Coach Wade

Benjamin "Coach" Wade is a contestant from, and.

Coach is a self-described "Dragon-Slayer" in which he relies on honesty and integrity, allowing only those worthy to progress in the competition coupled with his somewhat exaggerated adventures and mannerisms.

Tocantins
Benjamin Wade is known by many names. As the head women's soccer coach at the Southwest Baptist University in Missouri, he is called "Coach Wade," but he also goes by “Maestro” due to role as an artistic director and conductor of a California symphony orchestra. A skilled musician, Benjamin was traveling the world playing the trumpet before most kids could even spell "trumpet."

Wade sees coaching as another form of manipulation. "You have to find out what everybody wants, what everybody needs, what they think they want, what think they need and then you have to be the person that solves everything." He knows these skills will be valuable in the game of SURVIVOR.

If Benjamin was asked to wear just one hat, it would be that of "Renaissance Man." Aside from setting the world record for the longest solo kayak expedition on the ocean (an amazing 6,132 miles), Wade has also been attacked by a tiger shark, stalked by a jaguar in the Amazon and has been bitten by a piranha on his right hand. To say that he is a Type A, Alpha male, who likes to control the environment around him may just be an understatement. Coach's dominant personality will be a force to be reckoned with in the game.

Benjamin is single and currently splits his time in Bolivar, Mo, and Susanville, Calif. His birth date is September 18.

South Pacific
Name (Age): Benjamin "Coach" Wade (39) Current Residence: Susanville, Calif. Previous Seasons: Survivor: Tocantins and Survivor: Heroes Vs. Villains Personal claim to fame: Test. Inspiration in life: Test. Hobbies: Soccer. Why you think you’ll “survive” SURVIVOR: Coach believes that it is his experience and his leadership that make him an asset to his tribe, but he’s reevaluating his strategy this time around. “I’ve got to come out here and I’ve got to be confident but not arrogant, strong but not intimidating, I’ve got to be humble but not weak, I’ve got to be honorable but not self righteous.”

Survivor: Tocantins
was Coach's first season. His main allies were Tyson Apostol (who he called his assistant coach), Stephen Fishbach (who he called "The Wizard"), and JT Thomas (who he called "The Warrior"). His main enemies were Erinn and Sierra, the latter who was one of the people he voted off. Since he respected JT more than Stephen, he voted for JT to win. His attitude and personality this season gave him a spot on Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains as a villain.

Survivor: South Pacific
At first, Coach was not well received by his tribe, Upolu, with his only friend being Edna Ma. He had a conflict with Christine Shields Markoski which is mostly one-sided on her side (Christina openly said that Coach and Ozzy were "temporary players". Due to Christine clearly not being on the same side as him, Coach targeted her and her ally Stacey Powell first and thanks to the alliance he created on day 1 (consisting of Rick Nelson, Sophie Clarke, Brandon Hantz, and Albert Destrade) and with extra help from Edna, Christine and Stacey would be the first to go from the Upolu tribe. Coach was the first player to know about Brandon being Russell's nephew, and was the only one to know until Brandon revealed it to his whole tribe in Survivalism. Coach had a shaky relationship with Brandon because Brandon trusted him more than anyone else at the tribe but at the same time Brandon proved to be an unstable and oversensative player. Coach's 1st big decision came in Free Agent where Coach was upset at Mikayla Wingle for not listening to him during the immunity challenge. Coach, Brandon, and Edna were set on voting off Mikayla, but Albert and Sophie thought that Edna deserved to go since she was a weaker player. Coach did all he could to convince Rick that Edna should stay because Edna would blindly follow Coach, no matter what. In the end, Coach barely got his way and Mikayla was voted off that night.

