Sunday Interview with Randy Wilkes: 'Being comfortable lends itself to becoming mediocre'

Randy Wilkes walked into the Phenix City School System in the middle of a storm.

He was not the first choice to be the new superintendent, and he came in as the former superintendent was suing the Board of Education over what he was owed.

Wilkes, now 48, was a triple-option offensive tackle at Troy. Eight months ago when he came to Phenix City from Crenshaw County, he did what he has done for years -- squared up to the challenge and kept his feet moving, driving forward.

Recently, he sat down with Ledger-Enquirer reporter Chuck Williams and talked about his journey, his faith and his family, especially his youngest son, Ryan, who has Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

Here are excerpts of the interview, with some of the questions edited for length and the order of some of the questions rearranged for clarity.

Eight months into it, what has impressed you the most about the Phenix City Public School System?

The people. Absolutely the people. When I first came, I was very impressed and still very impressed with the staff here at the central office -- very intelligent, very knowledgeable about education, very astute as to people. The people and the community have been very kind and easy to work with and very interested in growing the educational system here in Phenix City.

What is the difference in Crenshaw County and Phenix City?

Level of intensity. It's not necessarily more work. I'm going to prom Saturday night; Crenshaw County, I'd go to three proms. I'll go to one football game or basketball on Friday nights; Crenshaw County I would have to make at least two. So, the amount of work is pretty much the same, but the rigor, the intensity in which things fly across the desk or the phone rings, the e-mails, and so forth -- the pace is much faster.

Give me an example of that.

There are a lot more opportunities in and amongst the community to participate -- the mayor's breakfast like we had this morning, and we had breakfast with the Board of Realtors and the Chamber. There's just a lot more going on in a city of 35,000 than there is in a county of 15,000.

As you have gotten into the schools, what have you found?

I have found, No. 1, highly intelligent students, students who want to learn, students who want to grow, students that deserve the best opportunities when it comes to college and career. I have found a willing and capable staff, teachers that are on the cutting edge.

The diversity of our school and school system is tremendous. Not only do we retain a lot of people from Phenix City, but we have a lot of people across the United States. And bringing that diversity into our schools -- and I think Fort Benning has a lot to do with that -- and giving kids really a global look at things, not just one that would be domestic.

When we sit down at the table and we have conversations with teachers, we have ideas from Georgia, we have ideas from New York, we have ideas from California, because these people come from all over -- "This is how we did things in Texas," "This is how we did things in Utah."

So, that's very interesting and that diversity I think is going to produce a student that's much more capable to be successful when they graduate from Central High School.

So, what you are talking about in diversity is far greater than just racial or gender.

It has nothing to do with race or gender. It is just what is your background.

Diversity of ideas?

Exactly. And just a different take on education as a whole -- what works best with students. "Well, this is a pedagogy that I used in Michigan," and, "These are things my children were exposed to in Germany." We really get that flavor, if you will, from all over the world, and I was not accustomed to that.

I probably did not realize the influence of Fort Benning. And I say that because most of the people I know from the top of my head have some association with the military, either retired here or presently living here. So yes, I was very surprised by that.

Let's talk about your background. You were raised in Goshen, outside of Troy, right?

Absolutely. And I say I'm from Troy because I was 200 yards outside (the city limits), and not everybody knows where Goshen is. So, I grew up much closer to Troy, although I attended Goshen, Pike County schools all of my life. And I'm very proud of that fact.

We worked a 40-acre farm with bush ax and sling. We had catfish ponds. We raised catfish and people came in and fished in our ponds. We worked summers cutting grass, picking peas, hauling hay. We worked from sunup to sundown and never knew anything different.

That has a lot to do with who a person is. We did those things so we could go to Sikes & Kohn's in Pine Level, Ala., and buy our jeans for the upcoming school year. Whatever we got for picking purple hull peas or white peas, $8 or $10 -- the butter beans we kept for ourselves, they were just too hard to pick -- but you take that and you go and buy your school clothes, and that's how you spent your money that you earned every summer.

Is that where your work ethic was formed?

Absolutely. Absolutely. We did things that other people were doing with bush hogs and were able to afford those things. We had cows, we worked cows. I've cleaned more catfish than I care to remember and that's a large part of who we are. We did it, and we enjoyed it.

When you see the kids that are in your school system, most of them are not coming from an agrarian background. What does an agrarian background teach you?

