He is 74 years old and the senior coach at the Manta Swimming Club. And now he is one of the seven nominees in the People’s Post SpecSavers Community Champions Elders Awards.
People’s Post is a sister publication of the TygerBurger in the southern suburbs.
Wagner, a Lotus River resident, retired from computer technology lecturing at Cape Peninsula University of Technology during 2013 and has been a committed coach for about 30 years – with the last 15 years at the Manta Swimming Club in Wynberg.
He has been coaching part-time since 1983.
Wagner sacrifices his time to share his expertise and coaching experience five days a week and often all weekend for galas.
The humble senior speaks from his living room in a patient tone explaining that he taught himself how to swim, along with his late cousin, when they went to the Kromboom River in the then Kromboom Estate (now Crawford).
“We never swam competitively. We taught ourselves how to swim in the dams and we would race each other from the one end of the dam to the other. We would swim breaststroke and freestyle,” he recalls.
It wasn’t until Wagner’s mentor, Lesley van Breda, encouraged him that he got involved with coaching.
“At the pools my cousin and I would teach our children how to swim. Breda saw me helping kids in the pool, teaching them how to swim, and encouraged me to consider coaching. Eventually I decided to do it as I was, and still am, very passionate about the sport,” he says.
Wagner explains he read about the sport a lot during his coaching career as it is an evolving sport.
“It is an intricate sport that one has to be committed to. Missing one day of training can bugger it all up,” he says.
The soft-spoken elder is the senior coach at the Manta Swimming Club in Wynberg.
“Before this I coached at the Dolphins Swimming Club in Athlone. I coached there for about 15 years as well,” he says.
Asked about how he felt being nominated as one of the finalists in the awards, Wagner says he was “shocked”. “I had no idea my daughter nominated me. She didn’t say anything and I don’t do this for recognition at all,”he says.
“I just have a very big love and passion for this sport.
During 2009 Wagner was also lauded by the Department of Cultural Affairs and Sport for his contributions to “shaping sport in the Western Cape”.
The winners will be announced at a special high-tea at Moyo Kirstenbosch on 1 October (International Older Persons Day). All seven finalists will be honoured at the event. Prizes include a two-night stay at the Garden Route Game Lodge including breakfast, dinner, game drives (valued at R6 000) and transport to the lodge; Spec Savers vouchers to the value of R2 000; gift hampers by Johnson&Johnson, Montague Dried Fruit and Nuts as well as Boesmanland Biltong, Capitec and Foschini; meal vouchers for Ocean Basket Cavendish; City Sightseeing red bus vouchers and a photoshoot by NK Photography.
