Mercury All-Area: Brady Welsh’s team-first approach leads to breakout season for Spring-Ford boys lacrosse

Unselfish players who leave individual accomplishments on the backburner are the dream of any coach at any level. But in an era of robust player movement – free agency in professional sports, an active transfer portal in the NCAA, even high school “super teams” and emerging travel teams in youth programs – the team-first concept is a harder sell.

But if every player and team were like Brady Welsh and Spring-Ford lacrosse, the concept would explode in popularity.

A midseason position change helped ignite Spring-Ford’s recovery from a slow start, and Welsh’s record-setting performance spearheaded Spring-Ford’s third consecutive Pioneer Athletic Conference championship along with the school’s second all-time berth in the PIAA 3A tournament.

Attackman? Midfielder? Whatever you call Welsh, the Spring-Ford junior is our 2024 Mercury All-Area Boys’ Lacrosse Player of the Year.

A school record 87 goals and a 1st team All-State nomination took care of the individual accomplishments, but it was the PAC title and return to states for the first time since 2017 that made the season truly special for Welsh.

“I say it a lot, but everyone on this team had confidence in one another to make plays,” Welsh said. “It just happened that I was the one in that position a lot of times.”

Just last season, another high-scoring Spring-Ford standout, Justin Wixted, received the Player of the Year honor. But coach Kevin Donnelly said there was no emphasis on putting Welsh or any other player in the position of replacing Wixted’s production.

“We’re just looking for every player to do what they do best, get everyone involved throughout the season,” Donnelly said. “Brady did an awesome job, but there was no pressure for him to be the guy.

“Because to be honest, he was supposed to be a midfielder this year.”

Unfortunately, the Rams’ season couldn’t have gotten off to a worse start. Nonleague losses to District 1 runner-up Springfield-Delco and past PIAA champion Avon Grove were understandable, but even more potentially damaging were a couple of season-ending injuries sustained by pivotal Spring-Ford players in those games.

Suddenly asked to play a new position in his junior year – a pivotal season for an athlete who plans to continue his lacrosse career at the next level – Welsh instead found himself encouraged by his coaches’ faith in him, rather than intimidated by the challenge placed in his hands.

“Playing attack isn’t exactly new to me,” he explained. “The person guarding you has a longer stick, but if that’s where I can best help the team, I’ll make that move no questions asked.”

Of course, he did more than just help the team. Spring-Ford used a spring break trip to Florida to regroup after the tough start and proceeded to reel off 14 wins in their 15 remaining regular season contests, with Welsh getting to sprinkle in a few personal highlights, including his 100th career goal on April 26 against Phoenixville, and a six-goal outburst four days later as the Rams conquered archrivals Perkiomen Valley in overtime.

As the season progressed, Spring-Ford’s struggles turned into a team finding its way, picking up momentum-building non-league wins against Souderton and Pennridge and starting off 4-0 in PAC play. One key was the depth of the midfield unit – even with Welsh considered an attackman, Spring-Ford’s midfield put three players on our All-Area first team, including seniors Ian Evans and Hayden Wedemeyer, plus junior short-stick specialist Sean Hassis.

“Everybody in our midfield group, we have 100 percent faith for them to play at a high level. There’s no drop-off throughout that unit, and there was no concern with me moving to attack,” said Welsh.

Despite a loss to Owen J. Roberts in April, Spring-Ford claimed the top seed for the PAC Final Four as the Rams looked to three-peat as league champions. But six weeks of work righting the ship was almost undone by an upstart group of Vikings – the ones from Upper Merion, not the archrivals from Perkiomen Valley.

With everything to play for, there was no letdown, no overlooking an opponent – Upper Merion simply outplayed Spring-Ford for the first 47 minutes of the PAC semifinal and had the Rams on the ropes with an 8-6 lead. But a furious comeback in the final 45 seconds got the contest to overtime, where Wedemeyer’s third goal ended the game and kept the title hopes alive.

