Bonita Vista
The Barons lost their first three games before winning four of their next five to get back to .500. First-year coach Diante Lee credited Bonita’s 14-7 victory over El Capitan as the game that turned things around.
“I guess they had beaten us up pretty bad the year before and our confidence wasn’t great,” explained Lee, 33. “But we had a great week of preparation, and you could see we were looking sharper.”
Max Shy, Angel Cortes and Julian Jimenez were among the seniors that helped turn things around.
“Our recent success of a reflection of the special bond this team has because of the seniors,” said Lee. “We took our lumps, but we should be proud of the opportunities we’ve given ourselves.”
Food review
The top dog at all Hiltop football games is the “Baum Dog” from the south end of the stadium.
The stand run by the baseball team. The dogs themselves are named after 29-year baseball coach John Baumgarten, who passed away in 2021 at age 80. Five out of five belches on the U-T five-belch meter.