Fresno State Athletics
Welniak's Leadership Guides Bulldog Athletics
5/4/2005 12:00:00 AM | General
May 4, 2005
FRESNO, Calif. - There are many in the Fresno State Athletics Department who consider Randy Welniak its busiest employee. Welniak, in his third year as Associate Athletics Director for External Operations, is responsible for a vast majority of the department's operations and sports. An extremely busy schedule is nothing new for the hard working Welniak.
Welniak grew up on a farm in central Nebraska as a part of a large and athletic-driven family. He parlayed his athletic ability into a football scholarship at the University of Wyoming. His brother, Doug, did the same and became a team captain for the University of Nebraska football team. Hard work was a way of life for the Welniak children.
That hard work carried over to his career, where as a quarterback, he was a little-used back-up who had gained some notoriety for coming off the bench and leading Wyoming to an upset win over Wisconsin in his junior year.
It was his senior season in 1988, however that Welniak honed his leadership skills, guiding Wyoming to an 11-2 record, a WAC championship, a berth in the Holiday Bowl and a top 10 national ranking. Welniak, who led by example, was widely credited for his team's success. He overcame surgery on his throwing shoulder to become a team captain and, then as a senior, was the WAC's Offensive Player of the Year. While leading his team to 11 wins, he became a legend for his playmaking ability and directing a high-scoring offense that averaged better than 40 points per game. The crowning achievement was a come-from-behind win over Air Force, in which he led Wyoming from a 38-17 fourth quarter deficit to a 48-45 win. He was selected the Sports Illustrated Player of the Week in becoming the first quarterback in NCAA history to throw for more than 300 yards and run for more than 100 yards in the same game. Welniak's celebrity in the state of Wyoming rivaled that of David Carr during his senior season of 2001.
Welniak was a consummate student-athlete, earning a degree in finance and his MBA in five years. He was a first-team College Football Association All-Academic quarterback and earned an NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship. Welniak capped his career by winning the Stan Bates Award as the top student-athlete in the Western Athletic Conference.
Upon graduation, he married Wendi Willis, at the time the reining Miss Wyoming, and the couple moved to Phoenix, where Randy accepted a job from American Express.
Four years later Welniak returned to his alma mater as assistant director of the Cowboy Joe Club, the athletics department's fundraising organization. He moved up the ranks, eventually becoming Associate Athletics Director - a title similar to vice president in a corporate structure - before coming to Fresno State in 2002 in a similar capacity. While at Wyoming, Welniak helped drive a capital campaign of $9.4 million to build a new athletics complex and led the marketing and advertising program that generated more than $1 million annually.
"Being a former student-athlete gave me the sense of what the needs of student-athletes are," said Welniak. "I think I can understanding things better from that perspective. Being able to be there and available to help during difficult situations is important. Our goal is to provide them with a positive experience. When I was a student-athlete, I just assumed everything got done but never knew so many people were behind the scenes working to make it all happen. I would like that to continue, so student-athletes have an easy and enjoyable experience."
At Fresno State, he supervises many service areas, such as ticketing, marketing and the athletics training room to provide the department and its nearly 600 student-athletes those various services. Welniak also supervises the Bulldog sports of football, women's basketball, softball, equestrian, men's golf and women's golf. All of these areas account for more than one-third of the entire department's annual budget of $22 million.
In his three years of service at Fresno State, Welniak has several accomplishments to his credit, most notably spearheading the recently completed Ricchiuti Academic Center and Duncan Building Project. Upon arriving on campus, he picked up the stalled project and saw it through completion, coordinating the architects, contractors, campus community and fund raising entities.
Welniak became an advocate for the department to help put the finishing touches on the Save Mart Center and served on the Grand Opening Committee. He negotiated an all-sports apparel agreement with Nike, the first of its kind in school history, and worked with Learfield Communications to form Bulldog Sports Properties, which provides an annual rights fee to the athletics department for multi-media and marketing. He led the charge for Fresno State to win the bid for the 2004 McCaffrey WAC men's and women's basketball tournaments, and has worked to bring NCAA and WNIT championship events to Fresno State.
