When Wyeth Lynch arrived on the Williams campus in August of
1996 he did not have a concrete plan for where he was headed after
graduation, but for sure, becoming an owner of a barbecue
restaurant was nowhere on his radar screen.
A talented offensive lineman for the Ephs, who graduated with
First Team All-NESCAC, First Team All-ECAC New England honors and
was named to the Division II-III New England Football Writers Team,
Lynch learned the value of preparation while trying to crack the
Eph lineup.
"My first year I made the travel team, but was not really in
the plans to play as I was still coming off a shoulder injury from
wrestling in high school," recalled Lynch. "We lost at
Hamilton that year and Mike Whalen [offensive line coach] just
screamed at the seniors in the o-line and told them they stunk and
all I could think of was, what must he think of me? I looked up to
these guys. I knew right then I would always work my butt off to be
ready when I was called."
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| Wyeth Lynch
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That call came sooner than Lynch anticipated. Jogging out on the
field at Colby for the season opener in 1997, starting guard Lee
Kindlon suffered a freak injury.
"When coach Whalen told me to go in and play Lee's
position I thought maybe Lee was just having some equipment
problems," said Lynch. "I was totally lost out there on
the first series and if had not been for [All-American] center Ken
Becker telling me what to do on every play it would not have gone
well."
When Lynch came to the sidelines after the first series Whalen
asked him "How was it?"
"Great."
"Good, you're starting."
Lynch later became part of a three-man rotation with Lee Kindlon
and Rik Duggan.
Eph head coach Dick Farley, known for being obsessive about
preparation, also supplied plenty of direction. "Every year
coach Farley told us, 'a lot of good players have been here
before you, but you are not them. The days of getting off the bus
and winning are over.'"
Lynch's favorite Farley preparation moment came just
before camp senior year when he was working out with the seniors.
"Farley drove down the hill, across the practice field and
over to the equipment shed," recalled Lynch. "As he was
driving back across the field he rolled down the window and yelled
out, "It's a little late to start trying
now."
During preseason freshman year, Farley told the team, "I
hope you guys are in shape because we have more important things to
do than conditioning. If you're not ready and in shape, you
shouldn't be here."
Out of Williams, Lynch went to work in technology market
research for the Aberdeen Group in Boston. Three years later he was
laid off. A career in venture capital or private equity like his
dad's was where Lynch thought he'd head next.
As boredom set in, he started barbecuing for friends and family.
Then he met a professional barbecuer in Boston who'd been a
member of the team that won the Jack Daniels Invitational and he
started to think seriously about starting his own place.
The tough times for Lynch only increased when his older sister
Katie, who battled a connective tissue disorder, died. Katie had
been a huge influence on Wyeth. "Katie had just passed and
that had changed my whole outlook on life," stated Lynch.
"I decided that I didn't want to just have a job, but I
wanted to do something that I was excited about--something that
would make me want to get out of bed every day.
"It was strange. If I set my alarm to get up at 4:30 to
prepare meats for a barbecue, I'd wake up early, well before
the alarm went off, but on those days when I had an interview for a
different kind of job, I'd hit the snooze button and roll
over. I knew then that I'd found my passion."
Lynch's passion for barbecuing became a reality when he
opened his own place, SoulFire, four years ago.
"Preparation is the single most important aspect of
starting a business, especially one that deals with barbecuing
food. Most of barbecue comes down to preparation because preparing
and caring for the product are what the customer is paying for.
"Just like in football, in the barbecue business everyone
has to know what their job is and be prepared to do it well, while
also being ready for those things that you can't prepare for
that always come up. You can have a great night in the restaurant
and then you find out your basement is flooded. So, you just deal
with it because you have taken care of everything else."
After that Hamilton game his first year, Lynch found more ways
that Williams prepared him for what lay ahead. "The older
guys were now committed to doing things the right way every time
and then they made sure that the younger players knew what to do
and how to do it the Williams way."
It was that approach to preparation that helped push the Ephs to
two memorable wins over Amherst in close games that tested their
resolve.
"1997 was so emotional – we were up, we were down,
we were on the verge of defeat and then we put together the final
drive to win 48-46 on Colin Vataha's field goal," noted
Lynch. "We did not panic in that game, we were focused and
poised because we were prepared."
At home against Amherst in 1999, "we just had to grind it
out because our offense had trouble getting into gear," said
Lynch. "We did what we had to do because we prepared for a
day just like that." Lynch and the Ephs drove 88 yards in the
final five minutes of the game to win 10-7.
Several sports luminaries in the Boston area are frequent
visitors to SoulFire on Harvard Ave. in Allston, but the most
frequent of these visitors is former Celtics great turned color man
Cedric "Conbread" Maxwell. Little wonder then that
Wyeth noted that of all the offerings on his menu, cornbread would
probably be Katie's favorite.
"It took me three years to get to the break even point
with SoulFire," but I'm now in the fourth year and I
love it just as much as I did the first day and I am so happy I
took the opportunity to follow my passion," Lynch commented
as he finished preparing the reunion dinner for his Class of 2000
in the quad between Fayerweather and Fitch last June.
