9 minute read
Proud Parents
THEIR SON MADE ONE OF THE MOST MEMORABLE KICKS IN CAROLINA HISTORY, AND NOW CHRIS AND VICTORIA WEILER ARE MAKING THEIR OWN SIGNIFICANT IMPACT ON TAR HEEL ATHLETICS
BY SPEED HALLMAN
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PHOTOS BY JEFFREY CAMARATI
IIt was, Chris Weiler said, the kick heard around the world. On Oct. 1, 2016, with four seconds remaining on the clock and Carolina down by one in Tallahassee, his son Nick nailed a 54-yard field goal to beat Florida State 37-35. “People came out of the woodwork that I haven’t heard from in decades,” Chris said about the aftermath of the game.
Nick Weiler earned his degree, left Chapel Hill and is now pursuing opportunities in the NFL, but his parents, Chris and Victoria, still follow and support the Heels. They recently made a major gift to help build head coach Larry Fedora’s top priority, the indoor football practice facility. It’s the anchor of the Football Practice Complex taking shape near the heart of the campus.
The indoor facility will boast a 120-yard synthetic turf field, enabling game preparation for Fedora’s squads in all conditions. Outdoor grass and synthetic practice fields, spaces for strength and conditioning, facilities for sports medicine and connections to the new Soccer and Lacrosse Stadium round out the project. A new walkway through the complex will provide a much-needed pedestrian thoroughfare between central and southeast campus. Construction started last spring and the project is due to open in mid-August.
“The new indoor practice facility makes a clear statement to recruits and their families that we are committed to providing the best experience possible within the Carolina football program,” Fedora said. “With the indoor facility and the two new practice fields, we will have first-class facilities that will improve our ability to attract and develop first-class student-athletes.”
The Weiler family knows what it takes to attract and develop first-class student-athletes, and they understand the need for first-class facilities.
Chris played football for the U.S. Naval Academy, then coached high school football for 12 years. As a high school coach he learned what it was like to compete against schools with better facilities. He also learned about college recruiting by hosting the college coaches who came to see his players. Victoria, a standout high school athlete, was a football team manager at UVA. Their daughter Katherine captained the soccer team at Pitt, and their son Matthew played soccer at Kentucky and Virginia. Youngest son Nick was with the Heels from the 2013 through the 2016 seasons, playing in 41 games, posting 273 points and making the
Academic All-ACC Honor roll.
The Weilers love everything about Chapel Hill – town, gown and Tar Heel athletics – and when they wanted to make a significant gift to the Rams Club they asked Nick how they could have the greatest impact. “Nick said with the weather and the field conditions between November and March, the quality of what they were able to do was nowhere near what it could have been,” Victoria said. “If you really want to develop and be the best football player, you have to have quality practices through most of the year. Kids are not able to work if the field conditions are substandard.”
“In order to go toe to toe with your competition, you have to be able to practice in inclement weather,” Chris said. “Most people don’t realize that this is where those kids spend every waking minute out of the classroom. This is where they live, and once they’re in the program this is how you get them to compete at the highest levels.”
He and Victoria agree that building the facility is essential if Carolina is going to compete at the Power 5 level. “This is the table stakes – the ante – if you want to play the game,” he said. “You have to have this at a minimum.”
The Weilers like the location of the practice facility, near the center of the campus, and the pedestrian throughway it offers for students and faculty crossing that section of campus. “We love the University of Pittsburgh,” Chris said, “but their football team goes off campus, across the river, to practice. It’s completely disconnected from student life and university life, and certainly some kids will never go there because they have to take a bus to practice every day.”
On the other hand, UNC’s central practice
location maintains a daily and visible presence for athletics on campus, further integrating sports programs into the life of the UNC community. “It keeps the students and the student-athletes together,” Victoria said. “They see each other walking by, every day.”
“Carolina did such a beautiful, masterful job,” Chris said. “They built it into the fabric of the campus, which is fantastic.”
The Weilers committed $500,000 to the project. They made a $75,000 cash gift and gave the remainder by transferring highly appreciated stock, resulting in a tax deduction and eliminating taxes on the capital gains.
