Legends Profile: Mike Welch
11/5/2009 12:00:00 AM | Football
Nov. 5, 2009
By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
When Art Briles up and left his job as offensive coordinator at Sweetwater (Texas) High School in the spring of 1984 for the greener pastures of a head coach and athletic director position at nearby Hamilin, he left behind a heartsick sophomore named Mike Welch.
"Oh, man, I remember when he announced that to the team, I was just devastated," said Welch, a starting outside linebacker and part-time running back and receiver for the '83 Mustangs. "He was just the coolest guy - big man on campus, for sure. Just such a dynamic, charismatic guy. And when he left, I took it hard."
Twenty-five years later, Welch is still singing the praises of his former assistant coach and the man Baylor hired to take over at his alma mater.
"We stayed in touch over the years," said Welch, a two-time Academic All-American safety for the Bears (1989-90) and 2002 Hall of Fame inductee who was honored at Saturday's Baylor-Nebraska game as a Baylor Legend. "So that was just a thrill to have him back. I believe in him. And just to have that personal connection with the head coach again is really exciting. He got me through that sophomore year. I was a young guy, playing on varsity for the first time, and he really did get me through it in a lot of ways."
After Briles left, Welch did quite well on his own, earning back-to-back all-state honors as a junior and senior at safety and leading the Mustangs to the 1985 Class 4A state championship.
Welch backed up Jim Thorpe Award winner Thomas Everett as a freshman in '86 and then started three of the next four years at Baylor, sitting out the 1988 season with a torn ACL ligament in his knee.
"I was playing basketball," he said. "I kind of had a collision with a railing, and the railing won that battle."
Other than playing for a "Christ-led coach like Grant Teaff," Welch said the thing that attracted him to Baylor was the chance to play early.
"Obviously not as a freshman, because I got the opportunity to play behind Thomas," Welch said. "But I knew after those guys left, it looked like there was a chance to step in and be a starter. The same thing happened with that good group of (defensive backs) that came in with my class with (Robert) Blackmon and (Charles) Bell. We all had the opportunity to play quite a bit."
Welch was part of a 1989 defense that might have been one of Baylor's best ever, particularly for a team that finished with a losing record. Featuring such future NFL standouts as Blackmon, linebacker James Francis and defensive tackle Santana Dotson, the '89 Bears held teams to a Southwest Conference-best 279.4 yards and 17.3 points per game - despite the 66 points that Houston put on the board in a blowout loss at the Astrodome.
"We had just some phenomenal players on the team that year and some leaders like Francis and Blackmon and even a younger guy like Santana that was starting to come into his own, too," said Welch, who is still the school's co-leader in career interceptions with 16 and ranks 10th all-time with 319 tackles. "It was just a privilege to get to play with a great group like that. Having the corners we did, it freed me up to just kind of roam around and play the ball and support the run. We didn't have to blitz a whole lot. We just played a base defense a lot of times and just lined up and shut people down."
Interestingly enough, through the connections that Welch made in being on the GTE-sponsored Academic All-America teams, he was hired by the company after he graduated from Baylor in 1991 and began a seven-year career with the company.
Staying in the telecom business, but switching to "the vendor side," Welch then worked with Fujitsu until about 3 ½ years ago. After returning to school to get his MBA in finance at the University of North Texas, Welch is now a financial planner and advisor with DR Sauer Financial of Dallas.
"I think I just had the desire to do something to impact people's lives in a more meaningful way," said Welch, who's now 41. "(Daniel Sauer) is a good friend of mine that I had known for about 10 years. He's a great Christian, a guy with a lot of integrity, and it's just a great work environment with a smaller firm. So it's been a great fit. Even though the economy's been pretty terrible, the business is still going very well."
Mike and his wife, Wendy, who will celebrate their 15th wedding anniversary this weekend, live in Flower Mound, Texas, and have three sons: Zach, 11; Jake, 9; and Jason, 4.
In his "spare" time, Mike has coached his two older sons' flag football teams and helps out with Zach's first tackle-football team and Jake's select baseball team.
"Keeping up with the boys is challenging, but it's fun," he said. "My 4-year-old, of course he's 4 going on 7. He just can't wait to get into it. I stay pretty involved. It's hard getting off work and getting to all their practices, but you just make it a priority. And I definitely think it's worth it, because they'll be gone before you know it."
