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Plant Coach Weiner A Teacher On, Off The Field

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By KATHERINE SMITH | The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 19, 2008

TAMPA - Nearly a year ago, Robert Weiner stood stunned in his living room.

He stared at the freshly painted walls - walls his players had painstakingly painted - and was overcome with emotion. The Plant High School football coach's home had received a makeover, courtesy of the team's players and parents, and he needed the words of another to express his gratitude.

"To quote 'The Prince of Tides': 'I am a teacher, a coach, and a well-loved man. And it is more than enough,' " Weiner said.

The man who arrived at Plant in 2004 and delivered the school its first football state championship in 2006 is on the verge of bringing another title to Tampa. Plant plays Tallahassee Lincoln today in the Class 4A Championship Game at Orlando's Citrus Bowl (1 p.m.).

In everything he does, Weiner is ultimately a teacher.

"He could have done anything he wanted to do with his life and been successful at it," said Plant co-defensive coordinator John Few. "This is what his passion is. His passion is teaching kids."

Rather seamlessly, Weiner, 44, goes from teaching "Beowulf" for senior English students to teaching a quarterback proper footwork. In a day's work, Weiner will spend nearly 16 hours at Plant.

He arrives at the school around 5:30 a.m. every morning. Players begin trickling in at 6:45 a.m., as they are required to check in with their coach before their first period class. Failure to do so results in extra running after practice. A second infraction during a week and that player is benched for the game.

Weiner stays on top of their grades. It's no coincidence Plant's football team has posted the county's highest average grade-point average for consecutive seasons or that several of the senior players are in the top 15 of their class.

"He's a great teacher," said Plant quarterback Aaron Murray, who had Weiner for senior English. "He's funny. He keeps things interesting. He's not boring and not up there lecturing all the time. He makes it easy for us to learn things."

Murray sees a lot of similarities from Weiner as a teacher in the classroom to Weiner as a coach on the field.

"He's always good at really getting people to work hard and on the football field, making sure everybody's doing the right thing," Murray said. "In the classroom, he's always lecturing to us about doing the right things and not always just about school, but about life."

Weiner didn't start out as a teacher and coach. A graduate of Boston College, he took a job as a script reader at Paramount Pictures, where his mother Carol was employed. He also worked in a retail store in Beverly Hills, Calif.

After a year in Los Angeles, Weiner returned to his roots at Tampa's Jesuit High, where he accepted an English teaching position in 1988 and joined the football team as an assistant coach.

The pride of Jesuit's Class of '83 was back. Weiner was all-everything as a student at Jesuit. He played on the tennis team, advancing to the state championship in doubles as a senior. Also during his senior year, Weiner was homecoming king and student body president.

"He had the respect of everybody," said Plant tight ends coach Jeff Murphy, who graduated from Jesuit with Weiner. "He's one of those guys that everybody loved. He got along with everybody and that hasn't changed."

Weiner's always had a knack for engaging people. While at Jesuit, he served as the announcer for several of the sports, including basketball, wrestling and soccer.

"The soccer team gave him a special award for bringing people to the games," Carol Weiner said. "People would go to games just to listen to him."

One thing Weiner didn't do at Jesuit was play football. He was a team manager. The fact that one of Hillsborough County's most successful coaches never played a down of organized football surprised a lot of his players.

"He told me he read a book about it," Plant wide receiver Orson Charles said.

Weiner did more than read a book. He soaked up all he could from Tigers coach Bill Minahan, who led Jesuit to a state championship in 1968, and also Dominic Ciao, the head coach during Weiner's tenure as an assistant.

He took that knowledge and helped develop the most successful program in Plant's history. Inheriting a program that went 1-9 the previous year, Weiner's compiled a 51-13 record in five years.

Weiner's not without critics though. With a number of transfer students on the team, some have claimed he recruits, something Weiner has never been investigated for.

"Anytime you have someone as successful as he is, they're going to take potshots at you," Hillsborough coach Earl Garcia. "I'll go on record and say I don't care if he recruited every kid on that team, he still has to coach them. He's a tremendous coach. He's a players coach and his players play hard for him."

Thursday night, after players finished their final preparation for the championship game, Weiner gathered his seniors for a special ceremony. He gave each one two quarters. One went to an underclassman as a gesture signifying they can call that senior with questions about anything.

The other was for Weiner. He wanted the players to know they can call at any time, and they do.

"I've been on the opposite ends of phone calls in the middle of the night to share in the experience of the birth of a first child of one of my players years later," Weiner said. "I've gotten phone calls to go be the best man in someone's wedding. Or on the flip side, to go to the jailhouse or God forbid, even the worse, to go to the funeral of a family member.

"You try to be there for all those situations and it's never more than a phone call away."

The Panthers are a win away from their second state championship. Win or lose, it's the experience and life lessons Weiner wants his players to remember.

"External judgments by wins and losses and championships is one thing, but internal judgment by your kids is another," Weiner said. "I'd rather have our kids be touched by an experience so profoundly that they always want to come back and be a part of it because I know that's something that's impacted their lives well beyond championships or anything like that."

Reporter Katherine Smith can be reached at (813) 259-7860.

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