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Thursday, June 28, 2018
Lauren Welker doesn't remember the first time she was exposed to Southeast Missouri State soccer. That's because it's just always been there, omnipresent in her backyard and linking her past to her present to her future.
The Jackson standout remembers her early days in the sport, going to Southeast soccer camps and playing for Southeast Missouri Soccer Club; she remembers running drills for Paul Nelson, assistant coach at SEMO and SMSC's guiding force, as she built her foundation in the sport.
When high school arrived, Welker broke into the varsity starting 11 at Jackson even as a freshman -- no small achievement at a Class 4 school that has boasted some of the top talent in the area.
In this May 26 photo, Jackson's Lauren Welker kicks the ball away from Fort Zumwalt West's Ashlyn Nichols during the second half of a Class 4 state quarterfinal in Jackson.
Fred Lynch
Even then, the presence of Redhawks soccer loomed. In her first season, she walked into a locker room that featured senior Jordan Nelson, a two-time Semoball Awards Girls Soccer Player of the Year and daughter of Paul and SEMO head coach Heather Nelson. A year later, Jordan left to play at Southeast and in walked younger sister Taylor. All of this, of course, meant that mom and dad were never far away, with eyes fixed closely on Jackson soccer.
"Lauren was a really interesting situation because I've been here longer than she's been alive," Heather Nelson said, "so I have watched her soccer career unfold in front of me. For Lauren, she's always looked the part."
On the field, Welker was developing from an impact player into a gamechanger. As a sophomore she was already a second-team all-state selection, and as a junior she was a first-team pick, the All-Region Co-Player of the Year and a Semoball Awards finalist, scoring 34 goals for Jackson, with coach Justin McMullen calling her "without a doubt the best player I have coached."
This spring she matched those honors and has added another: 2018 Southeast Missourian Girls Soccer Player of the Year.
As a senior, Welker scored 21 goals and tallied 19 assists, balancing her output and finding ways to help a team that had graduated experience and talent suddenly break through its glass ceiling.
The forward's ability to menace opponents every time she touches the ball is a big reason that Southeast soccer is also a part of her future -- she signed with the Redhawks in February and now, in a matter of weeks, will be embarking on her college career. But for her final act as a high school player, she helped Jackson girls soccer reach new heights.
2018 All-Missourian Girls Soccer - Lauren Welker - Jackson High School
BEN MATTHEWS
Momentous
For all the quality teams Jackson girls soccer has put on the field, getting beyond a district title always proved a bridge too far. In Class 4 -- the largest in Missouri high school soccer -- the sectional round inevitably means wading into the wide ocean of St. Louis, where talented rosters prove just too deep.
But this spring a young, hopeful Indians squad found things falling just right for it, and Welker made sure the opportunity did not go wasted. On May 22, Jackson traveled north to take on Hazelwood Central. Fourteen minutes in, Welker had a hat trick under her belt as the Indians won a sectional game, 7-0, for the first time since 2013.
2018 All-Missourian Girls Soccer - Grace Pehle and Lauren Welker - Jackson High School
BEN MATTHEWS
Four days later, Jackson edged Fort Zumwalt West in a 4-3 thriller to gain a state berth for the first time ever, with Welker picking up an assist.
None of that excitement matched the thrill of a first-ever trip to the final four. It was there the Indians battled Park Hill through 80 scoreless minutes of a semifinal and into extra time, where a single bounce can change everything. Jackson didn't get that bounce, and a 1-0 overtime defeat left it just short of the championship game.
"In the moment, when they scored, it was definitely heartbreaking," Welker said. "It was in overtime and we were like, 'Wow, we can do this,' and we had a lot of hope. I don't have any regrets (personally or) for our team either. I think we all played to the best of our ability and gave it all we had.
"It was super exciting to go to state. Our emotions were all super high, and just exciting to be there. We had a lot of adrenaline and energy going up there. Now that it's over I'm just reminiscing and looking back on it and it's kind of sad that it's over."
But with every ending comes a new beginning.
Saxony Lutheran's Masyn McWilliams, left, and Jackson's Lauren Welker battle for possession during the second half of the championship game in the Noon Optimist Club Girls Soccer Tournament Saturday, March 24, 2018 at Cape Girardeau Central High School.
Fred Lynch
The future
As a young soccer player, college soccer just seemed like a natural progression of Welker's passion.
"I didn't think all that much about it, I just thought that I loved soccer so much I'd always want to play in college and wouldn't want to stop after high school," Welker said.
