Welch starting over again
By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Columnist
RANCHO CUCAMONGA, Calif. — No longer does University of Hawai'i football coach June Jones have to answer questions about, "Whatever happened to Gerald Welch?"
No more is Welch's former Saint Louis School teammate Tim Chang asked, "What is Gerald doing now?"
After two seasons of virtual seclusion on the Warriors' roster, Welch is starting at slotback and catching passes again, things he had seemed destined for when he first arrived at UH.
To understand the satisfaction in the long journey back into the lineup, you need only glimpse the grin that Welch leaves the field with after every practice.
"I'm having fun again," Welch said after a particularly arduous session in the sun here in preparation for tomorrow night's game at Nevada-Las Vegas. "This is what I've always wanted to do."
Catching passes for UH was what Welch had seemed preordained to do. Coming out of Saint Louis, where he had been a three-time All-State selection and scored 59 touchdowns, Welch and the UH run-and-shoot seemed made for each other, the swift 5-foot-7, 200-pounder and the quick-moving offense.
When Welch spurned Washington State and Utah to accompany Chang, his quarterback since the sixth grade, to Manoa, everything seemed in place.
With eight catches against Tulsa his freshman year, Welch was on his way. Or so it seemed. But weight problems followed by a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee did what few opponents had been able to do: take Welch out of action.
He played sparingly in 2001 and not at all in 2002.
"It was tough to see him working so hard in the weight room to rehab and not be able to play," Chang said.
"It was a struggle for him, but he's a warrior and he just kept working to get his shot," said receivers coach Ron Lee.
Welch, a junior, said rehabbing "was a grueling process, but I'd never quit at anything in my life and I wasn't going to start then. It was tough when I couldn't even bend my knee but I was determined to stick it out until I got back to 100 percent."
With the loss of Nate Ilaoa to a knee injury, Welch's experience was needed, and he seized the opportunity against USC with four catches for 43 yards.
"I was surprised he was able to come back that soon and that well," Chang said.
Finally, nobody is wondering what became of Gerald Welch.
Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044
