Bordow: Desert Edge's Wellbrock 'in-vested' in team
I wore a sweater vest Tuesday to the state championship media day.
“It’s quality,” Goodyear Desert Edge Rich Wellbrock said.. “I like it.”
A higher compliment, no man has ever received.
If there is a savant of the sweater vest, it’s Wellbrock, who has led Desert Edge to the Division III state championship game Saturday against Paradise Valley. Come rain, come shine, come 105 degrees or 65 degrees, he’s adorned in a white sweater vest on the sidelines.
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“It’s just a part of us now,” Wellbrock said. “When we go on the road, I’ll have my bag with me, I’ll walk out with a sweater vest on a hanger and away we go.”
So, why is an Arizona high school football coach going all Jim Tressel every Friday night? Well, Wellbrock lost a bet.
In the spring of 2012, Wellbrock asked then-Desert Edge athletic director Ryan Ridenour for more money in the athletic budget so he could upgrade the team’s uniforms. OK, Ridenour said, but if I hold up my end of the bargain, you need to wear a sweater vest on the sideline.
“It was a joke,” Wellbrock recalled.
Except Ridenour did get the money for the uniforms and during the pep rally before Desert Edge’s first game that fall, he pulled out a white sweater vest. Wellbrock figured he would wear it one game to satisfy the bet and then stick it somewhere in the back of his closet.
But Desert Edge won that game, beating Phoenix Thunderbird, 45-16, and, well, Wellbrock wasn’t going to tempt the football gods by going without the vest.
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“It felt a little weird, but like a lot of coaches, I’m superstitious,” Wellbrock said. “We went on a little bit of a streak there (Desert Edge didn’t lose until the Division III state championship game against Queen Creek), and it just became a superstition.”
Wellbrock has worn one of the two white vests he owns every game since then. He only needs two because they’re limited to the three hours he’s on the field every Friday. He doesn’t wear them in practice, he doesn’t wear them during the week and he doesn’t even wear them when he’s giving his pregame speech.
He puts the sweater vest on only when he’s about to walk onto the field. For Desert Edge’s players, it’s like seeing Clark Kent turn into Superman.
“We love that sweater vest,” senior running back/linebacker Alex Aguirre said. “When the sweater vest is on, it’s go time.”
The vest completes Wellbrock’s transformation. For six days a week, he’s a mild-mannered, soft-spoken teacher and coach. He’ll raise his voice occasionally during practice but the moment the game begins, well, imagine the Incredible Hulk in a white sweater vest. Wellbrock stalks the sideline as if he’s channeling former Mesa Mountain View coach Jesse Parker and his voice is never silent nor soft. Basically, he’s in a full-throated roar for those three hours.
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“We know he’s going to rip every single one of us at some point in the game,” Aguirre said. “No one wants to be near him. The coaches, the refs, everybody tries to stay away.”
That kind of white-hot intensity could backfire on Wellbrock; kids could get so used to his yelling – or so tired of it – that they tune him out. Instead, the opposite has occurred. Desert Edge feeds off Wellbrock’s emotions.
“I want the kids to play with intensity and emotion, and I want to make sure they know I’m emotionally invested,” Wellbrock said. “I tell the kids and I tell my staff I get to be who I want to be for three hours a week. Head coaches have to wear so many hats during the week. It’s fun to get out there and be emotionally invested.
“And, it’s legal.”
Wellbrock thought about retiring the sweater vests this season. His assistants wouldn’t hear of it.
“My staff said, ‘No way. When you have it on, we know where you’re at on the sideline and we can get away from you,’ ” Wellbrock said.
So, on Saturday, he’ll grab one of his two vests, carefully drape it over a hanger and then slide it over his shirt just before he walks out of the locker room at Arizona Stadium.
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He’ll be easy to spot. And if he disappears from view, just wait a moment.
You’ll hear him.
Reach Bordow at scott.bordow@arizonarepublic.com or 602-448-8716. Follow him at Twitter.com/sBordow.
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