2025 Chesterton Athletics Hall of Fame: Zack Wellsand, Class of 2001

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans.com

Chesterton High School football tracks 12 categories and lists the school’s record-holder for game, season and career in each.
During his three varsity seasons (1998-2000), Zack Wellsand put his name next to 15 different records out of a possible 36: total yards: game (358), season (2,031), career (5,150); receptions: career (116); receiving yards: season (895), career (2,198); return yards: game (177), season (622), career (1,346); points: game (30), season (138), career (254); TD receptions: game (4), season (12), career (26).
Wild numbers, but none as impressive as one from his junior season. Wellsand averaged 41.9 yards on his 23 touchdowns, scoring them via receptions (12), rushes (seven), kick returns (two) and punt returns (two).
His shortest of the 23 touchdowns, a reception, went for 11 yards. His longest, on a kickoff return, went for 91.
The yardage on TD receptions: 11, 12, 16, 17 (twice), 23, 26, 34, 36, 37, 39, 88; rushing TDs: 13, 29, 34, 43, 49, 60, 62; kickoff returns: 89, 91; punt returns: 44, 50.
Those are outrageous numbers more befitting a small-town 8-man football player, or a Gen Z player at the controls in a game of Madden against a Baby Boomer.
How did Wellsand, a 2001 CHS graduate who also set a record most 3's in a game (eight), single-season 3-point percentage (48.6) and free throw percentage in a season (91.6) in basketball and stood out as a sprinter and long jumper for the track and field team, post such phenomenal statistics on the football field?
The team had talent at every position, he said.
“Coach (John) Snyder was a great offensive coordinator, and our grade was one of the best in the history of Chesterton. We were huge, and we were athletic, and we were fast,” Wellsand said. “There had never been a team like that in Chesterton, and our defense was better than our offense most of the time. (Dave) Hyska was a manchild. He could bench press 400 pounds. He looked 40. We had great blocking, led by my lifelong friend Patrick Griffin and a great quarterback, Nick Bachman, great passer. Our fullback, Jon Miegl, was a stud and Scott Hernstrom could run the ball really well.”
Nice of Wellsand to spread the credit, but his numbers really were outrageous. So many explosive plays.
“Bennett Coulopoulos was a great downfield blocker and was a major threat in the passing game. He was so shifty and tough as nails,” Wellsand said, again sharing the credit.
Plenty of other players in the DAC got more touches, but nobody generated more excitement, more headlines, more compliments from opposing coaches.
Wellsand opened that 1999 season with three touchdowns, all on receptions, in Week 1. None of his four TDs in Week 2 came on passing plays. Instead, he returned a punt, rushed for two scores, and ran back a kickoff 91 yards.
He was just getting warmed up.
Wellsand topped himself in Weeks 8 and 9, combining for nine touchdowns, four on running plays, four on receptions, one on a punt return. In a 56-28 win over Crown Point, he scored four TDs on just eight touches and had three receptions totaling 129 yards.
His five-touchdown day came in a fall-from-ahead 42-35 double-overtime loss to Merrillville.
His first three touches on offense resulted in a 39-yard touchdown reception, a 34-yard rushing TD and then what according to the game story in the Chesterton Tribune might have been the most spectacular play of his career, a 62-yard TD run that featured him, “spinning out of at least eight tackles en route to a 62-yard touchdown that brought even Pirate fans to their feet.”
Afterward, Merrillville coach Jeff Yelton said of Wellsand, “I’m in awe of this kid. He just flat-out ran over our kids on that run. And in the air, oh my, can that kid catch the ball.”
Crown Point coach Dave Egofske: “Wellsand is just too quick, and he’s got great hands.”
Chesterton took a 7-2 record into first-round sectional against 2-7 Valparaiso, which the Trojans had trounced 48-21 in the regular season. The Vikings upset them, 21-17, on a night Wellsand accounted for 189 of the offense’s 224 total yards.