It teaches you work ethic beyond a shadow of a doubt. It teaches you to do things for intrinsic rewards opposed to extrinsic rewards. There's a gratification in just doing. There's a lot of service learning that occurs via that type of lifestyle. And I think that service learning carries itself -- working for others, doing for others, giving to others, being kind, being compassionate. It carries into adulthood.

My children did not grow up in an agrarian society, and if I could rewind and go back, I might reconsider that.

When you graduated from high school, you went to Troy and you played football.

I did.

Were you on Coach (Chan) Gailey's championship team?

Coach Gailey recruited me. That was 1984. I came in the fall of 1985. I played '85, '86, '87, "88. My head coach was Rick Rhoades, and Robert Maddox covered the last year.

Coach Maddox and Coach Rhoades were both fantastic role models. Matter of fact, we did not have, to our knowledge, a bad role model. That was in the day you didn't use profanity on the football field at all. I remember in my four years there was only one profane word ever and a guy had blown his knee out. And it was pretty horrific, but the coaches didn't tend to his knee, they attended to his remarks.

Coach Rhoades and Coach Maddox were both big FCA (Fellowship of Christian Athletes) guys.

Yessir. As freshmen we met once a week. We would have study hour and then we would have devotionals. I still recall some of the pregame speakers that came, and they were just incredible.

What position did you play?

I was recruited as a linebacker.

How big were you?

At that time I was 6 feet, 220. I remember running my first wind sprint, and the group of guys I ran the sprint with for time, when I had crossed the line, they had turned around and started walking back toward me. And I'm like, "Oh, no, this is not good." Now, little did I know, they were probably some of the fastest guys. They all ran 4.2s -- Greg Harris and Titus Dixon, you remember the names?

I do.

I do not know how I got stuck in that group. So, I moved in the fall of that year, in 1985, to the offensive line. And I was actually the largest offensive tackle. My playing weight was 248. The guys playing with me were 230, 220. We could all break a 5-flat 40. We could all clear the crease, get the linebacker -- linebacker not there, get to the flat. If we got into the alley, picked up the safety, (quarterback) Mike Turk was going to score.

And that was option football, right?

That was triple option, put the Riddell in the middle of the man and drive your feet, stay low, keep your feet moving.

What did four years of football at Troy teach you?

It capitalized on the work ethic I already had. First to practice, last to leave. Leave everything out on the field, don't carry anything home with you. Work through the obstacles. Forget the last play, new play coming up. When all else fails, keep your feet moving.

For most people when they go to college they go 50, 100, 200, 300 miles away from home. What was it like to be able to go from high school to play college football in your hometown all the way through?

My mom would have thought it was 200 miles -- let me say that, OK? It was a whopping 5 or 6 miles from the house. I grew up watching Troy State football every Saturday there was a home game.

When I was 15 and 16, my dad was an official and I got to pull the chains. I was on television pulling the chains when Troy State played the University of North Alabama, which was a rarity to be on television. I don't know if you remember that game or not.

I don't.

I actually got to pull the chains during that game. I had cousins that were in the Sound of the South Marching Band. I just thought the Sound of the South was the greatest band around and still believe that. So, it was a real honor to go. I didn't know anything else.

I got letters from Southern Miss and some of the SEC schools, but I was going to Troy no matter what, because that was just breed in me. And if you ask me today about being an Alabama or Auburn fan, I'm probably one of a few people who will tell you neither, I like both schools just fine, but we're Troy through and through in my family.

Did your parents graduate from Troy?

No. Neither one of my parents attended college.

What did your parents do?

My dad worked with the Alabama Highway Department, 7th Division, there in Troy. He was a bi-vocational minister. He was called into the ministry when I was 17 years of age. I actually met my wife through the ministry. Her dad was chairman of the deacons that called my dad into the ministry. So, that was divine intervention, to say the least. And then my mother worked in a shirt factory. She inspected shirts for a number of years.

When the family became large, she became a stay-at-home mom. We kept foster children for a number of years, so our family -- four boys and my sister who was adopted through this process -- there were always six or seven children in our home because we were always opening our doors to others.

You talk about diversity. You have a very diverse background: agrarian, college athlete, your family was a foster family. There's a lot of stuff in that mix, right?

A lot of working parts.

What was the most important aspect of all that?

The most important aspect of my life -- period -- is the spiritual aspect of things. Growing up in that type of home where you loved people you did not even know, you certainly loved your brothers and your sisters, you loved your parents, you had a great deal of respect for your parents, you worked hard, you did things without asking, just simply because you were asked. Wednesday night it was church, Sunday morning it was church, Sunday night it was church -- that spiritual aspect was life's blood. It was in everything that we did -- and give to others, doing for others, serving others -- and that's really the reason I'm here in Phenix City today is to serve others.

