Wellman has Wake Forest on track

Wake Forest AD's plan leads to success

WINSTON-SALEM -- Last week, long strands of toilet paper still hung in the otherwise bare oak trees outside the office window of Wake Forest athletic director Ron Wellman, reminders of the latest chapter in the Demon Deacons' athletic success story.

The Wake Forest men's soccer team won the NCAA championship and, upon returning to campus on a Sunday evening, the Deacons and Wellman discovered the campus had been rolled in toilet paper -- a longtime tradition -- despite the fact the student body had been dismissed for the holiday break.

It was the Deacons' fourth national championship in Wellman's 15 years as athletic director -- Wake Forest won three straight field hockey titles beginning in 2002 -- and the latest evidence of the depth of quality that runs through the Deacons' athletic department.

Wellman, 60, is the architect of the program. He is the dean of ACC athletic directors and, in some eyes, a candidate to replace John Swofford should the ACC commissioner decide to retire in the next few years.

It was Wellman who found Jim Grobe and convinced him to coach the Wake Forest football team seven years ago and it's Wellman who has convinced Grobe to stay in Winston-Salem when other schools have tried to hire him.

It was Wellman who brought Skip Prosser to Wake Forest and it was Wellman, a former baseball coach at Northwestern, who helped build the Deacons into an ACC power despite the fact that they played in an outdated stadium near campus.

And it's Wellman who still talks on the phone with his former catcher, Joe Girardi, the new manager of the New York Yankees and one of his closest friends.

"The best thing about Ron is he can make all the hard decisions but he stays in the background," Grobe said. "He'd like all our teams to win without anyone knowing he's the athletic director.

"It's unusual to have a boss who you know every night when you go to bed, he has your best interest at heart."

In the case of Wake Forest football, Wellman and Grobe have demonstrated that a small private school can succeed on a national level. The Deacons' 2006 ACC championship remains one of the most compelling accomplishments in the league's long history.

Wellman is the point man at Wake Forest for a major stadium expansion at BB&T Field, convinced that the future of Deacons football is even bigger. The project, which began with the installation of FieldTurf and includes new luxury boxes, is at $47 million so far and Wellman isn't certain where it will top out. It is three stages into what is expected to be a six-stage process.

"You can't ever go static," said Wellman, who keeps a jar of bite-size Hershey bars in his office as a lure for people to come and in and talk with him.

Wellman prefers to work quietly and, if possible, behind the scenes. When he's had to hire coaches, he becomes a one-man committee, finally emerging with the announcement.

He was, however, more out front during the ACC's most recent expansion, pushing the issue of adding Miami, Virginia Tech and Boston College. It seemed an unlikely position for Wake Forest, given its size and historical challenges in football.

But Wellman saw it as an opportunity not just for the ACC to improve but for Wake Forest to strengthen its place, as well.

"If you want to be considered championship-caliber, you need to be in the best conference," Wellman said. "As we tried to project the future, we felt five or 10 years down the road the ACC wouldn't be the best conference if it stayed at nine teams. But with 12, we could maintain our place as the best conference."

Wellman's attention to detail and vision impressed league officials.

"He has what I call equilibrium," Swofford said. "He's very balanced and he knows the industry.

"He's one of the best out there from a national perspective. He has high standards in everything and he expects that from people around him. That is often a self-fulfilling prophecy."

Wellman, league officials say, is an excellent listener in meetings who has a way of peeling away layers to get to the heart of matters.

"He grows in stature and respect as much for what he doesn't say as for what he does say," said Ken Haines, president and CEO of Raycom Sports, which works directly with the league on its television package.

"There's a heckuva lot of wisdom in Ron Wellman."

Earlier this month, Arkansas approached Grobe about becoming its new football coach. It wasn't the first time other jobs had been dangled in front of Grobe and reports broke suggesting the deal was done.

But Grobe and Wellman spent much of one evening talking about the Arkansas offer and the future at Wake Forest. Wellman agreed to restructure Grobe's contract, though he didn't give his coach a raise. He did, however, agree to give Grobe's assistants more money.

"This is not a boss-coach relationship," Grobe said. "We just talked like friends would. He's a good listener. He wasn't telling me what I should do. We talk.

"Everything you talk about at Wake Forest revolves around people and that's because of Ron Wellman."