Catching up with: Bill Wettengel

Barry Faulkner

When Bill Wettengel gave up his first career choice because he

believed it would infringe upon raising a family, he had no idea that the

number of kids he’d wind up shepherding into adulthood would fill most

NBA arenas.

But, after 37 years in education, more than 30 of which he spent

counseling students and coaching runners at Costa Mesa High, the

63-year-old retiree acknowledges his “family” extends way beyond the four

children and nine grandchildren he and wife Joanne so thoroughly enjoy.

“I think the thing that stands out most was getting close to kids and

being their friend,” Wettengel said of his more than three decades at

Mesa, for which he still works as a volunteer public address announcer at

home football games. “I still keep in touch with many of them.”

Wettengel, who dreamed of being a sportswriter until his senior year

of college, slowly lost touch with his love for writing as paternal and

professional duties, including 22 years as the Mustangs girls cross

country and girls track and field coach, consumed his days, months and

years.

But retirement, following the 1997-98 school year, by which time the

last of his four children had gone off to college, allowed Wettengel to

reintroduce himself to the keyboard.

“When I was young, I wrote quite a bit, including short stories and

things,” he said. “The first three years of college, I was a journalism

major and I always wanted to be a sportswriter. But the closer I got to

it, I realized it would be harder to raise a family working nights and

weekends. And one of the most important things to me was always raising a

family.”

Wettengel’s writing, these days, is devoted to a mystery novel, which

he said is one chapter away from completion. He hopes to have it

published.

“It’s a who done it?,” he said. “I wish I could be more dedicated, but

if I spend three hours a week on it, that’s a lot.”

Wettengel relishes the freedom retirement has brought. He spends his

ample free time playing golf, working on the yard he has cared for since

moving to his Fountain Valley home 31 years ago, traveling and tending to

that family, which will soon add a 10th grandchild. He is also heavily

active in his church.

He still runs regularly, though the onset of post-polio syndrome (a

degenerative disease affecting the nerves in his legs, which has caused

atrophy in one of his calf muscles) keeps him from approaching the 30-70

miles a week he accumulated while running with his teams at Mesa.

“It’s hard to tell you what freedom I have,” he said. “I awake every

day and marvel at the fact that I get paid for having fun. I just love

it. We visit the family of one of our children in Arizona, we have a time

share in Hawaii and visiting my youngest son, a senior at BYU who got

married in June, gives me an excuse to go to BYU football games in

Provo.”

Wettengel never needed an excuse to help kids. He became head

counselor his second year at Mesa and remained in that position until his

retirement. In addition to his coaching, he helped sponsor a hiking club.

He also supervised regular student trips to the Havasupai Indian

reservation in the Grand Canyon, as well as bicycling tours in Hawaii.

His early days at Mesa included assistant coaching assignments with

the freshman football team and the boys track and field and cross country

programs. He became the school’s first girls cross country coach when the

CIF Southern Section initiated the sport in 1976. In 1980, Costa Mesa finished second to CIF 4-A champion University.

During his tenure as girls track and field coach, Bonnie Dasse, who

would go on to compete in two Olympic Games as a shot putter, starred for

the Mustangs.

Wettengel played football in the 1950s at Narbonne High in Lomita,

where he said “We lived ‘Happy Days.’ ”

He moved with his parents to Anaheim and attended Fullerton Junior

College, before making the football team at Long Beach State. But a

recurring ankle injury ended his football career and he left after one

semester to attend Orange County State College, which is now Cal State

Fullerton.

During his college years, he worked part time at Disneyland and, along

with his wife, has built a collection of Disney memorabilia.

This is his 22nd season as the school’s football announcer, which, he

says, he thoroughly enjoys. But increased travel commitments may preclude

him from continuing in that role after this season.