I believe this is a ministry. I do think it is a calling. So, those things -- who you are and what you do -- really develops what you become. And I would say everyone of those played some role, some facet in where we are today.

Why become an educator?

I went to Troy and my desire was civil engineering. I loved football. My plan initially was two years at Troy, transfer to Auburn, play at Auburn, get a civil engineering degree. Realizing that first wind sprint I didn't have the speed, I didn't have the speed to play linebacker at Troy, certainly did not have that speed to play at the next level.

I thought I was fairly good at mathematics. I knew that there was job security. I began dating my wife. She was an educator. Her dad was an educator. So, there was a lot of influence there. I saw it as a way to provide for a family and to help young people in some way, because Cathy and I were involved as youth ministers even before we got married.

I just felt led in that direction and the real emphasis was teaching mathematics, but the flip side of that -- and I would have to say for me it was probably 50-50 -- was the coaching aspect of it because I enjoyed football that much.

Where did you coach and for how long?

I did not coach for very long. I coached for four years at Troy -- Charles Henderson (High) is where I began. I taught at the middle school and then I taught at the high school. I coached with the late Jay Jeffcoat, who just passed this past year. Jay was instrumental in my life very early on.

Great coach.

Great guy, great person. And so I left to go to work at Luverne. My wife was from Crenshaw County and lived in Luverne, so that was a natural fit for us to get the family together. We were about to start to raise a family at that time, so I taught principals of technology -- which is an applied physics course -- with my mathematics background, and coached a year and a half there. So, total, I had five or five and half years. I was called to Highland Home as assistant principal. Became principal of Highland Home at 28 years of age.

Why do so many coaches track out of coaching and into administration?

I think it is somewhat natural, because so many develop that leadership ability as guiding and leading a group of young men, young women, whatever group that you're coaching. So, I think it's a natural progression for leaders to mature and grow into that of a school leader, school principal, administrator.

You weren't a physical education teacher or a driver's ed teacher. You were teaching applied physics, you were teacher upper level math, right?

Geometry was my favorite. I loved geometry.

Who loves geometry?

"Two parallel lines cut by a transversal, alternating interior angles are congruent." Love it! There is so much natural application in the world today that we're sitting in that is geometric. And it was the one math that made sense. What X is today, that may or may not make sense to me, but I understood geometry.

You were in Luverne, Crenshaw County, as the superintendent there. Your wife is from there. Y'all had to be comfortable down there, right?

Comfort bothers some people, and being comfortable lends itself to becoming mediocre. It lends itself to be good and we know that good is not a friend to great.

In order for you to continue to grow in life, you have to have challenges. And Crenshaw County was very challenging. We went in there and we went in there hard. We had an eight-year plan and we turned around and we looked and said in three years everything but the last chapter of board policy is done. Where do we go from here and what do we do from here? So, that was in the back of our minds, and knowing there was that need for personal growth and also knowing that there were other needs in the world, there was more to life than just Crenshaw County.

So yes, comfortable, but comfortable in a scary way. Some people can get comfortable and say, "This is it for me." My father-in-law used to tell me, "Randy, don't do it too fast, son." Because I went from by bachelor's to my master's to my EDS. He's like, "Spread it out some. If you're not careful you're going to accomplish everything, and can you win four terms, can you win five terms? You do well to win one and that's going to be the highest percentage that you probably will ever receive, and it's kind of downhill. How long can you last?"

And he was right. He was absolutely right. You need to think outside the box. You need to think down the road, and it was that thinking down the road that got us here.

So, what led you last year to say, "OK, I want to start looking at what other opportunities are out there?"

We knew that there was a need to, again personally and professionally, to look in other places, to just see what else God had in store for us, and I don't apologize for this having spiritual overtones. That's just who I am, OK, and I'm speaking the truth. So, when you start seeking that, you better have your running shoes on, doors begin to open. So, we went online and we began to complete applications and we looked at things and we studied things.

"We" being the team of you and Cathy?

Oh, absolutely. Everything we do is a family decision. And, of course, the boys are a little bit older now and they absolutely matter. We did look at things so the application process was completed and we were pleasantly surprised -- you don't always expect to get bites the first time you cast, but it came back positive and I knew there was something in store for us, just didn't know what.

Obviously, when you did your research for the Phenix City job you had to know there was some turmoil here.

