FOCUS THROUGH ADVERSITY WILL SERVE WELDON WELL ON THE LINKS
The defining moment of Kyle Weldon's high school golf career didn't come on an area course with a club in his hand. Instead, it came in a speech to his teammates after the death of their coach.
Weldon and the rest of his Parkway South teammates had just made the three-hour bus trip to Poplar Bluff immediately after attending the funeral of their beloved coach Mark Wade, who died five days before from an apparent heart attack. With the sectional tournament and a chance to qualify for state the next day, Weldon knew he had to rally his teammates. The talk was delivered in a Poplar Bluff hotel room.
"I told them no matter if we won or took last tomorrow, Coach would be proud of us," Weldon said. "We just had so many people at school telling us now we have to win it for Coach. And I told the guys, 'That's not it at all.'"
The players-only meeting came as a surprise to Jason Koehrer, who took over as South's coach after Wade's death.
"I got on the bus (the next morning) on the way to the tournament and I started to say the same thing to the guys," Koehrer said. "All the guys said, 'That's OK, Coach, Kyle already talked about that.' There's no doubt in my mind that it meant more to those guys hearing it from Kyle than coming from me."
Weldon led the way, shooting a 2-over 73 at Westwood Hills to tie Eureka's Matt Miklas for the individual sectional title. South shot 318 as a team, which tied Poplar Bluff for the team title and qualified Parkway South as a group.
In a season in which the St. Louis area had two individual state champions, Weldon's leadership through Wade's death and his strong play throughout the season has earned him Post-Dispatch All-Metro player of the year honors.
Weldon's leadership didn't end in Poplar Bluff. It continued at the state tournament in Springfield the following week.
While Weldon was shooting a Day 1 low round of 70 at par-71 Twins Oaks, he also was busy keeping up with his teammates. When holes criss-crossed, Weldon would stop to ask a teammate how they were doing or give them words of encouragement. South ended Day 1 with a team-low 311.
Unfortunately for Weldon, the good feelings couldn't carry over into Day 2. Weldon struggled on the front nine and found himself out of the running for the individual title. But a pep talk from Koehrer at the turn helped him refocus.
"Coach said we're still in it as a team," Weldon said. "Even though I might be out of it individually, we were still in it as a team."
Wade's motto was to "keep grinding." And in the ultimate tribute to Wade's memory, Weldon grinded through the final nine holes, going 1-over on the course's toughest stretch. Weldon finished third overall with a 70-78--148, and South finished fifth as a team at 633, just two strokes out of second place.
"I wasn't surprised at Kyle's leadership, just at the depth of it," Koehrer said. "He practices what he preaches. He grinds. He knows what to say at the right time."
Weldon's display of mental toughness and leadership in the face of extreme adversity is a fitting cap to a stellar high school career. He posted around a 1-over stroke average this season and won the Lindbergh Tournament by shooting a 70 at Pevely Farms. He won his district tournament with a 73 at Persimmon Woods.
But Weldon's biggest accomplishment came within conference play. He became the only player ever to go through the entire Suburban West Conference season unbeaten and untied. The Suburban West is perennially one of the tougher conferences in the state and has produced the likes of reigning NCAA champion Scott Langley, also a South alum.
But not even Langley went through the entire conference season unbeaten and untied.
"It's pretty cool, and I'm really proud of it," Weldon said. "You've got to be really consistent, and I was consistent this year."
Weldon, a senior, has been a top performer throughout his prep career. He finished second at state last season and was named first-team all-conference for the third consecutive year. He made second-team all-conference as a freshman despite missing the first part of the season with a broken ankle.
Now Weldon will take his game to Kansas State, where he plans to major in civil engineering or business. He also plans on taking his golf game to the next level, just as Langley did at Illinois.
"Just to see what he's done at Parkway South and then what I've done, they are pretty much the same numbers," Weldon said. "I understand that he made his biggest leaps in college, and I hope to do the same."
