It’s been more than two decades since their conversation, but Rodney Wellmann can vividly remember getting the call from then-A&M Consolidated football coach and athletics director Ross Rogers, who had an enticing job offer for the young coach.
The opportunity to lead the Lady Tigers’ track and cross country teams and return to his alma mater made it easy for Wellmann to accept the offer, and getting to work alongside his former coach James Giese was a childhood dream come true.
“I said, ‘I’d love to,’ and so I came over,” said Wellmann, who was teaching at Bryan at the time. “Also the cool thing was I got to share an office with Giese. ... We shared an office for about six or seven years, and that was really cool, because he was my high school coach and the guy that got me really interested in running.”
Wellmann stayed at Consol for 14 years before moving to College Station where he’s coached the boys cross country and track teams since the school opened in 2012. Wellmann will retire after 30 years of coaching and teaching following this school year.
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“As I’ve gotten closer to this last few weeks of school, I’m realizing that it’s time,” he said. “Thirty years in one business or one job, that’s, in my opinion, a pretty long haul.”
Wellmann’s running and coaching career can be traced back to Giese, who was the Consol boys track coach for 30 years before retiring in 2002. Their relationship first started when Wellmann was just 7 and his physical education teacher Fred Warhol gave him a letter from Giese. In the letter, Giese said he heard Wellmann was a good runner and invited him to run summer track for him. After getting the approval of his parents, Wellmann eagerly joined the team and never looked back.
“I’ve played baseball, golf, basketball. I ran track, cross country, but all the time it was really running that I was pretty good at,” Wellmann said. “It’s what I love to do, but I got started with that letter from Giese inviting me to run summer track. From there, my parents, they always supported anything, everything I wanted to do.”
Wellmann graduated from TCU, where he ran for the Horned Frogs, and started on his masters in kinesiology at Sam Houston State while substitute teaching at Consol.
Wellmann said he’s always been grateful that running is a lifetime sport. As a runner himself, Wellmann would often ran alongside his teams during early-morning practices, which helped motivate and create a bond with his runners.
“A lot of kids I have been fortunate to coach in the past, they still run,” Wellmann said, “and that probably for me is as great a satisfaction as the different state medals, just knowing that there’s people in their 40s still running and staying healthy, because of what we started back in high school.”
While at Consol, Wellmann coached the girls teams to eight appearances at state. The Lady Tigers’ cross country team finished second in 2001, and Karis Jochen won the individual title in cross country in 2011 under Wellmann. His track teams from 2005-07 were ranked No. 1 in the nation by Nike.com. The 2007 squad also placed third at state.
“That was pretty cool,” Wellmann said of the national rankings. “That was a day when we as a school were finishing in the top 10 in the Texas Cup year after year. Coach [Jim Slaughter] had hired a great staff. We were a close-knit coaching staff at Consol having a lot of success.”
Wellmann has had similar success at College Station, sending his teams to state eight of his 10 years at the helm. His cross country team finished second at state in 2014. Two of his runners, John Bishop and Zephyr Seagraves, also went on to run for the Aggies.
“The John Bishop and Zephyr Seagraves days when we were second at state and then we came back the next year and got third, that little [period] of coaching those kids that went on to be All-Americans and All-SEC at A&M was also a pretty special time period for me,” Wellmann said.
Through it all, Wellmann said he is grateful to have learned and worked with great leaders in College Station ISD from Rogers to Slaughter to Steve Huff, Stoney Pryor and Lee Fedora. However, the best mentor of all was Giese, whom Wellmann admits to badgering for advice during his first few years of coaching.
“There’s a lot of times where I had an uphill battle, but I did the best I could,” Wellmann said. “Maybe it didn’t work out, but I felt good that I did my best, so that’s something I definitely learned from him. Always give it your best shot, and you’ll feel a lot better about [it]. When you win, everybody’s happy, but if it doesn’t work out, then you still feel content that you did your best.”
In what Wellmann said is a full-circle moment for him, the longtime coach’s final duties for the Cougars will be running the summer track program, which runs through the middle of June.
“It’s weird how that piqued my interest as far as getting an education,” Wellmann said. “I think when I was a youngster, I knew I wanted to run and I wanted to coach. Here I am now in my last call of duty is summer track, so that’s pretty cool.”
As for what Wellmann will do in retirement, he’s still unsure but jokes that he’ll “find plenty to get in trouble with.” Wellmann said he plans on working out and playing golf when he can. He also owns a landscaping company with his father that he will continue once he retires from coaching and teaching.
“I’ll definitely play some golf and figure out what’s going to occupy my time,” he said. “But I’m not too worried about finding something. I’m not scared of retirement. I know I’m going to find something that will be fun.”