After Mikayla's departure, the remaining Upolu members, mainly thanks to Coach, became more unified and went into the merge ready to take down Savaii with the help from John Cochran (mostly referred to as Cochran), who respected Coach and didn't really like his tribe). In Trojan Horse, Cochran decided to side with Savaii which allowed Coach and the rest of Upolu to systematically eliminate them. By Cult Like, the only Savaii members that remained were Cochran and Ozzy (the latter who had survived via Redemption Island), and at this point the vote offs became more difficult for Coach since everyone truly trusted him and as much as he didn't want to dissapoint anyone, he had to. He stuck to his word by staying true to his original alliance, voting off Cochran and Edna first.

However, Coach and Ozzy made a deal when Coach visited Redemption Island that the 2 would work together to go to the final 3. Coach said that he made that promise because Ozzy is a truly noble player that he respects. In Then There Were Five, Coach was annoyed that previously Brandon's father practically forced him into taking Brandon to the end and as much as he liked Brandon, he felt like he had to go. Coach was upset when Brandon won immunity but then Brandon talked about giving immunity to Albert to forgive Albert and than Brandon, Albert, and Coach would vote off Sophie. But Coach stuck to his own plans and voted off Brandon. Once Ozzy returned from Redemption Island, Coach was torned between his Upolu allies and his promise with Ozzy. In the final 4 when Sophie won immunity, Coach had one last big decision to make between voting off Albert or Ozzy. In the end Coach made what he believed was the smarter decision and voted off Ozzy. At the final tribal council, most players respected Coach for playing a much better and stronger game than in his two previous seasons but at the same time they criticized him for using honor and loyalty too much as a shield and not honing up to what he has done. Coach received votes from Cochran, Edna, and Rick (at first thgouth to be from Cochran, Jim, and Brandon), which was enough to make him the runner up of Survivor South Pacific, behind Sole Survivor Sophie.

Voting History
In Double Agent, the vote ended with a 6-6 tie between Rick and Keith, forcing a revote. Coach did not change his vote at the revote.

Trivia

 * When Coach left the United States to film Tocantins, he told his coworkers that he was getting surgery for a rare form of brain cancer.
 * Coach has experienced both Exile Island and Redemption Island, but the latter was merely a visit as opposed to being voted out.
 * His South Pacific rival, Ozzy Lusth, is the only person ever to be on both Exile Island and Redemption Island.
 * During Heroes vs. Villains, Wade routinely wrote numbers alongside the person he was voting out. These were 4, 18, 1, 7 which when ran alongside the alphabet shows "DRAG" in an attempt to spell "DRAGONSLAYER" through his votes.
 * This was not practiced during South Pacific.
 * Coach is currently the most recent person to be sent to Exile Island, which has not been used since Survivor: Tocantins, Coach was exiled in the episode The Martyr Approach, the last time someone was sent to Exile Island in Tocantins.
 * Coach is the thrid player to compete more than once at the same location (in his case, Samoa), following Rupert Boneham (Panama's Pearl Islands) and Russell Hantz (also Samoa).
 * In both Tribal Councils where Coach was eliminated, the difference was one vote, and he was sent to the Jury.
 * In Taste the Victory, Wade revealed that he does not like being called "Benjamin."
 * Coach currently displays his unused Hidden Immunity Idol in his living room.
 * Coach has stated that he will not play for a fourth time.
 * Coach is one of three players (along with Russell Hantz and Colby Donaldson ) to compete in three seasons and not participate in a Tribe Shuffle.
 * Coach is the second person to return in a season in which there are only two returning players, make it to the Final Tribal Council, and come in second. He succeeds Stephenie LaGrossa, who did this in Guatemala.
 * In his CBS Profile for Survivor: South Pacific, some of the answers are actually from tribemate Brandon Hantz.
 * Whoever Coach voted for in South Pacific would be voted off at that Tribal Council.
 * Coach has the most Jury votes for a male finalist from a season at Samoa with 3.
 * Coach was the only returning player on the two Redemption Island seasons not to make Final Tribal Council in a previous attempt.
 * However in South Pacific, he reached Final Tribal Council to join the previous returnees as a runner-up.