Texas Wesleyan is a football revival 75 years in the making. TWU will resurrect their football team in 2017 under Head Coach Joe Prud’homme. Having spent 27 years as a high school head coach, Prud’homme won seven Texas State Championships. He was appointed to his new position last February.
Coach Prud’homme recently spent some time with AFM…
#1 – You’re starting a new program and – when appointed as head coach – have only 18 or so months before kickoff. What were the circumstances that led to your hiring and did you know this was the next step for you after Nolan Catholic?
Steve Trachier, the AD from Texas Wesleyan University reached out to me in January of 2016 about possibly renting Doskocil Stadium for the 2017 season if football was approved at Texas Wesleyan. I asked him what he was looking for in a football coach and he candidly replied “I’m not really sure what that person looks like, but I do know what direction the program needs to take.” We spoke just a few minutes more about it and I knew that I wanted explore the possibility, so I called him a few days later and told him that I was interested. We got together for lunch and an informal conversation about the program. I gave him my resume and called him back the next day and he told that I would get an interview. It took before the offer from Wesleyan came and I had been in contact with some other schools about other opportunities and frankly thought that I was out of the running.
I did not really know that this was the next step for me after Nolan Catholic, but I was ready for a change and the possibility of building a small college program from the ground up was really attractive. Steve told me several different times that the only guarantee that I had was that “it was going to be a lot of hard work to get it going, quite possibility the hardest job you’ve ever had.” He didn’t exaggerate, it’s been a huge undertaking, but I feel that we are on a solid path.
#2 – After being named head coach, what were your immediate priorities last spring and summer in starting the program?
The first priority was to get the coordinators in place, establish the vision and recruiting plan. We had a goal of 75 for our first leadership class for the fall of 2016. Contacting as many high schools in the area and state became our primary focus and making them aware of the opportunity at Texas Wesleyan with a new program and a really strong academic school. The other side of that was to establish our identity and branding.
(to be continued)