VORPAGEL'S LEGACY LIVES ON IN BADGER BASEBALL HISTORY
Coach Wayne Vorpagel's family at the Badger baseball memorial game.
After 64 years of coaching Badger baseball, players knew they would find Coach Wayne as they called him, on his wooden bench at the end of the dugout, stat book in hand, ready to give out mints or words of encouragement to his players.
Longtime baseball coach Wayne Vorpagel, center, stands with his fellow Badger coaches after a ceremony honoring him was held prior to a June 1 game.
Badger Baseball players hug coach Wayne Vorpagel's family at his memorial game.
For decades of Badger baseball, the team could count on Wayne Vorpagel to be sitting on his bench at the end of the dugout, mints tucked inside his duffel bag, and stat book in hand watching his boys play the game he loved.
Players could come for a mint. Sometimes they came over for encouragement. Most often, they came over because he was always there.
After the passing of Vorpagel on May 11, players, family and coaches remembered not just a longtime coach, but a constant presence whose impact spanned six decades.
"He had his own bench in our dugout, which was Wayne's bench," Badger class of 2025 alum Zach Walton said. "He brought his little duffel case, had some mints in there, and it was always good to go see Wayne, get a mint, and just talk. He didn't say a whole lot, but he was always there, and you knew you could trust him and rely on him when you needed him most."
Vorpagel's presence wasn't always limited to the dugout, he was on the field playing catch with the players, and his consistent presence carried into every aspect of the baseball program.
"The last five years, he's battled a number of health issues, and when baseball rolls around, it seems like those health issues just end up going away, and they probably didn't go away, but it was just kind of the mask that he put on, because he loved baseball so much," Badger head coach Nick Hughes said. "He was here, almost every day that he could, open gyms throughout the winter, showing up, and just his presence there, you know, gets the guys going."
Many of the players recalled calls from Vorpagel, especially when they were underclassmen just making it to varsity their freshmen or sophomore years and not getting many varsity innings just yet.
"My sophomore year, I was new to the program, obviously, coming up with varsity, which was nerve wracking as an underclassman," Badger senior Caden Creighton said. "Wayne was the first one to greet me and talk to me after practice. He got my number pretty quickly and he was giving me calls after games when I wasn't playing right away. He was like, 'Hey, I keep in there, you know, keep going at it.' He was always just pushing me all year sophomore year, and followed up by junior year, the same thing after that. Calling me after games. I mean, he was just my number one supporter throughout high school baseball, for sure."
Senior Matt O'Grady said that Vorpagel wasn't much of a mechanical coach when he knew him the last few years but was a mental coach, taking O'Grady under his wing when he made varsity his freshman year and showing him the highs, lows, and how to stay positive through it all.
"I'll remember the Mukwanago game, and he came up to me, and he was, like, I think you're gonna get four hits today, and I didn't even know I was starting at that point," Badger senior Logan Levitt said. "And he was right, I did get four hits. After that game he came up to me, and he was like, I told you so. He definitely taught, like, keeping your head up."
A few players who have since graduated from Badger High School and the baseball program mentioned the way Vorpagel continued to be a mentor and person to count on past high school graduation, with him and his wife Elaine going to club games in the summer, calling athletes playing baseball in college, and keeping up with many of the players over the years.
"At the end of every high school season, he'd come up to the guys who he knew were playing summer ball," Badger class of 2023 alum Crete Slattery said. "He'd ask for our schedules, and I know for a fact that he made it to at least one or two games of every single one of his players that he could. And that just speaks to the value of how much he loved the game of baseball and how much he loved his players."
Scott Vorpagel, one of Wayne's sons, said that his parents regularly drove up to Kenosha or even Milwaukee where some of the former players had played in summer ball leagues.
"He didn't have to do that, you know, but he enjoyed watching the boys play, and he was there to support them." Scott said.
Not only did he support his beloved Badgers, but he was always supporting his own family as well.
"He was beyond patient," Jeanne Vorpagel, Wayne's daughter-in-law said about him coaching her and Tim Vorpagel's daughter with her t-ball and baseball teams as a young kid all the way up in West Allis. "He never scolded her, never. He just always told her, 'You can do it', was very patient, and took all the time in the world to teach. She remembers that, you know? She's now almost 20, and that's one of her biggest memories, is having Papa help out with playing baseball and t-ball."
While the players will remember Vorpagel as a coach, mentor, and father figure to some, Elaine remembered the role that the game has played throughout their life together.
"We've been married 63 and a half years," Elaine said. "He would pick me up on Sunday, and we'd go to the game, and he'd be out on the field, and I'd be on the bleachers. It was his life, he loved it. He loved, you know, teaching and coaching the boys. It was a big thing. He would love to be out on the field, and hitting balls to them, or having them hit. All the time."
In Vorpagel's 63rd season, the team made a State Championship run for the first time in school history, with many of his players and family saying that that accomplishment was one of the highlights of his life and were glad he was still around coaching to be able to experience it.
"When we went to sectionals, we played at Oregon," Walton said. "And we won both games, the first time heading to State in school history. I just shared a moment with our plaque that we received, and Wayne just looked at it and started crying, and I was like, this is yours. Like, he's worked just as hard as us to get to that point, and, I mean, he could have given up at any point, because he was older and retired, but no, that wasn't his mentality. And he just kept us together, and, obviously, we had a fantastic state run. Pulling up to the State semis and all those games, you're like, you're doing this for Wayne. He's done it just as much as you."
"I would just thank him and tell him how much of an inspiration he is," Former Badger coach and player Mike Ploch said. "How much of an impact he had on me, had on the team, had on the program. You know, I would not have had the success I had without him, and I know he knows that, but I just hope that he knows that I know that."
