In response to COVID-19, Wake’s Dave Clawson takes voluntary pay cut

Dave Clawson take a voluntary pay cut of 10 percent as Wake Forest University works to deal with the financial ramifications of COVID-19.

John Currie, Wake Forest’s director of athletics, who also accepted a drop in pay, praised Clawson: ​​​”I appreciate Coach Clawson’s leadership in immediately volunteering to join President Hatch, my fellow Cabinet members and our Academic Deans in taking a 10% pay cut to help protect the experience of all Wake Forest students amid the COVID-19 crises.”

These are tough times for a lot of people, on a global level; college athletics has dealt with a very real impact, too. The loss of the 2020 NCAA Tournament is serious financial blow. On Monday this week, after close to 50 years of competition, the University of Cincinnati discontinued its men’s soccer program.

Clawson was hired by Wake Forest to replace Jim Grobe in Dec. 2013. Since then, the program has experienced tremendous growth. After back-to-back 3-9 seasons to start his tenure, Clawson and the Demon Deacons have gone to four consecutive bowl games, which included a three-game postseason win streak, too (2016-18).

Overall, Clawson is 36-40 at Wake Forest. However, over the last four seasons, Wake Forest has 30 wins to just 22 defeats. Before the 2019 season, Clawson signed an eight-year extension with the university; that deal runs through the 2026 season.