“We love giving back,” Chris said. “We are super proud of the program, we love the University and the people are just fantastic. We are blessed to be able to give back, and for us it was an easy decision.”
Victoria said they invested in Carolina football because quality and excellence are the expectation in Chapel Hill. “You have a top-notch university, an amazingly beautiful campus, a town with great restaurants, great entertainment, great Olympic sports and a top basketball program. It doesn’t seem right to not have an equally top football program,” she said. “We have to help them compete for the top recruits, and not be dismissed by them out of hand because the facilities aren’t there.”
Chris, a wide receiver for Navy, said he envisions quarterbacks and wideouts running their routes in the indoor facility on an otherwise foul January day. The new facility will make that kind of consistent, focused work possible every day, he said, and daily effort is critical to the program’s success. “You just can’t move the needle without an indoor facility,” he said.
UNC athletic director Bubba Cunningham said success in recruiting and on game day is made possible by donors such as the Weilers. “Recruiting talented students is the lifeblood of all of our athletic programs,” he said. “With this renewed commitment to expanding and improving our facilities, including the construction of the new indoor practice facility for our football program, the Rams Club is helping to ensure that we can recruit and compete at the highest level possible.”
IIn my opinion, Mack Brown is still the greatest recruiter
of all time.
He recruited me when I was coming out of high school in 1992 and to this day, he still sends birthday cards to not just me, but also to my wife. He has an incredible memory. There are lots of different aspects to recruiting, but in the end, there still has to be that human element and face to face interaction. It comes down to when you meet someone, do you feel like they are a genuine person? Mack was always the best at that. When you spent time around him, you felt good about yourself. He made me feel like I was part of his family. There are lots of ways to leave that feeling with someone you meet. As someone who recruits young men to play for North Carolina now, I know you want to leave a prospect with a sticking point—something that stays with them when you’re not in front of them anymore. It’s not a coincidence that your favorite food happened to be on the menu or your favorite music was playing when you walked through the door. You’re always thinking about how you can make a kid remember your name when you’re not with them anymore. Mack Brown was one of the best I’ve ever seen at that. In addition to learning from Coach Brown, I learned quite a bit from guys like Donnie Thompson and Ken Mack. They taught me how to evaluate players. They taught me to pay attention to high character guys who are super talented, even if they’re playing out of position. Quan Sturdivant and Bruce Carter didn’t play linebacker in high school. But you have to be able to project what they’re going to do in college. Maybe you know they’re not a quarterback at the next level. But if they’re a super athlete and extremely talented, you can find a place for them. You want guys who love the game of football and play with a sense of purpose. There is an abundance of football players in this world. Our job is to find the ones who fit the culture we have at Carolina. One of the hardest things about recruiting is that it’s all about human development. We don’t know for certain who will be the best player. Every sports league in the world screws that up occasionally. There were no star ratings when Natrone Means or Julius Peppers came along. Today we have to put a star rating on every single prospect, and if a kid is a two- or three-star, nobody cares. If they’re a four- or five-star they get treated like they’re Prada. But no matter how many stars they have, you don’t really
know what the kid will turn out to be until they get to campus. We don’t know until they get here how hard they’re going to work or how close they will come to their potential. That’s why we have to learn more about them than just their star rating. In the year 2018, a kid is going to tell you pretty much everything he does through his social media. Then my job is to do my homework. I have to watch the tape, and then I have “ “You want guys who love the game of football and play with a sense of to ask some of the hard questions. I have to talk to the school resource officer and the assistant coaches. There are some kids who are purpose. There are an abundance of football players in this world. Our traumatized when their recruiting is over because it can be like a drug to get all of that attention. Kids who can’t job is to find the ones who fit the leave that behind can have a tough time culture we have at Carolina.” in college. You hear a lot about certain players in college but are never quite sure how well they can actually play. I don’t hear that much about Myles Dorn but I see him all the time in the film room. He doesn’t get covered in the national media but he is highly skilled and he is committed to being a football player. That’s the kind of player I want to find for North Carolina.
TOMMY THIGPEN