I read every article that you wrote.

And Mark Rice?

Every one in the Ledger-Enquirer. And I did all of the research online.

And the uncertainty and the turmoil that was going on with Dr. DiChiara's departure and the situation with Coach (Woodrow) Lowe, none of that scared you off?

None of that scared me off especially after I dug a little deeper. Initially, you kind of looked at it and knew the potential was great, potential still is great, I don't know. So, after digging a little further -- and I had several superintendents that I had leaned on from the area, familiar with the situation that shed a little bit different light, friends that shed some different light on the situation here in Phenix City, said it was doable -- so we began to look at it.

Were you looking at it as a challenge or were you looking at it as an opportunity?

Both a challenge and an opportunity. Probably did not realize the challenge of the system in and of itself until I got into the chair and started looking at everything. The state department has a set of numbers as far as finances and so forth, and then you have your real numbers. So, that was eye opening, the legal opportunities that existed at that time. As you dig deeper there are other things that kind of creep into that mix and you're like, "OK, how are we going to handle that?" There were some unforeseen things in the mix out there that presented some initial challenges.

Like what?

Well, financially, you know. Our school system is doing quite well today. When we came in we had to make that 10 percent cut across the board, we had to pretty much cut out all the overtime, all the additional contracts, and this is no reflection on anyone -- it's just where the system had grown, so we had to curtail those things. I spent the day yesterday and the day before that looking at teaching units for next year, trying to develop a scheme and a plan so that we utilize state funds first and foremost instead of our local funds. So, growing that reserve to almost two months was very important, and I think either at this board meeting or the next board meeting, we'll see that. We are required by law to have at least one month in reserve. So, we're almost to two months. That's well ahead of where we planned to be.

How much is that in dollars?

About $9 million.

Are you glad you took this job?

Very much so.

No regrets?

None. No. None whatsoever. I don't live my life like that. You make a decision and you stick to it. People here have been fantastic. I can walk down these halls, I can go into any of our schools, I believe I can go in any place of business and people are going to respect you. ...

I want to talk a little bit about your family. You and Cathy have been married 26 years?

Twenty-six years. I'm almost 99 percent sure. We did 25 a year ago, Dec. 17.

You say y'all are a team.

We are absolutely. She is the best part of Randy Wilkes. The rest of it is filthy rags at best. She is by far and above the best thing about me.

What does your oldest son do?

Haden sells insurance with my brother, Greg, there in Troy.

And your youngest son, Ryan?

He's a junior at Troy.

Ryan is a special needs child, right?

Ryan has Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

What is Duchenne muscular dystrophy?

Duchenne is a terminal disease. In Ryan's particular case, his exons which build the muscle, he runs up to exon No. 45 and he does not have exon No. 45, so his muscles don't know how to react and respond in the muscle-building process. So they build pseudo muscle. His prognosis originally was that he would be in a wheelchair by 11, and that he would not live beyond 17.

Now, we can talk openly about these things because Ryan can talk openly about these things. Ryan has a tremendous testimony. He was diagnosed at age 7. We had no idea why he couldn't run to first base. We'd get on to him and he would get frustrated and he would go in the dugout at T-ball. Ryan was a real competitor then; he didn't like to get thrown out.

So, it became noticeable when he was playing T-ball?

It became very obvious then and we really just didn't know. He slept a lot. Ryan did not want to go to school. At Christmas in his Kindergarten year, something clicked or Ryan may have dropped out before he ever got started. When he was 7 after we went to the beach for spring break, we took Ryan to his pediatrician in Montgomery and he asked Ryan to sit on the floor and he asked Ryan to stand up. I think the name is "Gower's maneuver" -- I may be mispronouncing that. The doctor went and got a book and came back into the room. On the cover of the book it had a child getting up off the floor the same way Ryan got up off the floor. He said, "I'm not saying, but I want you to know what I see." We had no idea what muscular dystrophy was.

What was that like?

It was the worst day of your life. We were not sure. You want to be in a state of denial. He made an immediate referral. I don't know how much time was between the pediatrician's visit and the visit to the specialist. He ran a blood test and the CKU level -- I hope I'm saying that correctly -- was out of this world, like 35,000 or something like that. and he came into the room that day and said, "Your son has Duchenne muscular dystrophy. And that's absolutely the worst day of a person's life.

You can deal with a lot of things in life, but your children, you know. So, we didn't know what we were dealing with. He immediately told us stuff like: increase his calcium intake, that he has to stay away from sweets -- this, that and the other. We went to so many specialist just to begin with just to see what we could do.

