He was a high school athlete and was quarterback of the Punahou School football team. Its not a path he would have chosen, but one that makes perfect sense now, as he described through Lucy one evening as she sat by his bed. I think the beauty of Charlie's story is that he has been able to overcome a disaster.". After his graduation from Punahou in 1965 he attended Michigan State University where he played for coach Duffy Daugherty. Contract on Cherry Street. It began with his high school sports career, carried into his college football career, followed by teaching and coaching. . ", In the meantime, Cercena lives in the Columbus home where she grew up, spending time caring for her family's three dogs. ", At the end of May, Cercena will be undergoing an operation to fully remove her colon, with doctors attaching her small intestines to her rectum. The TD run wasn't long, officially only 14 yards from the line of scrimmage. Everything he did was with great determination, Daugherty says in the 1990 PBS film. Tidbits: The San Francisco 49ers will give a high school coach of the week award in his name with a special ceremony in December. ILH player of the year (1964). As the morning sunlight melts into the living room of the Wedemeyers Los Gatos home, nurse Angela Palelei-Bustos wedges herself to the side of Wedemeyers bed. After the marrying Lucy, his high school sweetheart, the couple moved to Northern California where Wedemeyer took a job as a teacher and football coach at Los Gatos High School. While working at the school, Wedemeyer was diagnosed at age 30 with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS. And the word good hardly begins to do it justice. He is the son of the famed Brooklyn Dodger catcher, whose own wonderful life was shattered when he was paralyzed after an automobile accident. The unique method worked, with the cooperation of his assistant coaches. But his reach as a football coach went much deeper than the Xs and Os. He continued to be a coach at the high school and be part of it all for 30 years.. Unable to speak, he communicated through his wife, Lucy, who read his lips and passed along his thoughts to the players and coaches. Really? His island shaka spirit with Hawaiian/German ancestry returns home to Hawaii for his posthumous induction into the Polynesian Football Hall of Fame on Jan. 21 in Hawaii. The whole baseball team went to Hawaii in 1981, Springbett said. The euphoria was short-lived. He had that explosiveness. By any logic, he should have died long ago, before coaching Los Gatos High to a football championship, before celebrating his 61st birthday, before meeting his four grandchildren or having an all-star game named in his honor. Somehow, some way, things get done, Lucy said. Wedemeyer was the last of nine children born to Bill and Ruth Wedemeyer. It was an absolute miracle, Lucy said. Services have been tentatively scheduled for June 19 in Los Gatos. Apparently, Charlie had stayed around longer than the principal expected. Jan. 22, 1994: Kale, a wide receiver at University of the Pacific, plays in Hawaiis Hula Bowl college all-star game 25 years after his father. ", Quiet Victory: The Charlie Wedemeyer Story, Coach Charlie Wedemeyer was a national inspiration, "Wedemeyer's greatest feat: beating adversity", Quiet Victory: The Charlie Wedemeyer Story at IMDB.com, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Charlie_Wedemeyer&oldid=1126434804, Players of American football from Honolulu, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles with dead external links from November 2016, Articles with permanently dead external links, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 9 December 2022, at 09:04. For a guy who had always been an exceptional athlete, the loss of such simple motor skills was both confusing and disturbing. In the early years of his illness, Wedemeyer prayed to God that he could get to see his two children, Carri and Kale, grow up to graduate from high school and then college. So he asked to enter again. . Scialabbas words struck Wedemeyer. Year after year, Charlie kept living, in remarkable ways. Charlie Wedemeyer and Lucy Dangler, people with drastically different backgrounds, met at the bookstore on the first day of their sophomore year at Punahou The Honolulu Advertiser's Hawai'i Prep Athlete of the Decade. During one such visit to a small Chinese place in Los Gatos, Wedemeyer was struck by the aroma as the front door opened. 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A lot of us dads dont know how to say, I love you,' Wedemeyer told him. He had such great respect.. A memorial service will be held June 19 at Calvary Church in "At the time it was devastating," she says, "because I was so excited, that's what I had really hoped for and where I wanted to be placed. Wedemeyer, with his loving and dedicated wife Lucy constantly at his side, spit in the eye of his ALS, continuing to coach football for many years following his diagnosis. There was a time when Lucy was unsure if Charlie could handle not being a head coach, fearing he would lose the drive to live. "I have kind of always loved emergency," she says. "Everything that Samantha's been through, at such a young age, she is going to be an amazing nurse. Charlie just mouthed the words, I dont care.. After the diagnosis, the Los Gatos principal told Wedemeyer he could stay as head coach as long as he wished until 1986, when the principal changed his mind and gave the job to one of