When Charlie Wegher went to Cal State Northridge in 1983, he envisioned a career in television and filmmaking.
Wegher didn't follow through on that dream, but he's still playing a leading role as Agoura High School's head football coach.
While studying at CSUN, Wegher started his career in football as the head coach of the freshman team at Westlake High.
Under the tutelage of varsity head coach George Contreras, Wegher developed a love for coaching and realized a new dream when he landed the head coaching job at Agoura in 1994.
"I was going to get into the entertainment business, but after coaching with G e o r g e Contreras for two years, I decided I really wanted to do this (coaching) instead because I really enjoyed it," Wegher said.
"I knew I had a passion for it and that I would be a lot happier coaching then I would be working in the business world."
Wegher went back to school to get his teaching credential in English. In the fall of 1990, he began started his career as a student teacher at Agoura.
Charlie Wegher Wegher soon earned a fulltime job teaching English at AHS, which he would do for the next 12 years.
From 1990 to 1993, Wegher served as an assistant coach for Frank Greminger on the varsity, coaching defensive backs. Greminger retired from coaching in 1994, and Wegher applied for the head coaching position.
"I interviewed for the job one day and then went home," Wegher said.
"Jim Christianson, who was the principal back then, actually came to my house later that day. He knocked on the door, came in, and offered me the job right there. I remember I was very excited."
Wegher continued to have success in 1995. Shortly after getting the Charger job, he married his girlfriend, Jean Provo.
The couple now has two kids, 6-year-old Shelby and 5year-old Shauna. However, Wegher may have done his best coaching with the kids he had on his team in 2004.
In 2004, Agoura lost a game to Wegher's high school alma mater, Westlake, on one of the craziest plays ever seen in the history of the Marmonte League, a last-second kickoff return, that was shown across the nation on ESPN.
After that game, it would be
understandable if the Chargers folded quicker t h a n Superman's laundry, but W e g h e r quickly put his team in the correct frame of mind.
After the heartbreaking loss, Agoura pulled off six straight wins and just missed making the CIF finals when they lost to Ventura in the Division IV semifinals.
"After that happened (the Westlake game) we went out on Monday, and usually we just move on after a loss, but I knew we would have to talk about this one with the game being shown on SportsCenter and everything," Wegher said.
"I told them that things happen in your life and if you dwell on the past you never get to experience anything different in the future. We need to focus on what could be instead of what might have been and the players really responded to that.'
Wegher said that he has become a better coach since that game and is proud that the Agoura program has developed into a consistent contender, and often a winner.
"Every year I look at them (freshmen) and I can't believe how small they are," Wegher said. "But over the four years I get to see them grow and by their senior year if they're hugging each other and crying during their last game then I know I'm doing something right."
