For five weeks from mid-March to mid-April, Wake Forest football student-athletes have been honing their skills on the field culminating with this Saturday’s annual Spring Game at Truist Field.
However, starting a month earlier back in February, ‘Top Hat Wednesdays’ became a weekly event for the Deacs led by Wake Forest director of player development Wendell Dunn. Discussions between Dunn, head coach Dave Clawson and football chief of staff Jordan Jarry sparked the creative fire that led to this educational initiative for their student-athletes.
The innovation that led to this type of World Class program for Wake Forest student-athletes is made possible because of a generous gift made by Billy Prim to create Dunn’s role. The donation created the Football Player Career Development fund. This grant helps football student-athletes transition into college as undergraduates, and into the industry of their choice upon graduation.
‘Top Hat Wednesdays’ is proof of this mission being fulfilled.
“It’s a program I have started with the football team,” Dunn said. “Both Coach Clawson and Jordan (Jarry) have wanted an ongoing, intentional program where we can teach our guys life skills that will help them become better men, better fathers and better leaders in the community after football. We’re teaching our guys life skills to become better men.”
This initiative is an eight-week program that takes place every Wednesday between 5:30-6:30 p.m., and has included topics so far like taxes and investing, N.I.L., leadership, and mental health awareness.
“We’re hitting a bunch of different topics,” Dunn said. “We have branched out to our Wake Forest community and brought in experts on entrepreneurship, to talk to them about starting their own business.
“We try to do an engaging activity. It’s always outside resources. It’s not anybody from our offices or from the football program. Top Hat Wednesdays are about providing our guys different resources — folks they can reach back out to in order to prolong that conversation. This is an ongoing initiative beyond just the hour together on a Wednesday afternoon.”
Participation has been close to 100 percent, according to Dunn.
“It’s not mandatory, but strongly encouraged,” he said. “Coach Clawson has been to every single one and greeted every guest. He sees value in what we’re…
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