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Plant High School Coach Gets Home Makeover

Tribune photo by JIM REED

Plant High School football coach Bob Weiner cuts a ribbon in front of his home on his return from vacation.

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By KATHERINE SMITH, The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 11, 2008

Updated: 01/11/2008 12:16 am

TAMPA - Robert Weiner's face peeked out the picture window of his living room at the scene unfolding in his front yard.

Austin Clark glanced up between swipes of the paintbrush and caught the Plant High School head football coach's eye.

"It freaked me out," said Clark, a junior lineman for the Panthers. "It was like he was looking at me, saying 'Do a good job. Don't mess up.' He's definitely watching us."

Weiner wasn't physically at his house Saturday, but his spirit was everywhere and so were his players. The coach's likeness, in the form of a blown-up photo, was taped to the window and appeared to be surveying the flurry of activity.

While Weiner was at work in Anaheim, Calif., at the American Football Coaches Association convention, his players, and some Plant parents, were at play making over his house.

After a week on the West Coast, Weiner arrived home Thursday night to a brand-new front yard and freshly painted house. The group of players and parents who transformed his house greeted the coach in his driveway as he cut a red ribbon and began a tour.

"It looks like they brought in a new house," Weiner said. "It's incredible. What a nice thing for everyone to do. I was just doing my whole deal in California and had no idea. What a gift. It will change my everyday life."

'No More Sleeping In Fieldhouse'

A visit from Weiner's mother in October sparked the idea for the extreme home makeover. Once she shared stories of peeling wallpaper and a weed-infested front yard, the Plant parents began plotting.

One e-mail was sent out last week and nearly 40 people, including past and present players and parents, showed up to give back to a coach who has given them so much.

"I don't think anyone deserves it more than him," Clark said. "I know he wouldn't say that, but he helps everyone else out, and I think it's about time somebody helps him out.

"I think he'll enjoy and like it, but at the end of the day he'll be like, thanks, but you guys didn't have to do that."

Some players wondered if they made over the wrong structure. Part of the reason Weiner's home needed work was because he's never there.

He spends the majority of his time at the school's fieldhouse, sometimes sleeping over on a futon.

As Weiner thanked everyone for their efforts, one of the parents shouted "no more sleeping in the fieldhouse."

"I doubt it will make him come home more, but maybe he'll come home and watch a game on Sunday now," quarterback Aaron Murray said. "Hopefully he'll enjoy it a little bit."

Players Start Painting Early

The transformation began a week ago with the front yard. A crew volunteered to clear the weeds and large branches, some left over from the 2004 hurricanes, and lay new sod. Weiner's mother, Carol, in town for a brief visit, recalled a time soon after Plant won the 2006 state championship when the yard cost the coach some money.

"The same day the team received the key to the city from the mayor, he got a citation because the weeds were so tall in his front yard," Carol Weiner said. "He called me and said, 'Mom, can you believe they gave me the key to the city and a ticket on the same day?'"

Once the yard was finished, the attention turned to the house. On Saturday, players began arriving at 7:45 a.m. to begin painting.

It didn't take long before senior defensive lineman Jamar Williams' shorts and legs were smattered in gray paint. When the painting activity reached its peak around 10 a.m., most players had paint on their bodies.

It wasn't all work. Murray found some time, and a tennis ball in Weiner's backyard, to work on his throwing motion. Unfortunately for Williams, Murray picked his head as the intended target.

Williams countered with a warning.

"Your hair's about to be the color of the house," he said.

Once most of the exterior had been painted, the players moved to the garage and began organizing Weiner's collectibles. They enjoyed looking at the photos Weiner has collected over the years. A John Lynch bobblehead doll drew some laughs.

The players, however, got the biggest kick out of Weiner's extensive album collection.

"It's alphabetized, of course," Murray said.

"My grandma has some records, but that's as far as my album experience goes," Clark said. "I didn't know a lot of the bands."

By midday Saturday, the exterior of the house and the majority of the inside were painted. The peachy pink wall covering in the kitchen, complete with a Miami Vice-like wallpaper border, was replaced with an up-to-date color.

Photos Weiner had taken during his years at Boston College donned the walls in the living room and an autographed photo of Babe Ruth found stashed away sat prominently on a new desk.

So what would motivate such a large group to tackle such a transformation? Coach Weiner would.

Consider it a paying forward of sorts and a lesson the players learned from a coach who's taught them more than the X's and O's of football.

Every summer, Weiner takes a group of players to work as counselors at the Muscular Dystrophy Association camps. The players also volunteer at various Bay area community functions.

"He really instills in us that we become a good football player," Murray said, "but the most important thing is we become better men."

Reporter Katherine Smith can be reached at (813) 259-7860 or ksmith@tampatrib.com.

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