BACK TO INTERVIEWSHEAD COACHDoug WendelMarch 7, 2025MidlothianMidlothian, Texas.BEST MOMENTS“I love everything. I love offseason, I love our boot camp, I love the summertime, I love the August grind, I love the players, I love the staff. There's nothing really I don't enjoy.” PLAY AT 2:01“It came second nature to me: I'm going to be like that guy. I'm going to get up every day and I'm just going to attack. I've been doing it 28 years now — I got up today and attacked.” PLAY AT 10:35“What you can give back, and the confidence that you can instill in young people, and the opportunity that you have every single day as a coach — it's a powerful thing. I don't regret coaching one day in my life.” PLAY AT 11:10CHAPTERS0:00Meet Doug Wendel: 28 years, Oklahoma roots to Midlothian1:04A broken leg ended the NFL dream — and started a calling3:17What's changed since 1995 — and guiding principles4:59Daily culture, accountability, and being your personal best7:02Faith: trusting your staff and yourself8:50The mentors who shaped him: 'Get up and attack'TRANSCRIPTHide −0:00hey I'm here with uh Coach Doug Wendell at Midian uh high school I'm very excited about the opportunity to just hear from him and uh uh kind of just let him share some stories with us and some answers to some of these questions I think it's going to be real beneficial to our uh profession uh all right coach tell me about yourself uh tell me how long you've been coaching and where and just tell everybody about you a little bit grew up in smalltown Oklahoma bu0:29follow went to Oklahoma State as soon as I graduated high school and got to Texas as soon as I could I've been coaching 28 years now uh I've did four years of GA work at at Stillwater high school which kind of had a lot lot of influence on me as in my career uh but I've been uh started out as an assistant in in the DFW area Plano Lake Highlands and Carolton uh for I guess 10 years and then I got a first head coaching job at0:56Eustace Texas went to Oklahoma for four years in Ardmore and and then came back to midlo and Texas been here 10 years now uh why did you choose coaching I've always loved football I remember in third and fourth grade thinking I was going to play in the NFL I broke my leg in eighth grade playing football and one and I I saw the bone the doctor told me how big I was going to be I knew I wasn't going to be a NFL caliber athlete and uh so I in eighth grade I knew I was1:23going to be coaching football and um um when I became a freshman in college I I missed the locker room I missed the uh the uh goal that seemed like it was since second or third grade of that that elusive state championship and and striving towards that and so I would say that had a lot to do with why I got into coaching and then the third thing when I was in college I worked at a youth sports camp and um just I I think it's1:53got to be a calling the coach and and and I felt a pull to work with young people yeah so what do you enjoy about coaching I love everything I love offseason I love our boot camp um I love the summertime I love the August grind I love the I love the players I love the staff there's nothing really I don't enjoy and I've been doing it a long time now and and um I just enjoy waking up every day I'm proud to call myself a2:19coach I love the people that I'm around I love the routine of it you know every January is the same every every August is so I I enjoy everything about it yeah what do you not like about Co um I I would say the um if there's anything that I don't like the the losing is hard it's hard to deal with and hard to move on from um and and and then you know I'm blessed to have a great wife and and U blessed to have great kids and2:53and and I've always made Family a priority but you do miss out on some things and um there there's some time constraint um I I I don't feel guilty about that stuff I it work we've made it work in our family uh but it's not a 40-h hour week job I don't know that that's something I dislike about it but but that that's something that's a little bit tough sometimes yeah all right what stands out to you about how coaching has changed over the years is there anything3:22I don't know well I there aren't too many people in this area that are having to put water out on the field to water the you know uh there's there's some there's some odd job or um extra Duty type things that you didn't don't have to do in 2020 that you had to do in 1995 you know U I think if there's anything that's changed I I think kids uh I I think there's instant gratification that the parents want the communities want uh administrators want kids want um if if kids have changed3:51much at all it's their their attention span um I don't know that I don't know that kids are watching sports as much on TV and I don't know that their their attention span or or the understanding the value of of working the longevity of the work um but it hadn't changed that much all right uh what are some guiding principles that you recommend for a coach to guide him along his path well I think number one find great mentors uh find people um that that you you know value and and4:26respect um they what they believe in and and get me get everybody needs a mentor whether you're going to coach or not you need a mentor and then I think the U I think it's important to be in a in a quality program and then I think it's important to be loyal to the people that you're working for and with and if you can't you probably need to go somewhere else and then I would say the same thing about being positive if you can't be positive about your day you probably4:52need to go somewhere else as well so be positive be loyal and find a great mentor yeah love it uh how do you develop the right culture in your Athletic program um for us in my experience culture is up and down every it changes daily weekly monthly it's not work hard for two years and then it stays the same I feel like it changes and we talk a great deal with our players and our staff about um everybody everybody has to take ownership in the culture and and everybody has a5:22responsibility for the culture and uh our culture is one of accountability um and and pride and and we talk a lot about you know this isn't for everybody and you're special because you're a part of it um you've got to