Behind the Dores: Alison and Justin Wenzel

You might call them the First Family of Vanderbilt Athletics. Alison Wenzel is Vanderbilt’s Associate Athletic Director for Student-Athlete Development, and husband Justin is an Athletic Trainer for football. But they might never have met had it not been for the lucky bounce of a Sharpie pen that set Justin on the path to Vanderbilt.

Justin Wenzel: I started out at Grand Valley State in Michigan and knew that I wanted a change of venue. I printed off all the graduate assistant positions [job announcements] that I was interested in and put them on the floor. I tossed a Sharpie up in the air and it landed on Furman University. I didn’t even apply for the other jobs. I got the position at Furman and came to find out there were three other Grand Valley people there. I had no idea. Brian Reese was the head athletic trainer there. He ended up coming to Vanderbilt when Bobby Johnson came here as football coach. Reese called me up one time and said there was a job opening up in women’s basketball and I should apply. I sent in my application and didn’t hear anything for a year. Then I got a call out of the blue from [Assistant AD for Sports Medicine] Tom Bossung a year later, and he said they were interested in me for a football and track position. I ended up getting it, and here we are 13 years later.

Alison Wenzel: I went to the University of Florida for undergrad and graduate school. I was a student worker in athletics, and when I moved up to Nashville after graduation, Martin Salamone – who was at Florida then and is here at Vanderbilt now — made the connection with Vanderbilt’s marketing people at the time. I started in marketing, but I wanted to make a bigger difference in student-athletes’ lives. The life skills position opened up in 2006 and I’ve been doing it ever since.

AW: Student-athlete development is everything that prepares them for life after Vanderbilt. It’s community outreach, personal devolvement, career development, preparing them to be global citizens when they leave and be prepared to tackle whatever is ahead of them.  

I love to see them go from freshmen to seniors and walk down that career path through the internship program or the other career development programs we have. And when they come back after being out of it a couple of years and say they’re doing this this and this, or have a family and bring their kids in, that’s a lot of fun.

JW: Whether it’s day to day, week to week, or some of the longer-term injuries people sustain, I enjoy giving student-athletes the tools to get back to playing their sport. They’re students first and athletes second, but if they weren’t an athlete, I wouldn’t be seeing them. We want them to get back out on the field or court as safely and quickly as possible.

AW: What’s similar with both of our jobs is that we’re both here to help them be the best they can be.

[Deputy AD] Candice Lee has been such an important mentor for me. She is the epitome of a Vanderbilt student-athlete, having played here, having earned three degrees here, having worked here. Her heart is for the student-athletes and how we can best serve them. As my supervisor, she has shown me that everything we’re doing is for them. I learn so much from her.

JW: One thing that’s different about Vanderbilt is that [athletic trainers] are employed through the Vanderbilt University Medical Center. That’s important when it comes to potential conflicts of interest in terms of doing what’s best for the student-athlete. There are many other programs that have coaches that hire and fire their medical staffs. But when decisions are being made about the health and welfare of a young adult, we have eliminated that pressure of “we need this kid aback out on the field or court or else it’s your job.”

AW: We’re doing things different than most other schools in student-athlete development, too. We offer an innovative summer internship program, we offer an international service trip. These are programs that speak to the whole student-athlete experience and allow them to do things during their time in college that better prepare them for their careers down the line.

With the summer service trip, they get to go experience another country and culture and they’re not taking a class, they don’t have to worry about athletic component. They just learn more about themselves and another culture, and there’s not many places that provide an experience like that.

We went to Morocco this past summer and my favorite part was seeing the student-athletes interact with the Moroccan children. It’s important for our student-athletes to get out of their comfort zone and understand that the world is not Vanderbilt. There’s so much more than the Vanderbilt bubble.

And Fernanda Contreras [women’s tennis] dancing on a camel to the Aladdin soundtrack was unforgettable, too.

JW: It was challenging with Alison gone since it was also football preseason. Thank goodness for family being able to come down and watch the kids and take care of them, and the freedom I had with my co-workers to be able to take off and go when I needed to be there for the kids.

AW: We first met at a Vanderbilt basketball game. Our season tickets were next to each other.

JW: Actually, the first interaction was in the Hendrix Room [athletics dining hall] for a staff gathering right after Alison got the life skills position. I congratulated her on her new position.

AW: I don’t remember that. I remember the basketball game. It was one of these winter break games. I was still helping marketing at that point. We went to Broadway Brewhouse after the game and played darts. It was like game, date. That was probably 2006 and we got engaged in 2008 and married in 2009.

Now all of Vanderbilt Athletics is like our extended family. Our kids know the student-athletes and they tell Justin to tell Coach Mason to put pressure on the quarterback. Our family is a Vanderbilt family now.

We work with all the same people and the student-athletes know us as the Wenzels. The best thing is when the light bulb goes on and they figure out we are married.

JW: Sometimes it takes a couple years. They might be seniors before they figure it out.

AW: I think it works because our schedules vary so much. We work in the same building but we have to make an effort to see each other. Justin leaves before we wake up and sometimes may get home after we go to bed. His schedule is very demanding with football. We don’t sit here and look at each other all day.

My mantra is, “Always choose kindness.” You don’t know what other people are going through. You don’t know their situation, so always choose kindness.

JW: Mine is the B.E.D. principle: Better every day. Try to improve each day.

Everyone asks who my favorite team was growing up in Michigan. I had an older brother for Michigan and a younger brother for Michigan State, so I rooted for Notre Dame. I just wanted to be different. Never really committed to following the Lions.

AW: I was a big Gator fan. Both of my parents went to Florida. When we got the Jaguars in Jacksonville, we had season tickets the very first season. I remember standing in line outside JC Penney, because they were the first place to have the t-shirts with the old Jaguars logo. My favorite player was Mark Brunell. I really liked him and then Natrone Means. Natrone Means Business!

Interviewed by Andrew Maraniss