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TAYLORSVILLE — With a drill sergeant style of coaching football and a gentle approach to teaching his students, Taylorsville High School football coach Rod Wells takes his students and athletes and challenges them to raise the bar.
He may push his athletes to the breaking point and assist his students with their work, but there is a past to Wells that does not seem to fit the profile of what people see today. They see a short bald man with a prominent sunglass tan line, but there is a past to Wells that would shock all who know him.
By looking at Wells, many spectators can observe that he is an aggressive, athletic, intimidating man, who looks as if he could put up a fight with a grizzly bear.
Contrary to his appearance now, he did not always look this way.
“When I was a little kid, I was a short and fat,” said Wells. “I was the kid everybody picked on.”
Having to endure the torment of 8-year-old peers took a toll on him. He needed a way to escape, a way to prove to everyone that he meant something in the world.
Football became the answer that he was praying for.
Even though he played football in Little League, high school, and college, it was a rough start to even be able to sign-up for his first year. His father, an English teacher, hated sports. His siblings, all seven of them, never played a sport in any age group. Wells' father did not want his son to become a ‘dumb jock’ and refused to provide the money needed for his 8-year-old son to sign up for football.
Wells knew that football was going to be the change in his life that he desperately needed. He started mowing lawns, hauling hay, and any other odd jobs that would help him earn the money.
After the first year he knew that football was his newly founded love and that it was what he wanted to be a part of for the rest of his life. Wells found football as a place where he could prove to the world that he was ready for anything.
“Had it not been for sports I would have faded into nothing or thought I was so worthless that there was no point in living,” said Wells. “Sports, football especially, saved my life.”
Since then Wells has made a name for himself in the football community. He credits part of his success to a coach that truly made a difference in his life: Coach Ron McBride from the University of Utah.
Coach Mac recruited Wells from high school and made a large impact on his life. When his mother was in the hospital, his coaches before Mac showed little interest in the matter. But when his father died, Mac was there for Wells and allowed him time to adjust and reassured him that he had people who were there for him.
“I had coaches who couldn’t care less about me or the fact that my mother was in the hospital. They thought that since the school was paying for my education that that was enough,” said Wells. “And yet when my father passed away Coach Mac was on my doorstep making sure I was OK.”
Wells strives to perfect his coaching to match that of the man who showed he truly cared.
“Coach Mac treated his players as more than players,” said Wells. “He treated them like human beings and I want to do the same. I want my players to know that they mean more to me and that I truly care about them.”
This story was originally published in the Warrior Ledger, Taylorsville High's student newspaper October 3, 2012
