The following letter was distributed to all Wake Forest fans this afternoon:
As a loyal supporter of our football program, you deserve to know the
reasons for the decisions that have been made over the last couple of
weeks about some players on our team. The off-the-field incidents have
been embarrassing to all of us and it is important that you understand
our approach to matters like this. We want you to know that we do not
minimize the seriousness of these matters.
Parents understand that children do make mistakes and sometimes do
things that are seemingly self-centered or amazingly thoughtless. We
can assure you that we never take a young man into our program without
recommendations from coaches, teachers, counselors, and school
administrators. Recruiting is certainly not an exact science and we
diligently try to bring student-athletes to Wake Forest who will try
their best to do what is right both on and off the field.
Coaches are teachers. Everyone in our program takes that role very
seriously. A primary goal is to develop our players for life after
school and football. The hardest decisions a coach has to make are
those that may sacrifice winning a game in order to teach a player
that making good decisions and caring for others are more important.
Parents are most heartbroken when their children make foolish
decisions but coaches run a close second. We are disappointed in the
behavior of a few of our players but feel that our team will grow from
the experience. Lost in the distractions of a few are the overwhelming
number of players who are working hard to be the best each and every
day.
We want to assure you that every decision we make in our football
program and throughout our Athletic Department is with the future and
well-being of Wake Forest and our student-athletes at heart. Winning
is VERY important but it will not be pursued at the expense of our
integrity. Our players need a reminder sometimes that their commitment
to football extends beyond the practice field. We want our players to
look back years from now and know that they were more important to us
than winning a football game.
Thank you for all your support and loyalty to our program! We look
forward to sharing many wonderful moments with you in the future.
Go Deacs!
Jim Grobe Ron Wellman
