Detours and obstacles cluttered his path, but Pat Welch has finally arrived at the place he always wanted to be – accepting a full scholarship offer to play Division I basketball for the University of South Carolina Upstate.
“I’m where I wanted to be and in the end I think it’s better that it took me a few extra years to get here,” said Welch, who graduated from Pembroke Academy in 2014 and signed with USCU on Wednesday. “I’m a way more mature player and person now. So I think it’s better that I took the road I did to get to South Carolina Upstate.”
Upstate, which is located in Spartansburg, S.C., and plays in the Atlantic Sun Conference, doesn’t often take players from junior college, which was one of the stops on Welch’s winding road. But USCU Coach Eddie Payne began recruiting Welch out of high school and he’s always seen something special in the 6-foot guard.
“We have a lot of familiarity with Pat and I’ve always liked his enthusiasm, his attitude about playing basketball. He plays with a certain love,” Payne said. “He just really enjoys playing basketball and he has what I would term an infectious nature about himself.”
Welch led Pembroke Academy to back-to-back state titles in 2013 and 2014. He was named the D-II Player of the Year in ’14 after averaging 24 points per game, only to see the award stripped away two days later after a regrettable tweet.
Welch wanted to go straight to Upstate from Pembroke, but instead spent a year at Notre Dame Prep in Fitchburg, Mass., hoping to land a better scholarship offer from USCU or another school. An injury kept him out of the most important tournament of the season and the offers never came.
After his year at Notre Dame, Welch was scrambling for his next school. That’s when Kyle Perry, the assistant at Upstate who had been recruiting Welch, suggested Southern Georgia Technical College. Perry knows the athletic director at the junior college, James Frey, which opened the door for Welch. And when Travis Garrett, the head basketball coach at Southern Georgia Tech, met Welch, he saw a young man who had faced some bumps in the road … and Garrett liked it.
“There was a certain toughness and resolve that he had, and I knew that he’d come in and fit in and make himself feel at home, and that was the case,” Garrett said.
The obstacles, however, kept coming. Welch suffered a partially torn MCL halfway through his first season at Southern Georgia Tech, which is 150 miles south of Atlanta in Americus, Ga. He could have called it quits on the season or even his career. Instead, Welch stayed in Georgia, went through rehab and not only did he get back on the court, he became a starter for the Jets, which is exactly what they expected.
“He’s what I call an every day player,” Garrett said. “He’s been a leader for us every day. He comes and works extremely hard for us every day, whether it be practice, shoot around, obviously in games, or in the community.”
Welch was one of only three returners for the Southern Georgia Tech team this season. He was named a team captain and started at point guard from day one. A prolific scorer in high school, Welch has transformed into a do-everything point in college. But when buckets are needed, he can still bring it.
Welch hit the game-winning shot, a 3-pointer with 4 seconds on the clock, in the Jets’ 76-74 win over Gordon State in the first round of the NJCAA Region XVII Tournament. Welch’s season stats (9.6 points per game, 2.1 assists, 1.8 rebounds) weren’t gaudy, but they didn’t tell the whole story.
“For my philosophy of the game, he was the ultimate player,” Garrett said. “He made big shots, he guarded the other team’s best player … people would try to crowd him and he would just blow by them and make a play. He’s a complete combo guard. He can drive it, he has a mid-range game and he can really shoot it.”
Despite the stellar season, Welch still wasn’t sure where the road would take him after Americus. Upstate had stayed in touch, and other schools showed interest, but nothing concrete was on the table. That began to change when Payne set up a meeting with Welch in late March.
They got together at a BBQ restaurant in Atlanta where the coach put his potential future point guard through one final interview. Payne liked what he heard and two days later, he offered Welch the full D-I basketball scholarship that had always been his dream.
“One of the things that we really liked about Pat was here was a young man that went down to a totally foreign environment in Georgia and excelled and demonstrated leadership,” Payne said. “He did a lot of things that I feel we need from a leadership perspective. So we knew him, we liked him, we knew a lot about him and I think that he can provide not only regular basketball contributions, but he has the ability to affect us from an intangible perspective, and I think that’s what a good point guard will do for you.
“We’re real pleased he’s coming.”
Garrett believes that Welch can “slide right on in (at Upstate) and be a big-time contributor to their program right away.” Payne, whose team went 17-16 last year, believes the same.
“We don’t bring junior college players in unless we think they can help us right away, so that’s what we’re expecting and anticipating out of him,” Payne said.
Welch is expecting the same, and he’ll keep working to make sure it happens. He’s finishing classes at Southern Georgia Tech in two weeks and then he’ll come home for the summer to work out with the Granite State Raiders and Frank and Matt Alosa, his former high school coach. Welch wanted to make sure his parents, Bill Welch and Christina DiBernardo, and the Alosas got credit for helping him navigate his twisting road. And at the same time he’s already preparing for the next detour.
“The main goal is to go get a degree from a four-year school. Basketball is going to end one day, so you have to get ready for what’s next,” Welch said. “And the best part is, I don’t have to pay for it now.”
He may not have to pay like most students do, but on his way to that coveted D-I scholarship, Welch put in the work to pay his own price.
(Tim O’Sullivan can be reached at 369-3341 or tosullivan@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @tosullivan20.)