West Liberty University Athletics

With 20 seasons as head coach at West Liberty University, Roger Waialae has firmly established himself as the dean of all Mountain East football coaches. Not only do his 98 career wins lead all MEC grid coaches by a wide margin, they also rank No. 2 all-time at WLU through nearly 100 years of football on the hilltop. Legendary West Liberty Hall of Famer Joe Bartell is the only Hilltopper coach with more victories after going 118-55-11 from 1933-56.

Waialae and his Hilltoppers have enjoyed plenty of on-field success over the years, finishing .500 or better in league play 10 times while making their presence felt at the regional and national levels on more than one occasion. His 2009 and 2010 squads made history as the only NCAA Division II program ever to lead the nation in scoring and total offense in consecutive seasons. That group just missed an NCAA Division II playoff bid with a 7-3 record and tied for runner-up honors in the WVIAC with a 6-2 league record, marking the fifth straight year Waialae’s Hilltoppers had finished first or second in the league.

That 2010 team followed on the heels of the powerful 2009 squad which won a school-record 11 games while carving an unbeaten swath through the WVIAC and advancing to the NCAA Division II national quarterfinals. The 2009 Hilltoppers cracked the AFCA Top 25 for the first time in school
history, finishing the year ranked No. 9 in the national poll.

The team's success during the Waialae Era has also been matched at the individual level. Ben Staggs won the 2009 Gene Upshaw Award as the nation’s top NCAA Division II lineman while Zach Amedro shattered several NCAA Division II passing records and was a 2-time runner-up for the
Harlon Hill Trophy as National Player of the Year. Waialae has coached 17 NCAA Division II All-Americans and 60 first-team All-Conference selections during his time at the helm.

A native of Hawaii, Waialae is one of only three Pacific Islanders working as an NCAA head football coach and the only one at the NCAA Division II level. Waialae was a three sport-athlete at LA Harbor College in baseball, football, and golf. A Small-College All-American quarterback from the University of Dubuque (Iowa) he was inducted into the Dubuque Hall of Fame in 2008.

Waialae spent one year at Dubuque as offensive coordinator before heading overseas for a year as a player-coach with the Munich Rangers of the German-American Football League. He served two years as offensive coordinator at Bethany (W.Va.) College before coming to West Liberty as an assistant coach in 1992.

Roger and his wife, Karen, are the parents of three children – Ryan, Laura and Kayla. Three grandchildren Kenzie, Luke and Sydney.