Leadership, Relationship Building at Top of Wendell Dunn’s Priority List
4/28/2021 8:00:00 AM | Football, General
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Wendell Dunn, a former captain and defensive lineman for the program, was recently named Director of Player Development for the Wake Forest football program.
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. -- Outside of head coach Dave Clawson's office at McCreary Football Field House, a mural lies along the wall in the hallway, featuring four Wake Forest players from Clawson's tenure with the Deacs. The players featured are all former captains. Some more recent, like quarterback John Wolford and tight end Cam Serigne. Others are from his first few teams on Reynolda Campus, like defensive back Ryan Janvion.
And there, in between Serigne and Janvion, is the newest member of the Demon Deacon football program, and former defensive lineman, Wendell Dunn.
"That's an intentional wall," Barry Faircloth, senior associate athletic director for development & sales, said. "It's not easy to get on that wall."
Dunn was a great player for the Deacs, no doubt, tallying 156 tackles across four seasons on the defensive line.
But great play alone doesn't earn you a spot on the wall outside your head coach's office, or an invitation back to the program when a job devoted entirely on student athletes' off-the-field well being comes open for the first time ever at your alma mater.
"Wendell Dunn is a person of high character that has been in the position of all our current players," Clawson said. "With two degrees from Wake Forest, Wendell is someone who has always understood the importance of development on and off the field during his time at Wake Forest."
Dunn perhaps didn't expect to be back so soon at Wake Forest, having just graduated with his master's degree in education studies in 2019. After all, there are still players on the team that were teammates of Wendell's late in his career. Defensive lineman Suliman Kamara, defensive back Traveon Redd and quarterback Sam Hartman, to name a few, all crossed paths with Dunn as teammates.
Weird at first, Dunn readily admits. But not so much once he got settled into his new role.
"I was their captain at the time, so they had a certain level of respect for me," Dunn said. "Now coming back in, and those guys seem to be excited, it almost seems like they're happy their captain is back."
That character made a captain also made Dunn the perfect choice to rejoin the Demon Deacon football program this month as Director of Player Development, a brand new position made possible through a generous gift by Billy Prim to create the Football Player Career Development fund. A grant to help football student-athletes transition into college as undergraduates, and into the industry of their choice upon graduation.
Prim's connection to Wake Forest started young, growing up on a tobacco farm in nearby Yadkinville, he always rooted for the local team in athletics. Facing struggles early in life, he was forced to drop out of college and take care of the family farm after the passing of his father and grandfather. After some time running the farm, however, his natural sense of entrepreneurship earned him the opportunity to become a part of the Wake Forest community when he was accepted into the Executive MBA Program without an undergraduate degree.
"Really, that's what taught me a lot of the basic business skills that I used to build my businesses.," Prim said. "I learned how to read a balance sheet there. I learned a lot of things that prepared me for business in life."
A serial entrepreneur, Prim took his lessons from the Wake Forest School of Business to go on and found Blue Rhino, Corp., the nation's leading provider of branded propane cylinder exchange. When he sold Blue Rhino to Ferrellgas, Prim went on to found Primo Water, a leading provider of purified water to consumers through a dispenser and refill service that operates in over 20 countries.
Prim wanted to make sure his gift to the athletic department would have a measurable impact, the potential to change one's life like Wake Forest did for him. The question was how to go about it. But after Prim sat down with Faircloth and director of athletes John Currie, the beginnings of the Football Player Development Program began to form.
It started with an idea from Clawson, who wanted a staff member in the football program that players could talk to about off the field issues, without the stress of talking to a position coach. Someone who could build relationships with players and give them another person to talk things out with, while also helping the coaching staff understand stressors they might not otherwise be aware of.
"This position enables our student-athletes the outlet to communicate and share information about their off the field experiences with someone who cares about them and has been in their shoes," Clawson said. "This position is something that is extremely important in the growth of our student-athletes and will help them long after their competitive careers."
From there, the idea to expand and synthesize existing player development initiatives into this role formed out of a desire to make sure that the Wake Forest football program, with its brand new facilities and the benefit of a top notch academic environment on campus, was also properly preparing student-athletes for job opportunities outside of college.