While he has been able to implement some programs, he has seen his share of challenges, especially in recent months.
"The budget issue is always difficult because it impacts the decisions we make and sometimes we have to make difficult decisions that affect the student-athlete," he said. "At times, there isn't enough funding to provide what they need. Time management is also a challenge because I can't be as available to all of the sports and areas that report to me. Sometimes there aren't enough hours in a day. I don't feel I service them as well as I'd like at times. But this is still a great place to work because of the people that I work with in the department on a daily basis."
As the football supervisor, Welniak took on the daunting task of trying to make the Bulldog bowl games more fiscally prosperous. Despite a slight financial loss in 2002, Welniak's leadership and negotiating skills with Silicon Valley Bowl organizers kept the department from losing the nearly $250,000 it had lost the previous year. In a day and age when bowl appearances are money-losing ventures, he implemented a system that has seen Fresno State achieve a net profit in each of its last two bowl appearances.
"Being a former player and outstanding student, Randy knows first-hand what its takes to be a successful student and athlete," said football coach Pat Hill. "He's a hard working guy and obviously very smart. He keeps Bulldog football running smoothly."
Under his guidance, several other sports are enjoying unprecedented success. The women's basketball team has reached the postseason twice in the last three years and has become one of the school's top money making sports. Welniak supervises the new women's golf program, which in its first year as a varsity sport, produced a fourth-place finish in the WAC Tournament. Welniak has chaired many search committees, including the one that hired head coach Angie Cates, the 2005 WAC Coach of the Year.
"Randy has been very supportive," said Cates, who works with him on a daily basis. "He's a sincere person and has great respect and understanding for the student-athletes. Having been one, he really gets what their needs are and can relate to what they are going through. He listens to our needs and finds a way to meet in the middle No one knew what it would take to start a program, but he was very patient and understanding this first year. Randy is very approachable and I feel like I can talk to him about anything."
The Bulldog equestrian program has also blossomed under his leadership.
"Randy's terrific," said equestrian coach Becky Malmo. "Having been an administrator, I have great appreciation for the huge challenges he faces on a daily basis. He is a great problem solver and works very hard to resolve problems and make things better. I've enjoyed my interaction with him. Randy is very professional and I'm very fortunate to work with him. He has a great sense about equestrian and has made a great effort to better understand the sport."
Welniak's job also involves attending countless Bulldog functions and he serves on various WAC, campus and community committees. He is a member of the WAC Championship Council. While his job demands an 80-hour work schedule on given weeks, Welniak devotes time to his family of seven. Randy and Wendi have two sons, Craig, 10, and Michael, 8, and three daughters, Katie, 5, and twins, Emma and Heidi, 1.
Spending time at a beach, fishing on a stream in the Sierras and playing golf and baseball are some one the many activities the Welniak family enjoys.
"There's not a lot of spare time at the end of the day, but what there is becomes family time," he said. "Fresno is a great place to live and we love it here. I wish the air quality was better, but it is a great location and close to the beach and mountains and we take advantage of that. The weather is always great here and we definitely a family that enjoys the outdoors."
The Welniaks are also pleased with the school system in the area, especially for their son Michael, who needs special care because of a variation of autism that has delayed his development.
"We are very pleased with the schools and the outstanding support services in the Clovis Unified School District," Welniak said.
Without an athletics director (Fresno State is searching for a replacement for Scott Johnson, who retired in March), the department has relied on the leadership skills of Interim Athletics Director Paul Oliaro and Welniak, who sees brighter things ahead for the department.
"Developing and fostering relationships with members of the campus, booster clubs and community is vital," said Welniak. "I enjoy that aspect of the job. We need to remember that the underlying goal is to assistant the student-athletes in their times of need. I like seeing them grow, mature and develop during the course of their careers. We have many outstanding student-athletes who will be very successful in life. Those are the important things and if we can continue to focus on that, this department will continue to produce top-notch student-athletes."
