For Bulls' Analyst Bahler 9/11 Hits Very Close to Home
USF (0-1; 0-0 American) vs #13/9 FLORIDA (1-0; 0-0 SEC)
Saturday, Sept. 11 • 1:00 P.M.
Raymond James Stadium (65,857)
TV: ABC: Bob Wischusen (p-by-p), Dan Orlovsky (analyst) & Kris Budden (sideline)
RADIO: 95.3 WDAE
AUDIO STREAM: iHeartRadio - Bulls Unlimited1
9/11 COMMEMORATIONS SATURDAY:
Bulls will wear a 9/11 helmet sticker
A moment of silence will be observed pregame
The USF and UF Bands will perform a 9/11 tribute together at halftime
By Joey Johnston
Twenty years ago during the 9/11 attacks on America, USF defensive quality control analyst Will Bahler was a high-school junior. His mother, an Air Force colonel, worked at the Pentagon, where a terrorist-diverted plane had crashed into the building. All survivors were evacuated. For nearly eight hours, Bahler and his father, then a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel, were not sure if she was still alive.
"The whole thing was like a gut punch and the uncertainty made it very scary,'' said Bahler, 36, a former Polk County high-school assistant who has worked on Coach Jeff Scott's staff for two seasons.
Audrey Bahler was OK and made it home by about 10:30 p.m. that night. As a public affairs/communications specialist, she worked on the Pentagon's Potomac River side — opposite from where American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the largely unoccupied west side of the iconic structure, where about 23,000 military and civilians went to work that morning. There were 184 people killed at Pentagon that morning, including 59 on the plane.
"Even though I was far away, I still felt the explosion,'' Audrey Bahler said. "I saw the smoke. I saw the fireball out my window. I had a TV in my office and I had seen the first two planes hit the Twin Towers in New York. Before we got hit (at the Pentagon), I already knew this was no coincidence. We were under attack.''
Under orders from Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Audrey and other military personnel were back on the job the next morning.
"There was black soot everywhere,'' Audrey said. "It had gone through all of the vent systems. The smell of jet fuel was everywhere.
"We lost people at the Pentagon. So many people were killed in New York. It was almost incomprehensible to me that such a thing had happened in our country and no one knew it was coming.''
Saturday afternoon, Bahler and other USF coaches will wear caps and gear with a stars-and-stripes Bull "U" on them. The helmets of USF players will feature a commemorative 9/11 sticker. There will be a remembrance of the tragic events and a moment of silence prior to the national anthem and both USF and Florida bands will perform a tribute together at halftime.
It was another life ago for Bahler, who was a junior wide receiver at DeMatha Catholic High School in Hyattsville, Maryland. On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, Bahler was in his Honors Spanish class, where a television was wheeled in for students to see news coverage of the first plane hitting the tower.
Bahler's flip phone kept ringing in his backpack. Finally, he answered. It was his father, Barry.
"That was not an accident,'' Bahler's father said. "You need to come home now.''
Some of it is hard to remember now. Many of USF's players weren't even born when the 9/11 attacks occurred.
Bahler does remember how his football career was altered. DeMatha's trip to Missouri the following week, for an ESPN-televised game against Rockhurst, was cancelled. His senior season, after a transfer to St. John's College High School, was cut in half by cancellations due to the D.C. sniper attacks (two snipers terrorized the Washington D.C. area, killing 10 people over a 23-day period before they were apprehended).
Bahler considered college football and had options, but a knee injury steered him away from continuing. He chose a school without football, Florida Southern College in Lakeland, but became a volunteer assistant coach at Kathleen High School (arranging his sophomore year classes so he could make afternoon practice).
After five seasons, he migrated to powerful Lakeland High School, where he became offensive coordinator/receivers coach while also coordinating recruiting activities and communications for the Dreadnaughts' annual haul of college prospects. That's where he met Scott, then Clemson University's co-offensive coordinator, who recruited the Tampa Bay area.
When Scott got the USF job, Bahler was eager to join the staff as an analyst, even taking the only opening on defense, where he assists with the cornerbacks.
It's a largely thankless, anonymous role, The alarm rings daily at 4:45 a.m. and he's generally at the USF coaching offices by 6 o'clock, beating the sunrise. He handles a flood of administrative, practice-field and preparation details, fueled by his never-ending love for the game and an ample supply of Celsius drinks.
"I'm one of those rare people who absolutely loves what they do, every single day,'' Bahler said. "College coaching is what I want and this is where I want to be. Bloom where you're planted. This program has a lot of great things ahead.''
Bahler's parents, both retired from military service, will travel to as many USF games as they can. They support their son's football passion and are thrilled that he's enjoying his time with the Bulls.
"Will has always loved football, always been a very good student and he's always been proud that his parents were in the military,'' Audrey Bahler said. "He's very patriotic. He appreciates the sacrifices that military people have made and he loves what our country represents. That's not just something he feels on 9/11. It's every day.''
