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Wellman's leadership invaluable for Deacons
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Published: June 21, 2008
Ron Wellman has been on the go so much recently that when the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics selected him as the Southeast region's AD of the year earlier this month, he wasn't able to go to Dallas to receive the honor.
He was in Venice, Italy, on a trip with Wake Forest trustees and other university officials, solidifying the relationship between the athletics department and those with the bigger-picture visions for the school.
Maybe that's one of the reasons the honors keep rolling in.
Wellman also was honored recently as the Street & Smith's Sports Business Journal national AD of the year.
He spreads the credit around to his coaches, staff and beyond -- to every faction within the university that has supported the athletics department and given him the ability to run it as he has seen fit.
"I can tell you that we are very fortunate to have a department that is appreciated by the university," Wellman said. "For us to succeed and excel, we've got to have everyone at the university in lock step, from the trustees to the university administration to the faculty. And we have received tremendous support from all those constituencies. I'm just very fortunate to be in an environment like this."
Two years ago, Jim Grobe went from being one of the best-kept secrets in coaching to being the Bobby Dodd national coach of the year when the Deacons won the ACC football title and went to the Orange Bowl. This year, Wellman, in his 15th year, is receiving the acclaim from his peers.
"It's an honor, obviously, but something like this doesn't happen unless everyone in the department is doing a fantastic job," Wellman said. "We are just blessed with great coaches and administrators. Because they do such a great job, I get to receive awards like that. So that's it. We've just got a good situation right now with the people we have in our department, and I'm just very fortunate."
Creating his world
That might be true, but this seems to be a case of making one's own good fortune. Wellman has created the environment he operates in these days by making the right coaching hires, by getting the various factions working together, by continuing to be progressive as the challenges -- particularly the fiscal challenges -- of running an athletics department with a relatively small budget grow.
And when you think of all that has occurred at Wake Forest in the past year and how Wellman and others have navigated through tragedy and triumph, these awards are even more timely.
Skip Prosser was Wellman's basketball coach at this time last year, but Prosser died of a heart attack in late July. It was one of the darkest, most painful times that any athletics department, any basketball program, could experience.
"You have to do your best to handle those situations by preliminary planning and crisis management and that type of thing," Wellman said. "We had just done an exercise to prepare for those types of situations within our department with a crisis-management plan, and we were able to implement that plan last July when Skip passed away. And because of that preparedness and the great job many people did within the department in preparing that plan, we were able to get that situation probably as smoothly as possible, even though it was gut-wrenching and terrible for everyone."
Wellman's most visible and necessary move at the time was to hire assistant Dino Gaudio as head coach. It kept continuity in the program, putting it in the hands of a dedicated coach on a mission to continue what Prosser had started. The Deacons faltered down the stretch and finished 17-13, after playing their way into the mix for a possible NCAA Tournament bid, but they still were one of the best success stories in college basketball last season.
"I told our ACC basketball coaches in our spring meeting that I thought Dino had the most difficult job in America this year, and he did it as well as I ever dreamed he would," Wellman said. "The combination of honoring his best friend and mentor along with making the team his team, it was a difficult situation and a balance that was very, very difficult to achieve. But he did it superbly. He honored Skip throughout the year. That was the No. 1 story whenever we went on the road, Skip's death. And they all dealt with that exceptionally well."
Multiple successes
It was a year for successes on other fronts, one being the school's first national championship in men's soccer.
Another phase of the Wake Forest Football Project was undertaken, with the construction of Deacon Tower set for completion later this summer. Previous stadium renovations included installation of Field Turf, and other renovations will continue after the new pressbox and tower open.
Along the way came a surprise, and a controversial one at that. Wellman made the decision to sell naming rights to what had previously been known as Groves Stadium. Now, it's BB&T Field. Selling the rights drew some criticism, but Wellman's success and clout allowed him to proceed.
"We have to look for ways to support the program that will maintain our championship status not only in football but throughout the program, and revenue generation is a key component in that equation," Wellman said. "And so we may have to do things a little bit differently than others do, mainly because our revenue streams are not the same as others. We don't have an 80,000-seat stadium. We have a 35,000-seat stadium. So we're not going to generate the ticket revenue that a lot of other universities have the opportunity to generate.
"So we have to look at alternative methods for revenue generation, and we felt that BB&T aligned exceptionally well with Wake Forest, and the values and ideals we have are the values and ideals that BB&T has demonstrated for many many years in our community. It's a major player in our community. We knew that we were not going to name the field after just anything. We were going to align ourselves with a corporation that we really respected and felt would be a good partner for us. And quite frankly, BB&T was the only one we pursued for naming rights, and fortunately they were interested."
Deacon Tower will be complete July 1. The football home opener is set for Sept. 6, against Ole Miss, after the season opener at Baylor on Aug. 28.
"We've got a lot of work to do in preparation for the Sept. 6 ballgame, but that is going to change the aura, if you will, of our football games," Wellman said. "It's going to add an awful lot. And when we're done with the renovation of the football stadium, we feel it's going to be, as we've said many times, the Wrigley Field of college football. It's going to be a showcase, and people are going to want to come to BB&T Field not just because they want to see a good football game, but because of the overall environment and the amenities."
■ John Delong can be reached at jdelong@wsjournal.com.
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