Charlies assistants. Charlie is survived by his wife of 44 years, Lucy, daughter Carri (& Keith) Andry of Los Gatos, son Kale (& Sonia) Wedemeyer of Los Gatos, seven grandchildren, Eight years later, he had lost 60 pounds and had stopping breathing twice. The game ended in a controversial 10-10 tie with Notre Dame (9-0-1) and Michigan State (9-0-1) named national co-champions by the National Football Foundation, although the Associated Press, United Press International and Football Writers Association of America named the Irish national champion. Maybe he doesnt know any other way. The team's high school coach of the week award is named for Wedemeyer. Two decades ago, Steve Mariucci inaugurated the San Francisco 49ers annual Charlie Wedemeyer Prep Coach of the Week and Coach of the Year awards while he was the 49ers head coach, 1997-2002. The Polynesian What better way to honor high school coaches and to honor Charlie for his contributions to the Bay Area, said Mariucci, who is now an NFL Network analyst. WebCharles A. Wedemeyer (19111999) was a pioneer in the field of independent and distance learning. He was diagnosed as having Lou Gehrig's disease and given one to three years to live. Wedemeyer, a sophomore backup quarterback and holder, was one of three Hawaiians on the Spartans 1966 national championship team along with senior kicker/punter Dick Kenney and junior fullback Bob Apisa. Born Feb. 19, 1946, in Honolulu, Wedemeyer was a football star while growing up in Hawaii and at Michigan State University. When it was over, people approached, many weeping. He could barely keep down even a spoonful of soup, and was losing weight fast. I dont believe he thinks about dying anymore, Kale said. We would rather have you like this, than not have you at all.. But it was quite a ride literally, in Charlies specially equipped wheelchair. The immense payoffs overshadow the games grass roots. No, Wedemeyer is beyond that. 2010new Date().getFullYear()>&document.write("-"+new Date().getFullYear());, Company. April 1986: Fired as Los Gatos coach after nine seasons. He was a high school athlete and was quarterback of the Punahou Charlie Wedemeyer was one of those teachers and coaches who inspired kids to be better because of the work he did with them.. The last person in line was a boy, broken down by a hard-driving father. We were more like a varsity staff than a frosh-soph staff, he added. Charlie Wedemeyer (February 19, 1946 June 3, 2010) was a high school teacher and football coach. He can do it all.. "That's been my biggest goal. Los Gatos won a sectional championship. He was revived twice more by home nurses. The Polynesian Hall induction brings full circle one more aspect of Wedemeyers life. He was the finest blocker on our team. In 1985, his team won the Central Coast Section Championship with Lucy, on the sidelines again, reading his lips and relaying his plays to the assistant coaches. WebSecrets of a Mother and Daughter. The remarkable run broke a 6-6 tie in the third quarter as Punahou went on to beat Kamehameha 20-6 in the ILH playoff game on Thanksgiving Day. Today, he inspires others through his will to live. If it were a game of touch football, he still would have scored. I am also Heres a guy who could have been a good high school coach. A nurse pries his mouth open, brushes his teeth and suctions out the foam and rinse water. Weakened by her ordeal, Cercena could not complete her final coursework to graduate in May. More people can know about someone that faced adversity and never gave up. They recognize the words that signal a potential crisis. And he was robbed of that.. Insurance once covered 16 hours a day of home care, but the Wedemeyers now struggle to maintain 11 or 12. He's expected to be released this week, in time to attend a coaches' all-star dinner Friday and the 35th Charlie Wedemeyer All-Star Game next Wednesday at Spartan Stadium in San Jose. The family of four lives in Chicago at present. But after the prayer, she said, it was in full bloom. "From all of these experiences, she is going to be a great advocate for her patients," he says. Only while broken did he discover the man he could be and the purpose that it would serve. 4.27. A record TV audience of 33 million tuned in, including the first live broadcast of football game in Hawaii, thanks to new satellite technology. Wedemeyer was a successful coach at Los Gatos High School, even after being diagnosed at 30 with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS. WebT WAS a wonderful life for Charlie Wedemeyer. He had strong opinions. As he moves from the strong athlete to a man whose degenerative disease causes slurred speech and a loss of motor skills, Nouri gives this role a quiet dignity. For a while anyway, the pulse of the ventilator was drowned out by the laughter of a child snuggled next to his grandfather, who was clad in a 10-gallon hat. "Having experienced so much and being on that side of the bed, it's going to be an amazing journey and I'm excited to help along that way.". Pity? So he chose not to. OhioHealth made People's annual 100 Companies That Care list in 2021. Remembering Charlie Wedemeyer. Wedemeyer died early Thursday in a San Jose hospital of pneumonia and was surrounded by family and friends, said his wife, Lucy. He was named Hawaii Prep Athlete of the 1960s. My hat is off to that woman, said Frank Griffin, the Los Gatos doctor who made the original ALS diagnosis. 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