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Photo by Jim Craven High school football coaches Randy Heath (Crater, left), Jim Nagel (Ashland) and Joe Hagler (Phoenix) camped out Friday and Saturday nights on the roof of the Talent Wal-Mart. Their cold camp-out was a fund-raiser for Special Olympics. Nagel's on top -- but out in the cold By Mark Freeman TALENT -- With an undefeated season and a state championship, Ashland High School football coach Jim Nagel's sense of timing has been on-target this year. Which makes it ironic that he found himself huddling on a Wal-Mart roof during the coldest weekend in eight years. "I don't know if anybody ever said football coaches were real bright," Nagel said. "This probably confirms it." Nagel went from the top of Oregon's high-school football world to the top of the Wal-Mart store in Talent in an attempt to confirm his support for a special group of athletes not in the limelight. Nagel and five of his coaching adversaries have spent the past two nights camping on Wal-Mart roofs to raise $50,000 for the Special Olympics. In what is called the "Rooftop Bowl," the coaches are camped atop the Wal-Mart stores in Talent and Medford cajoling store visitors to contribute to Special Olympics. Nagel joined Crater High coach Randy Heath and Phoenix High coach Joe Hagler in Talent; Bill Singler of South Medford, Brett Wolfe of North Medford and Mike Johnston of Eagle Point camped at the Medford store. The men slept in a large tent as snow fell both nights. They watched football on television Saturday while soaking up the sun. But temperatures were expected to teeter near single digits early this morning, the coldest seen on the Rogue Valley floor since 1990. That made the weekend camp-out -- which the coaches agreed to in September -- a chilling prospect. "It was OK when it was just the coldest night this year," Heath said. "But the coldest night in eight years?" Fans and supporters dropped bills into slots near the pictures of the individual coaches, then took turns throwing a football onto the roof to win prizes. The coaches vowed to remain on the roofs until 5 p.m. tonight -- unless they reached their $50,000 goal earlier. By 10 p.m. Saturday, the coaches together had raised about $6,000 -- and were bedding down for another cold, snowy night. The men ate donated food, slept on cots and visited a portable toilet set up in a pup tent out of sight. They tossed snowballs during Saturday night's snowstorm. Despite the weather, the coaches all said their ordeal is well worth it to help fund Special Olympics programs that provide training and competition for mentally challenged youths and adults. "We ask a lot from a lot of people and, because of our positions in the community, it's our duty to give some things back," Heath said. "A couple days of discomfort is not that big a deal." Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1998, Medford, Oregon USA