Signing Day spotlight:  Meet El Segundo football player Miguel Wagner-Bagues

El Segundo High has this quiet genius that takes advanced calculus classes at Loyola Marymount University, and will be attendingMIT next year- he also happens to be a recruited football player.  Meet Miguel Wagner-Bagues, running back and wide receiver. Wagner-Bagues will be joining the MIT Engineers, a Division III program that plays in the New England Football Conference.

Wagner-Bagues has been playing football for as long as he
can remember. But that trajectory almost went off on a vector.  I remember it vividly, junior year in the
first football scrimmage of the year, Wagner-Bagues was dominating the game, a speedy running
back, making plays, and then he went up for a pass, his body was stretched out
as he reached for the ball, and he got hit.
I saw Wagner-Bagues hit the ground, and then he got up, and slowly walked to
the sidelines.  Little did we know that
minutes later he would be on his way to the hospital with a
ruptured kidney.

It was many months
before Wagner-Bagues returned to school, and of course his junior football season
ended, like that, before the first game even began, and all of those months of
hard work and preparation were not met with the joy of winning football games,
but of fighting for his health.  But,
he recovered, then finally came back to school, and by track season, he
was back working out.  So, when senior
football season came around Wagner-Bagues tells me “I decided to make my senior season
count and am blessed that the recruiting process worked out how it did.” 

As a senior, Wagner-Bagues was a dominant force,
earning team co-offensive player; as well as scholar-athlete; first-team
All-League; and second-team All-Area.
His favorite sports memory was “beating Santa Monica to win the Ocean League
title.”

ESHS head football Coach Steve Shevlin tells me that “Miguel’s work
ethic and quiet leadership are undeniable to his teammates and coaching staff.
Miguel was tireless in his effort to do everything for the team and that same
attitude and desire carried him to MIT where he will continue to out compete
against everyone he plays.”

But there is more to Wagner-Bagues than a dominant
athlete.  He is also a 4.7 GPA student,
won a PSAT national Hispanic recognition nod, and is on his third calculus
class at Loyola Marymount, currently taking multi-variable calculus. He also
finds time to be president of the Math Tutoring club and Eagles Fight
Hunger.

All of these academic accolades will bode well next year for
Wagner-Bagues at MIT, where he will study Aerospace engineering. On that note, I want
to say congratulations to El Segundo Eagle Miguel Wagner-Bagues, we look
forward to watching you soar!

—Cece Jane