Coach Wade/South Pacific

Benjamin "Coach" Wade is a contestant from Survivor: South Pacific.

Appearing a third time in South Pacific, Coach had finally learned from his past mistakes. This time, his posture as a trustworthy figure was more convincing. He managed to form a long-lasting alliance on the very first night of the game, and thanks to an impressive display of empathy, convinced John Cochran to flip to his alliance at the merge. His alliance and strong strategic play would take him to the Final Three. However, his inability to own his decisions at the Final Tribal Council caused him to lose to Sophie Clarke in a 6-3-0 vote, thus finishing as runner-up.

Profile[]

Retrieved from CBS.com

Name (Age): Benjamin "Coach" Wade (39)
Current Residence: Susanville, Calif.
Previous Seasons: Survivor: Tocantins and Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains

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."^[1]

Survivor[]

Coach came back for a third time with fellow returning player Ozzy Lusth. After the two were randomly assigned tribes, Coach was placed on the Upolu tribe where he was not well received by his tribemates, with his only friend being Edna Ma. He had a conflict with Christine Shields Markoski after Christine had openly declared on Day 1 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 the first night (consisting of Albert Destrade, Brandon Hantz, Rick Nelson, and Sophie Clarke) 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 Hantz's nephew, and was the only one to know until Brandon revealed it to his whole tribe in during Tribal Council on Day 10. 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 oversensitive player. Coach's first big decision came on Day 17, where Coach was upset at Mikayla Wingle for not listening to him during the Immunity Challenge, which ultimately lead to their defeat. Coach, Brandon, and Edna were set on voting out 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 of John Cochran, who respected Coach and did not really like his own tribe. At the Te Tuna tribe's first Tribal Council, Cochran decided to side against Savaii, which allowed Coach and the rest of Upolu to systematically eliminate them. By Day 28, the only Savaii members that remained were Cochran and Ozzy (the latter who had survived via Redemption Island), and voting out other people became more difficult for Coach, since everyone truly trusted him and as much as he did not want to disappoint anyone, he had to. He stuck to his word by staying true to his original alliance, voting off Cochran first and then voted out Edna.

However, Coach and Ozzy made a deal when Coach visited Redemption Island on Day 31 as part of the Family Visit that the two would work together to go to the Final Three. Coach said that he made that promise because Ozzy is a truly noble player that he respects. Later on, Coach was annoyed that while the loved ones stayed at Redemption Island, Brandon's dad 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 then Brandon, Albert, and Coach would vote out Sophie. But when Brandon gave his immunity to Albert at Tribal Council, Coach stuck to his own plans and voted out Brandon. Once Ozzy returned from Redemption Island, Coach was torn between his Upolu allies and his promise with Ozzy. Ozzy won Individual Immunity and with no choice but to turn on each other, Rick was voted out in a 3-2 vote. When Coach attempted to hug Rick, Rick angrily told him to sit down. In the final four 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 preaching his honor code because he did play a deceptive game, and not owning his game. Coach received votes from Cochran, Edna, and Rick (at first thought to be from Brandon, Cochran, and Jim), which was enough to make him the runner-up of Survivor: South Pacific, behind Sole Survivor Sophie.

Episode	Tribe Affiliation	Challenge	Challenge Type	Sit-Out?	Result
1	Upolu	Thrilogy	Reward	No	Lost
1		Coconut Conundrum	Immunity	No	Won
2		Crate Escape	Reward/Immunity	No	Lost
3		Hitching a Ride	Reward/Immunity	No	Won
4		Shoulder the Load	Reward/Immunity	No	Lost
5		Pig Out	Reward/Immunity	No	Won
6		Losing Face	Reward/Immunity	No	Lost
7		Family Ties	Reward/Immunity	No	Won
Tribes Merged, Day 19
8	Te Tuna	Coconut Cradle	Immunity		Lost
9		Get Crackin'	Immunity		Lost
9		Bow Diddley	Immunity	Yes¹	Lost
10		Price On Your Head	Immunity		Lost
10		C.A.T.	Immunity		Lost
12		Second Chance	Reward/Immunity		Invited²
13		Flip Out	Immunity		Won
14		Batman Wall	Reward/Immunity		Lost
15		Teeter Tower	Immunity		Lost
15		Lei of the Land	Immunity		Lost
Runner-Up, Day 39
Notes: ^1 Coach elected to sit out of the challenge to eat pastries and iced coffee. ^2 Albert shared his reward with Coach.

Episode	Coach's Votes	Voted Against Coach
1	Upolu Tribe Immune
2	Christine	-
3	Upolu Tribe Immune
4	Stacey	-
5	Upolu Tribe Immune
6	Mikayla	-
7	Upolu Tribe Immune
8	Keith; Keith¹	-
9	Ozzy	-
9	Jim	-
10	Dawn	-
10	Whitney	-
12	Cochran	-
13	Edna	Individual Immunity
14	Brandon	-
15	Rick	-
15	Ozzy	-
Jury Votes for Coach	Cochran, Edna, Rick
Runner-Up, Day 39

^1 In "Double Agent", the vote ended with a 6-6 tie between Keith and Rick, forcing a revote. Coach did not change his vote on the revote.

Trivia[]

Coach has experienced both Exile Island and Redemption Island, but the latter was merely a visit as opposed to being voted out.
Coach is the third castaway to compete more than once at the same location (in his case, Samoa), following Rupert Boneham (Panama) and Russell Hantz (also Samoa).
Coach is the first returning player to compete on at least three seasons and win the first tribal Immunity Challenge each time. He would be followed by Tyson Apostol, Joe Anglim, Amber Mariano, and Sarah Lacina.
Coach is the first returning player to reach the Final Tribal Council without receiving a single vote throughout the season.
- Amanda Kimmel reached the Final Tribal Council without any counted votes against her in Micronesia, but she had four votes that were negated by a Hidden Immunity Idol.
- Coach is the only castaway in South Pacific to not receive a vote against him.
In "Reap What You Sow", Coach revealed that he does not like being called "Benjamin".
In all three of Coach's seasons, his tribe won exactly four Immunity Challenges.
Coach currently displays his unused Hidden Immunity Idol in his living room.^[2]
Coach is one of three castaways (along with Russell Hantz and Colby Donaldson) to compete in three seasons and never participate in a Tribe Switch.
Coach, along with Amber Mariano, Colby Donaldson, Ethan Zohn, Jerri Manthey, Rob Mariano, Rupert Boneham, and Tina Wesson are the only castaways to compete in seasons with 16, 18, and 20 castaways.