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Gaudio likes 'evolution' of Deacs' coaching staff
Since last season, Wake Forest has lost Kelsey but added LaRue and Wojcik
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Published: May 28, 2009
When assistant Pat Kelsey left the Wake Forest men's basketball staff late last month, Coach Dino Gaudio thought he would be in the market for one assistant coach.
His boss, Athletics Director Ron Wellman, was thinking of another possibility.
"Ron said, ‘Let's do what we have to to hire the best staff we can get,'" Gaudio said. "And he opened my eyes up to some different options that we might have.
"I thought we were limited to where we lost one coach, and we could only bring one coach in. He goes, ‘Let's not limit ourselves there, if you don't want to.'
"I was like, ‘OK, that sounds good to me.'"
And that's how the Deacons ended up with the greatest amount of coaching turnover they have had since Skip Prosser was named the head coach before the 2001-02 season.
Rusty LaRue, a former multi-sport star who is in the Wake Forest Hall of Fame, was hired soon after Kelsey left for his alma mater of Xavier. And this week, Dave Wojcik was lured off his brother Doug's staff at Tulsa to join Gaudio, LaRue and Jeff Battle.
"I think you've got to constantly be evolving and constantly be trying to grow and get better," Gaudio said.
The NCAA allows a Division I basketball program three assistant coaches. Mike Muse, an assistant the past two seasons, was reassigned to director of basketball operations, the position he held for the 2006-07 season.
Walt Corbean, the director of basketball operations the past two seasons, will remain.
"Now we have two directors-of-basketball-operations positions, he and Walt," Gaudio said of Muse. "We're coining him ‘player development,' dealing with all the academics and dealing with all the life skills, in conjunction with (academic adviser) Jane Caldwell.
"That's sort of his new position."
Muse, a native of Winston-Salem, spent 17 years at North Forsyth, where he coached boys basketball, girls basketball and softball.
"I just want what's best for Wake Forest basketball, to give us a chance to win the national championship," Muse said.
Gaudio said he jumped at the opportunity to hire Wojcik, 39. Gaudio coached him at Wheeling (W.Va.) Central Catholic High School in 1985-86 and 1986-87. The two have remained close, and their career paths were heavily influenced by Prosser, who died in July 2007.
Wojcik's first college-coaching job was on Prosser's staff at Loyola, where Wojcik went to school and played basketball. Wojcik followed when Prosser became the head coach at Xavier before the 1993-94 season, and he remained on the Musketeers' staff through the 1996-97 season.
He has also been the head coach at Wheeling Central Catholic, a position Prosser and Gaudio also held. For the past four seasons Wojcik has been an assistant and associate head coach at Tulsa, helping his brother, Doug, turn what had been a downtrodden program into one good enough to win 25 games each of the past two seasons.
"He's just a tremendous recruiter," Gaudio said. "I really think he's like a rising star in this business. I really believe that.
"I think it's because he has great passion. I think he's a terrific on-the-floor coach. And he's done a great job of recruiting a lot of guys that Tulsa now has. When you look at Tulsa from the Bill Self years and Buzz Peterson years, before Doug came in there was a big fall-off.
"And Dave deserves a lot of credit for the guys they recruited there and brought in."
Gaudio said he doesn't believe in staff hierarchy, or defining the roles to the point that it limits his assistants' contributions.
"I think we're all equal," Gaudio said. "We've all got different things that we can bring to the table. When we have our first practice, and we get our first practice plan, those guys, their personality will just emerge."
That said, Kelsey was known as a tireless recruiter who had a big hand in Wake Forest's landing a succession of highly regarded classes. He was also a dynamo on the practice floor with his relentless energy.
"It'll be interesting to see some of the dynamics because I know Dave is really aggressive," Gaudio said. "Ron goes, ‘Is Dave like Pat?' I go, ‘No, no, Pat's like Dave.'
"See Dave coached Pat at Xavier. Pat is who he is, but I think Pat picked up a lot of what Dave was."
LaRue, 35, has no experience coaching major-college basketball but was the head coach at Division III Greensboro for one season. He has spent the past four seasons as the head coach and athletics director at Forsyth Country Day School and also has run the Rusty LaRue Summer League, which several Wake Forest players have played in.
Gaudio said he's convinced that LaRue can be an effective recruiter.
LaRue and his wife, Tammy, have three sons and a daughter. Gaudio, who has two daughters, Kaylan and Alyssa, said that the subjects of work load and family responsibilities were integral to the interview.
"Before I hired Rusty, I let Rusty know the job, because he's got some young children,' Gaudio said. "I said, ‘Rusty, as an example, Alyssa played 25 basketball games this year. I saw five of them. Alyssa played in the state-championship game this year, and I wasn't at the game. That's the way it is. That's the business.'
"I grilled Rusty pretty hard on his wife being supportive of this. I feel very comfortable that Rusty understands this. I think it's been his dream."
Although LaRue played for Dave Odom, who preceded Prosser, Gaudio said he has built a strong relationship with LaRue in his time at Wake Forest. He said he has had LaRue address the basketball team several times.
"I just think he's going to be a great asset to our coaching staff for a lot of reasons," Gaudio said. "One big reason is he's going to be a great role model not just for the basketball athletes, but all the athletes at this school.
"I really believe that."
■ Dan Collins can be reached at 727-7323 or at dcollins@wsjournal.com.
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