sacrifice you've got to invest um and you've got to earn that respect and uh the fact that everybody has to do that and the fact that we hold them accountable I think is built culture I so I think the accountability piece is the first piece to the culture yeah all right uh what5:54does success look like and how do you define success uh we talk a lot to our players and as a team a year yearly we talk about being our personal best and um if you're your personal best you have a chance to be successful for me um both back when I was I'm not anymore but when I was an athletic director and and now as a head football coach I success you know are our kids physically mentally and emotionally uh Superior are we you know but and you're not going to be6:25every week but are they ready to play physically on on game day um are you are you showing Improvement each week um and and are you are you are your fundamentals getting better and then is your team highly motivated at 7:30 on Friday night and um if if if the answer to those is yes then I I feel like the success will take care of itself um but a lot of how we define success is is personal best and and are we are we if we can practice that way then we'll play6:58that way yeah awesome I love that uh how important is Faith in our profession and this could be faith faith in your coaches faith in your players faith in others faith in God how important is faith in this profession well I think I think you have to be grounded in something you you need to have faith in in tough times you need to have faith in Good Times faith in hard times um fa faith is critical you I can't go coach 12 different positions at the same time7:29time you you've got to have faith that you've got good coaches doing doing their peace and you've got to have faith in yourself uh because there's going to come some hard times where nobody else going to have any faith in you um whether you're a head coach or a freshman coach or a Middle School seventh grade head coach or whatever you are and you're making decisions people are going to um call you out um and question you so you have to have faith that that you that you are right in in7:55your beliefs so I think that's that's a real important piece to being successful yeah well and and uh I like what you said about uh you know you're not going to go coach every position uh you know Gordon Wood the something that i' always heard was you know you need to players need to believe in each other they need to believe in the coaches and the coaches need to believe in the players and the coaches need to believe in the coaches and uh man it's kind of hard to8:23make all that happen and there's such a such an art to it but but uh you find that if if if you're not trusting those coaches like you said to do their job then there's going to be some some pieces that just that fail in there and it's going to cost you it's going to end up costing you a ball game sure and what you just talked about Coach Woods saying um and that that goes back to the culture piece too yeah yeah excellent uh okay will you share some thoughts on8:52what helped you become the person and the coach that you are well I think finding finding your calling is really really important you know if I have any Talent it's it's my know gift it's my work ethic um and I got that either from my mom my mom and dad who I was kind of raised on Farm um or or just a gift from God and I don't remember my parents ever talking about it it just came natural to me to work uh so I think finding your calling and9:20finding something that you're passionate about is real real important um the other thing is the mentor piece um finding people that uh can mentor you that will take the time I had the opportunity to whenever I G8 I didn't know the guy from Adam didn't know his program from Adam didn't know if they won any games or not uh but I just walked in Still Water high school and found a head football coach said hey I'd love to help your program any way I can uh while I'm in college and he happened9:44to be Dr Bill de and I had his doctorate degree in history uh was a phenomenal teacher uh so that taught me The Importance of Being a quality teacher and he was from amarill high school um and and played at TCU and um just really took the time to Mentor me I ended up doing my student teaching under him and uh so he he he taught me a lot about the game but he also taught me it's supposed to be fun and he taught me a lot about10:09leadership by watching him so he was a tremendous role model for me and then obviously your first job as a young coach you you got a um somebody that you really really respect and look up to Gerald Bren at Plano taught me an awful lot um that helped me through my career um he was the most mentally tough person I've ever seen that was a high pressure job in the way that he handled everything with class and the way that he brought it every day um it just it10:35came second nature to me to I'm going to be like that guy I'm going to get up every day and I'm just going to attack um I've been doing it 28 years now I still get up I got up today and attacked yeah yeah uh anything else that uh you want to point out that I didn't bring up uh bring up or anything for these coaches it it's a great profession and um and it doesn't everybody's got a different calling you know I'm blessed here to have 16 coaches with me at the11:02high school level uh but two of our best coaches are our Middle School coordinators and they can they connect with kids that may never get to me but they make an impression and and what you can give back and the confidence that you can instill in young people and the opportunity that you have every single day as a coach is just a it's a it's a powerful thing it it it's a great responsibility and um but I I I don't regret coach one day in my life11:31yeah well guys this is uh Coach Doug wendle and uh I can tell you from playing against him uh they they his his guys are always extremely well coached and uh and also uh guys that have work for him and guys that know him they they have so much respect for him and and i' I've heard it from so many people and so I I'm very thankful for the opportunity to be able to interview him today and also for him to share a little something I think would be good for us all to hear