"That really resonated with me as something we could do to help people live a better life, not just be a better football player," Prim said. "And that's what I like about Coach Clawson, that's what I like about our university."
Thus, the Director of Player Development position was born, a staff member players can talk to about career interests, resume advice, or anything else that's on their mind.
"These guys are pressured, and they're doing a lot football-wise, and sometimes they can forget about making sure they're getting set for internships and building their resumes," Dunn said. "And now they have someone who's going to occasionally be like 'hey, let's work on this, let's work on that. What are you into? How are things going off the field?'"
Dunn, with his background as a former captain, master's degree recipient from the Wake Forest School of Education and Youth Support Coordinator for the non-profit Thompson Child and Family Focus, quickly became the favorite for this new role. His own story is not unlike Prim's, dealing with adversity at a young age before thriving once getting on Wake Forest's campus. And just three weeks into his new role, Dunn has already hit the ground running.
"I've already had really really deep conversations with a lot of our players, some starters," Dunn said. "I've learned really cool things about them. And most importantly, we talked about this position as completing the whole student-athlete."
As those relationships build between Dunn and the football team, the next phase of the player development program promises to be exceptional. The goal, once Dunn learns players' interests, is to set up workshops and networking events with "career connectors" from across the Wake Forest community, with Dunn working together with Director of Alumni Relations for football, Kevin Smith, to set up chances for players to learn about opportunities in the various industries that might interest them.
For the career connectors, they have the chance to meet some of the exceptional people that just happen to be football student-athletes for Wake Forest, and see if they could potentially help out their business, either as an intern while an undergrad, or after graduation. Click this link to get involved and become a career connector.
"I hope we can get a lot of people involved," Prim said. "I certainly will, but I also want to challenge others to get involved in these intern programs to help these young men experience some careers that they may want to try after they graduate from college.
"I would hope that other business leaders would come to Wendell, to Barry, to me, to John Currie, and say 'you know, my business could use some of these guys, so maybe we could help.'"
That sort of networking takes time to build up, as Barry Faircloth notes. So, the Athletic Department understands that developing this program to its full potential will take a little time. But there have been ambitious goals set for readiness through the Office of Career and Professional Development's Ready 7 program, specific job based internship placement and creating meaningful mentorship opportunities with career connectors by the fourth year of the program.
The fund's capital has many different ways to support these goals. Perhaps most notably, NCAA regulations allow for programs to help supplement costs during internships in the summer, particularly those that are volunteer.
"If a student-athlete wanted to do an internship that was volunteer, we could, within this fund, actually pay the living expenses of a player to get an internship," Faircloth said. "As opposed to them saying 'I need to make some money to be able to pay my rent,' we're saying we can supplement that to help them get more career-minded internships."
The program is grant-funded for three years, meaning additional funds will be necessary to maintain the program going beyond that time frame. But as career connectors meet players, and meet Dunn, there's confidence that this Player Career Development Program will be built to last. And help create an even more world class student-athlete experience for future football student athletes on campus.
"We are in the position at Wake Forest to provide a one-of-a-kind experience that allows student-athletes to compete at the highest level on the field and earn a top-tier education in the classroom," Clawson said. "Wendell Dunn and this gift will allow our program to take the next step in helping our players achieve their competitive and personal goals each day."
For Prim, his main hope is that others will join in to make this program the best it possibly can be for those that strap on the shoulder pads for the university on Saturdays at Truist Field.
"That's the whole idea here, is let's pass it on," Prim said. "Hopefully, we can pass on some knowledge and experiences to these young men who will develop their own careers and pass it on down the line."
Dunn, for his part, can see the impact of the program already working, and knows that Prim's gift, and the work of the career connectors, has the potential to change the football program, and change lives.
"(Prim) is all about making a difference," Dunn said. "He's said 'I want to do something that's going to change the program.' And that's what we're doing. And working with John (Currie) and Barry (Faircloth), things are definitely going to go up from here."
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