Randolph Childress, former All-American for the Wake Forest Demon Deacons, will move from a job as an assistant to Ron Wellman last year to the Director of Player Development next year.
In other moves, Mike Lepore will move from Team Videographer to the Director of Scouting/Recruiting, and Dan Ficke will move from Assistant Coordinator of Operations to the Special Assistant to the Head Coach/Director of Player Operations.
Head coach Jeff Bzdelik released the following statement in regards to Childress and the move:
"We are looking forward to Randolph playing a more prominent role in our program," said Bzdelik. "He exemplifies our vision of winning championships without compromising our values. I, along with all Demon Deacon fans, am excited to have him on board."
Childress had this to say about the move:
"My family and I are excited about this opportunity," said Childress. "I love Wake Forest, and to have a chance to work with the basketball program on a daily basis is a dream come true. I look forward to helping build a program that Wake Forest fans and the Wake Forest community can be proud of. I’m ready to go to work."
A source close to the team said that with this move Childress can now be around the team on a day to day basis and begin to learn more about the ins and outs of the team. Although he cannot actively call or visit recruits, when they come to campus he can sit in on all the meetings, talk with the recruits and essentially be another "face" that guys recognize when they are here.
Childress can be involved with coaching activities, which means he can be around the team but cannot actually coach during game or practices. He will work closely with the coaching staff to provide his opinions and how he views what is going on during practices and games after the fact.
This move seems to be a positive one all-around as Childress can do more with the team on a day-to-day basis and the guys on the team can learn from him. In speaking with a couple of players on the basketball team about it they seemingly loved the move because they have the utmost respect for Childress and what he can do.
The change of titles for Lepore and Ficke is an upward move for the work that they have done and really just some shuffling around to the staff that Coach Bzdelik believes will help with different areas of the game next year.
Note: Quotes come from the WRAL website that originally reported the move at 11:30 this morning.