More of the same in his senior year: Explosive rushes, receptions and returns. He added punting to his duties. And the Trojans went 8-2 and won their first DAC title since 1971. Again, Chesterton fell short in a 28-21 loss to East Chicago Central, thanks to five turnovers, none by Wellsand.
“He was a great player and a super good kid,” said Wally McCormack, then an assistant on Bill Dorulla’s staff, now on Mark Peterson’s. “We can go a lot of years and not have a player as good as him. I’d take him back right now at his age. He could still help us. And people don’t realize how good a basketball player he was. You know Caitlyn Clark shooting from the logo? That’s what Zack was. He was a deadly shooter.”
Wellsand said he loved playing baseball but ran track instead because he was told by Coach Snyder, it would give him a better chance to play varsity football as a sophomore.
In younger years, by his recollection he was a ranked 38th nationally at age of 9 as a tennis player. He mentioned in a Vidette Times story on his tennis prowess that he wanted to grow up to play basketball at Notre Dame. Shortly thereafter, he received a box in the mail with a wide variety of Notre Dame gear and a note encouraging him to keep up his work ethic. It was signed by legendary Fighting Irish basketball coach Digger Phelps.
“Zack’s one of those guys if he gets out of high school and starts playing slow-pitch softball, he’s hitting home runs all over the place,” McCormack said. “If he went to soccer practice for a week, he would find a way to play on the soccer team. His dad and his uncles were all great players at Valpo. He was special.”
Zack’s father, Jack, and his four older brothers all are in the Valparaiso Athletics Hall of Fame. Jack played as tailback Eric Penick in “Rudy,” the movie about a Notre Dame walk-on football player. He also was a contestant on American Gladiators.
Wellsand said he was told he would be offered a full scholarship to Purdue, but on signing day that changed to a preferred walk-on spot. Might it have been his concussion history that caused the shift? To this day, Wellsand said he doesn’t know the reason. Without a scholarship, he decided to give it a go a year later, use the time to let his head heal and to boost his academics.
“Then something always happened,” Wellsand said.
Two fingers needed plastic surgery after an accident with a hedge trimmer. He cut his thumb on a table saw. The opportunity to play for Purdue came and went.
But he did play semi-pro football and for a minute thought he was on his way to an arena football career when he talked with a scout who saw him have a big game.
“I was playing quarterback against the Chicago Falcons and had three rushing touchdowns, one passing, a punt return for a touchdown, and an interception for a touchdown,” Wellsand said. “A Chicago Rush scout was on the sideline and said he had never seen anyone do that to their team and asked if I wanted to come try out for the Chicago Rush (of the Arena Football League).”
He said yes, of course, and the scout talked to Zack’s father about it. Then one question killed that dream.
“You’re 21, right?” the scout asked.
“No,” Zack told him. “I’m 19.”
The scout: “You have to be 21 to play in arena football.”
There goes that dream.
The timing didn’t line up for him, but he remains competitive, playing basketball at 5:30 in the morning on many Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, as well as golfing. And there was that flag football national title he shared with other top former high school players from the region in 2011.
His high school career had him competing in football, basketball and track, but it just as easily could have been tennis, basketball and baseball or golf.
He has no reason to regret his choices, and those landscaping accidents, those were toward a good end as well. He and wife DeAnna, extremely active in local charities, run Wellsand Landscaping and Hardscapes and have a staff of 47 employees.
DeAnna puts her Master’s degree in public administration to use handling policies and procedures, and Zack, who referred to himself as “more of a labor-in-the-field leader,” said he applies many of the principles that work for a successful football team to business.
“Developing our team members and creating a championship level culture is very important to us,” he said. “Several of our employees coach football still and bring that same attitude and effort to lead our team."
Zack and DeAnna have three children: Rowan, Sonny and Titan. They aren’t yet of high school age but remember the name: Wellsand. To hear Zack tell it, they inherited athleticism from more than just their father.
Not long after meeting DeAnna, Zack threw a football to her.
“She caught it with one hand,” Zack said. “Oh, we’re getting married. I’m already in love and then you catch like that?”