As she began high school and moved from SMSC into clubs in the St. Louis area, she decided that if she loved it enough to make that kind of commitment, playing at the next level just made sense.
Ultimately, the long relationship she developed with the Nelsons flowered into the opportunity she was looking for.
"I think it's more of a personal relationship than it was with other coaches I had talked to," Welker said. "I just really felt like they cared about me as a person and as an individual and about my success, not only on the soccer field but off the soccer field. It was definitely different in that way."
Welker's only seriously considered one other college -- Troy, where former Saxony Lutheran standout and 2016 Semoball Awards Girls Soccer Player of the Year Maddie Brune plies her trade -- before making the decision that playing in front of family under familiar coaches just made sense.
Certainly, Heather Nelson didn't need much convincing. She says future Division I college players typically flash their potential by the time they are 11 or 12 years old, and she had been watching Welker flash hers since even earlier.
"She's just been one of those kids who loves to play," Nelson said. "She has an endless work rate and she's got that -- and always has -- that mentality of taking (defenders) on, which is, unfortunately, kind of unique in the women's game. We're just built more to share, you know? Sometimes to the detriment of the team. I think Lauren has been fortunate to have coaches that have continued to probably protect her in some ways and really instill that those traits are really valuable in the game."
Nelson gives credit to husband Paul and former Redhawk Steph Kulavic for working with Welker at a young age, recognizing her ability and developing her into a well-rounded player who is naturally right-footed but can play on either wing as well as either outside back position -- something she was charged with doing on the fly last summer for club side St. Louis Scott Gallagher in the Elite Clubs National League national tournament.
That versatility, when partnered with dynamic speed and ball control, creates a scenario in which it's quite possible she's an immediate contributor this fall at Southeast.
Nelson has proven in the past she's not afraid to play freshmen, and the opportunity is there for Welker to do that as well, though where she fits is up in the air. The Redhawks' system leaves room for her to play as an attacking winger or to step in as an attack-minded fullback that provides width all the way up the field.
"I feel very confident her transition into college is going to be very smooth because of the level she's played at and all the experiences she's had," Nelson said. "I think she's going to get off to a great jump start. It's always difficult coming into college because it's the first time you're playing with other people who are all-stars and have been in that environment for three years or four years. Very different ... [In high school], the best players are already starting as freshmen if they're good enough to play in college. They walk into a starting position. Whereas here, our very best players -- our Lauren Kaempfes, who's been a captain, Maddie Karsten, or even Esmie Gonzales -- they'll all tell you that confidence that initial season, it's tough. I don't care how good you are, it's tough."
Welker is going in with her eyes wide open and ready to learn. She says she doesn't know exactly what to expect and as such, her biggest focus is on soaking it all up, with her only expectation that there will be so much she doesn't already know.
"I don't really know what my expectations are or what I think is going to happen, but I'm definitely just going to work really hard and just try to prove myself," Welker said. "Whatever the outcome is, that hopefully is good. I'm just going to try to do my best and prepared for everything."
Gallery photos
One thing she will know is a familiar teammate -- former Jackson standout and three-time Semoball Awards finalist, Cassidi Tomsu. The attacking duo played together during Welker's first two years of high school, and will now be reunited in SEMO uniforms. Tomsu, as well, is looking to make a name for herself, missing the last season and a half due to injury, which she's still working back from.
"I'm really looking forward to that (reunion)," Welker said. "Even though I'm staying close to home, it's kind of nice to have somebody there I can go to and ask questions to that I would be nervous to ask someone else. So I'm really excited to be able to go to her for anything, really, and for her to be there as a motivator to get better and work hard in practice and everything."
Nelson says two things have her looking forward to getting Welker into the mix: all the feedback she's gotten about Welker's strong character as a person, and her ability to put mistakes in the past quickly on the field.
"When it comes down to what's the next most important thing in that time frame between failure -- which you have a lot of as an attacking winger -- and resetting yourself, for her, she's way ahead of the curve for the age she is," Nelson said. "That's super exciting for me, as an athlete."
"When you talk about Lauren, we, as a staff, talk about, unless something happens and there's an injury or something, we all feel she will earn her way on the field very, very quickly."
That's something she's been doing her entire career, and while she expresses sadness in leaving behind beloved friends and coaches at Jackson, she can take solace in knowing she'll be under the watch of someone who has seen her experience all the highs and lows that have brought her to this point.
"I think, watching and from about 9 years of age to 17 or 18 years of age," Nelson said, "it was pretty cool to see the whole thing come together."
