Survivor's Coach Sits Out Finale, Says "Villain Edit" Made Last 3 Months Hard

He claims he set the record for the longest solo kayak expedition on the ocean, some 6,132 miles. He also says he's been attacked by a tiger shark, stalked by a jaguar in the Amazon, and bitten by a piranha on his right hand. But is Ben Wade, the man known as "Coach" on "Survivor," for real? "The stories and what I've been through really made me who I am today," says Coach.

One thing is for sure, Wade really is, or was, a coach. He worked as head women's soccer coach at Southwest Baptist University in Missouri before heading off for "Survivor." The school let him go after a misunderstanding about whether he received clearance to leave work to appear on the show.

The loss of work and the "villain edit" he says he received on "Survivor" has made the last 3 months hard. "You take away the job, the career, the finances, the reputation, and what do you have left? You have two things. My foundation which is the rock of Jesus Christ that I formulate who I am, and then you've got that character of who I am on the inside and those two things won't be broken, won't be shaken."

Because Coach became one of the most interesting castaways ever to appear on "Survivor," he's also been scrutinized. "I was told early on, I was going to be a polarizing figure and I think I'm kind of a polarizing person in life. You love me, you hate me, you hate to love me, love to hate me, whatever it is. I'm definitely in your face and I'm a different kind of person."

But Coach says there's more to him than the "two dimensional character" portrayed on "Survivor." "You don't get to see the encouragement, the noble part, the sacrificing part of me giving food away to everybody and dropping a ton of weight, more than anybody else did."

He admits he helped embellish the "character" viewers saw, after the blindsiding ouster of Brenden. He dubbed Brenden the dragon, and says after Brenden left, crew members started referring to him as the dragon slayer. "The warrior, the wizard, tribal, it was just a lot of fun, so yeah, that part of it was something that kind of escalated from me trying to be larger than life."

Now back home, Coach wonders what his next play will be. He's in a state of limbo, but o.k. with. "I have a couple of college coaching opportunities that are on the table that I'm looking at. I know probably since I was such a character on the show that there will be opportunities in Hollywood."

He's not holding a grudge. In fact, Coach believes "Survivor" left him invincible. The experience and backlash of being a memorable reality tv persona made him more humble. "If you know who you are on the inside, then nobody can take that away from you. The only person that can take that away from you is yourself."