Bio

Wayne Wagner enters his 25th season as head coach of the V-Hawks, making him the longest-tenured coach in V-Hawk men's basketball history. In 24 seasons as coach, he has racked up 326 wins and guided the V-Hawks to the Midwest Collegiate Conference championships in 2010 and 2022, and a berth in the Conference Tournament Championship game in 2022. Wagner has won Coach of the Year three times (MCC-2002, 2006, and NSAA-2022), and the V-Hawks have finished several seasons in the top ten in the NAIA in points allowed. In his time at Viterbo, Wagner has continued a proud V-Hawk tradition: competing against the best college teams in the Midwest.

A 1992 graduate of Viterbo, Wagner played for the V-Hawks from 1987-1992 finishing his career as the school’s 6^th all-time leading scorer with 1,245 points. While in a V-Hawk jersey, the Viterbo teams won over 100 games and took home four conference titles. In his senior year, Wagner earned NAIA Honorable Mention All-America status, as well as NAIA All-District and First Team All-Conference. Wagner was also named an NCBT Academic All-American in 1990 and 1991. Also a standout baseball player for the V-Hawks, Wagner was inducted into the Viterbo Athletics Wall of Fame in 1999.

During his tenure, Wagner has coached three conference Player of the Year recipients, one Defensive Player of the year, 11 All-Americans, 46 All-Conference performers, and 29 NAIA Scholar Athletes.

Prior to being named the head coach at Viterbo, Wagner served two years as an assistant coach at UW-Stevens Point, while completing his Master's Degree in Education. Working under Head Coach Jack Bennett, Wagner's stay at Stevens Point included an impressive 32 and 19 combined record.

Before that, he spent three years as the head boys’ basketball coach at Greenwood High School, compiling a record of 52-20. Two of those three years, the Indians advanced to the sectional finals while Wagner helped to develop the 1997 Cloverbelt Conference Player of the Year in Jeremy Schmidt.

In 1993, after graduation and spending a year as an assistant for the V-Hawks, Wagner signed a contract to play professionally in Cairns, Australia. However, only three games into the season, he broke his foot. He stayed on with the club as an assistant coach, helping the Cairns Marlins to their first-ever Queensland State League championship that year.

Wagner originally hails from Marshfield, WI, and is a graduate of Marshfield Senior High School where he was inducted into the Marshfield Athletic Hall of Fame in 2015.

Wagner also serves as Viterbo's Assistant Athletic Director and oversees the school's Student-Athlete Advisory Committee.

Coach Wagner, his wife Kim, and their daughter Kendall reside in Onalaska, Wisconsin.

The Wagner Years at Viterbo