For Brady Welsh, it wasn’t a vintage performance – a three-point night is nothing to sneeze at, but the offense was kept in check for large stretches yet found a way with their backs against the wall.

“That game showed everything you need to know about our team,” said Welsh. “We were down, om the ground and trying to crawl back into it. Two goals in the last minute is not something you see every day, but our seniors (Preston Page, Evans, and Wedemeyer) were the ones to get the goals and get us back into it.

“After that, we knew our PAC (championship) streak was not going to end.”

That prediction became reality two days later when Spring-Ford avenged its lone conference loss with a 11-7 championship triumph over OJR. Welsh and senior Mike Bendowski led the way with hat tricks, and sophomore goalie Dylan Cyr kickstarted his late-season emergence with 13 saves.

“Every game, guys stepped up,” said Welsh. “It’s funny, we tended to play strong first halves or strong second halves. But that night, I felt like we clicked pretty well the whole way.”

The trend continued in the District opener with Central Bucks East, Welsh firing four tallies in a 13-8 victory, but an 8-6 setback at Downingtown East left the Rams in a do-or-die playback with Ridley one week later.

Again, Welsh led the way with four goals in clinching the first trip to states for the current Spring-Ford group with a 13-9 win over their Central League opponents.

“I think the key to that game was two days earlier,” he said. “Even though we lost to Downingtown East, we were down 6-1 at halftime. But our senior class, those guys had no quit and that carried over to the rest of us. We got back into that game, and by the time we came back to play Ridley we knew the task at hand.

“It’s a good memory to qualify for states, but I think we all wanted to make it further in Districts, take it a step further.”

Instead, the Rams would try to take that next step two weeks later when they traveled to District 1 champion Garnet Valley for the opening round of the PIAA 3A tournament.

The local high school lacrosse community is becoming more vocal about the importance the District 1 tournament should play in determining matchups for states. After all, six of the eight opening-round matchups ended in double-digit margins, yet it was Garnet Valley, champions of the state’s toughest District, in a dogfight with Spring-Ford until the buzzer.

Welsh’s and Spring-Ford’s season ended that night by the slimmest of margins, 8-7. But it was the game he pointed to that best summarized the 2024 Spring-Ford lacrosse team.

“Coach (Chuck) Baker really set this in stone after that game. He said that if you put it all on the field, play your best and a great team beats you… you can’t really be upset after that,” said Welsh. “Obviously, it’s motivation for the future. We want to work hard and get back and go further in states. But it’s a blessing to get to that point and I feel like we made a lot of that opportunity.”

And that’s the best news for Welsh – he has one more opportunity coming back for his senior year at Spring-Ford. The Rams need to replace several elements of their outstanding midfield, plus starters on attack and defense, but with another year of experience plus the return of several aforementioned injured players, Spring-Ford stands an excellent chance of being back in that same spot – or better – in a year’s time.

Meanwhile, Welsh is in the midst of a busy summer, playing for two local club lacrosse teams as well as preparing for his senior football season as a returning All-Area linebacker for the Rams’ defense.

“We encourage these guys to play any sport they like,” said Donnelly. “I think there are so many benefits to being a multi-sport athlete. The seasons are defined pretty clearly, so we just try to also encourage them to keep their sticks in their hands during that season as well, staying ready to go.”

“It’s a balance – you lose some weight during the season, so you’re trying to build back up in the weight room,” said Welsh. “But the two sports correlate well, they’re pretty similar training wise. It allows me to be as active as I can. I don’t think playing multiple sports can hurt you; I see lots of guys in club lacrosse who are playing football, and it only benefits you athletically and makes you more versatile.”

But Welsh knows his future at the next level is in lacrosse. “I think originally, football was kind of my first love. If I wasn’t playing lacrosse, maybe I’d look more into playing football (in college) but I think my future is in lacrosse.”

Don’t rule anything out, though. As he proved in 2024, versatility is Brady Welsh’s strong suit – and he’ll do anything to help a team.