GOLF HAS SPECIAL MEANING FOR COACH: A former Marine, Edwards plays on VGA Tour

Dexter (and former Poplar Bluff) baseball coach Steven Edwards drives the ball during the Muleskinner golf tournament in August at Westwood Hills Country Club. A former Marine, Edwards has begun play on the Veterans Golf Association Tour and has had much success the past year.

DAR file/Mike Buhler

Steven Edwards is known to many in Southeast Missouri for his successes on the baseball diamond — first as a player at Poplar Bluff High School in the mid-1990s and later as a successful coach, first at his alma mater and now at Dexter.

However, there is another sport Edwards is passionate about — golf. When he is not coaching and teaching at Dexter, Edwards has begun playing on the Veterans Golf Association Tour.

Edwards’ father and his brothers all served in the United States Marine Corps, but he took a different route to joining the Corps.

Edwards played soccer and junior varsity baseball at Missouri Valley College, but after a couple of years at the school, he knew he wanted to follow in his family’s footsteps.

“I was able to excel in the Marines fairly quickly,” Edwards said. “After boot camp in San Diego, I followed that up with the School of Infantry at Camp Pendleton. Once I completed my schooling there, I was then given my orders to report to Security Forces at Chesapeake, Virginia, where I would be trained in various areas to perform my duties and gain my security clearance before being sent to Pax River, Maryland, where I was stationed.”

At Pax River, Edwards and his fellow Marines’ job was to guard and fly all over the world with the TACAMO Aircraft.

After his time in the Security Forces, Edwards was assigned to Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, where he became a Sergeant in a FAST Company.

“Our primary mission was to fly on helicopters in small teams to carry out missions as needed,” Edwards said. “These small teams consist of no more than 15 Marines. We were deployed all over the world within our rotation as different units do in the Marine Corps.”

After making Sergeant, Edwards re-enlisted for a second tour and planned to become a career Marine — but an injury while deployed overseas changed that.

“While healing back at Camp Lejeune, I was assigned to Classified Materials Chief for the Regiment of 2nd Marines,” Edwards said. “My duties were to ensure all classified materials were being handled and stored in the correct manner throughout the entire regiment. I was then later in 2002 medically retired from the United States Marine Corps under an honorable discharge.”

Several years after leaving the Marines, Edwards took up golf to deal with a family traumatic event and “the stresses that come with the daily grind of the unknown.”

“My wife Jennifer suffered a massive stroke and had to have brain surgery,” Edwards said. “She is unable to work and do a lot of things she used to be able to do. Being a husband, father, caretaker and everything that comes with your daily life was becoming more and more stressful on myself. But by no means have I endured what my wife has during this process.”

Edwards’ son, Nicholas, a student at the University of Arkansas, asked his father to join him on the golf course while home from college break.

“It was amazing family time and a little break from reality in a sense,” Edwards said.

From there, Edwards joined the VGA last year and has had a successful run on the tour, winning at Far Oaks in St. Louis. He finished in the top nine of all the tournaments played in and cracked the top three six times, including two first-place finishes. He also took sixth at the national tournament at Old Waverly in Mississippi.

Edwards was pleased with his play on the tour, especially in pressure situations.

“It was very comparable in coaching the Dexter Bearcats baseball team and preparing for a district championship run or a SEMO Conference championship,” Edwards said. “There are so many variables in a plan of attack in the golf game, like the ball game on the field of play that may occur or not. There were many times I had to adapt, adjust and overcome many different challenges to play as well as I did. This was the case all the way to the big final national tournament at Old Waverly in Mississippi. It was a little more special (since it was also) the Marine Corps’ 249th birthday when it took place.”

Edwards also has enjoyed being around others who have served their country in the Armed Forces.

“It is just different when you surround yourself around veterans versus your everyday friends or co-workers,” Edwards said. “My friends and co-workers all are very special to me and we have amazing relationships. But as many veterans will tell you, there are only so many things we like to share about our time in the military with those that did not serve.

“There is a sense of pride and honor when all of us veterans get together and spend time with each other. And yes, we are very competitive and always want to win. Getting to play with members of every branch of service and all ranks from generals to privates has been such a joy this past season. I have met so many great people I would not have if I did not challenge myself and join this tour.”

Edwards also plays to challenge himself as he challenges his baseball players at Dexter High School.

“As a head coach at Dexter High School for the baseball team, I am always trying to challenge the team to do many different things,” Edwards said. “And it is demanding and tough at times. So, I wanted to feel the pressure that I put on my players at times. I wanted to feel the pressure of being very uncomfortable in a sport that I did not think I was good at all. I was going to fight through adversity and grind every time I could to be my best version of myself on the course — the same as we ask for our ballplayers at Dexter High School.”

Edwards credits DHS athletic director Josh Dowdy for his support, plus a few others as well.

“We as coaches need to always be willing to learn and look for ways to better ourselves also,” Edwards said. “Along the way, I had a great friend, Jim Vaughan, (who is the recently-retired athletic director at Kennett who now work at Ozark Ridge Golf Course) that would help me with some great tips for the game. Between Coach Dowdy, Coach Vaughan, Bobby Godwin, my wife, my son, and brother Andy, I had plenty of support and people giving me advice along the way.”

And in playing on the VGA Tour, Edwards also hopes to reach some of his fellow veterans who might need an outlet or might just be looking to be around other veterans.

“Everyday, us veterans get to look at the Red, White and Blue colors fly wherever we are and we get that unexplainable feeling every time,” Edwards said. “We see the flag as something way more than just a flag waving in the air. We see it as a symbol of what we have here in the United States every single second of every single day. It is the comfort of knowing that those young military personnel are still upholding the same values we stood for.

“And everyone in the United States gets to live their life wrapped around by the security blanket of the Red, White and Blue, having the freedom to live their lives to the best of their abilities without having to do what someone else is willing to do for us. This is why so many military veterans will tell you why we are the greatest country on earth.”