It was very discouraging to know that there's no cure. And today there is no cure. All you do is postpone. They were prescribing at that time -- some parents were opting in, some parents were not -- a cocktail of remedies is what they called it. We did everything from creatine-type shakes like we all used to take and lift weights to increase that creatine flow. He's still on almost 300 mg of Prednisone a week.

How has he progressed over the years?

Ryan is in school. The prognosis was not good at age 17. Ryan walked until he was a senior in high school until he broke his second femur. We went to doctors in Washington D.C., because domestically they were supposed to be the best. Cathy and I would take turns flying to Washington with him.

He was in the Montgomery airport in the rest room and slipped and broke his first femur. So, he had a titanium rod put in and the doctor told us that if you don't get him up and if he doesn't walk again in 48 hours, he'll probably never walk again. We took him home and there was a lot of anxiety when we got him in.

There was nothing made that allowed us to hoist him up into the upright position. We had high school football players, friends of his, to come over in the afternoons. We took a lift, if you will, that was hydraulic -- it was actually two different machines -- and developed him a harness to elevate him, with one player under each arm, and Cathy guiding the Hoyer lift there in our den and underneath, my job was to move his feet as the Hoyer moved.

I forget how many weeks it was, but Ryan walked again. Through pool therapy and through those football players coming over every night, they all took turns, they actually signed up to come over and help.

You and your wife are both teachers by trade. What has your son taught you?

Oh gosh, you don't make excuses. Whatever life gives you, you do the absolute best with it. There's no doubt that has prepared me to do this job here, no doubt. And I don't want to take anything from Haden because Haden is special in his own right and he adds so much in understanding ...

Are the brothers close?

Oh gosh, yes, absolutely. He's the one who gets the wheelchair ready and gets him places and when we'd give out at the zoo, he'd take over. Haden is a 6-foot-3, 250-pound young man and he didn't have any problem pushing his little brother wherever his little brother needed to go. So, yeah, absolutely. That resilience that he has. He had a final in Troy, Now, you've got to understand, he's 20 minutes from Troy every day. We have help to come in and get him ready to go, but he had a 102-degree temperature during one of his finals and during the winter. Most kids would have said forget it, I'm not going to do it. But he got up, he got his lift -- have you ever seen his truck?

No.

His truck's driver's side door and extended cap are welded together, so it moves out parallel, and the bottom of the truck drops down, so to speak, and he backs into that tray, locks himself into place, it picks him up, sits him underneath the steering wheel, and he has the hand brakes and everything. So, he has to do all of that just to drive 20 miles every day, sit through the class, take the final and come home. So, we offer a lot of excuses in life and we will not accept responsibility.

Ryan is the ultimate in "life is not fair." Let's understand that first and foremost. If anybody tells you life is fair -- I don't know who said that, who made that up -- but life is not. We don't all come into the world the same, but Ryan is one of those who says, "Here is an opportunity, let me capitalize on it today." And he gets up every day with a smile on his face, and he goes about his day and he does what he can.

What you said was the worst day of your life when you found out, has the journey with Ryan turned into a blessing?

As much as it possibly can be. And Ryan, again, has taught us this. Ryan has grown to -- I don't know if acceptance is the proper term -- but he understands what he's dealing with in life. Ryan is now teaching on Monday nights a class on testimonies. It's a tremendous testimony, but he's teaching others how to do that. To use the word "journey," Cathy actually gave me for our anniversary a picture that sits on our wall that talks about the journey of life, never knowing where it will take you. We're on a journey, but we're on that journey together as a family and as a unit, so, yeah.

One of the things people don't realize is you never know what someone else is dealing with in their private life. You just make assumptions and move forward.

And God has opened many doors here in this capacity for others to come and say, "I know you're dealing with this; let me tell you what I'm dealing with and how would you deal with this?" Well, prayer, petition, patience -- you know, all those things. I read something in Monday's "Encouragement" that said basically this: I'm not an intelligent man, I'm not a genius by any means, but I am full of life experiences.

And it is taking those life experiences and being able to share it with others that just allows for others to grow, systems to grow, organizations to grow. It's the fertilizer out there, and if we've got those life experiences and we're not sharing them with others, we're probably not doing what we need to do.

This story was originally published March 21, 2015 at 6:45 PM with the headline "Sunday Interview with Randy Wilkes: 'Being comfortable lends itself to becoming mediocre'."