Wellington won a golf state championship in 1983 and 2021… both teams had a Saffell
Steve and Blake Saffell, winners of two different state championship teams.
by Tracy McCue, Sumner Newscow — It has been 38 years between state championships for the Wellington High School golf program. And state championship trophies are not the only thing the 1983 and 2021 teams have in common.
Both teams contained a Saffell. Steve Saffell was a member of the 1983 team. His son Blake Saffell is a member of the 2021 team.
One day after returning from Dodge City, the site of the two-day Class 4A State Tournament last week, Steve was asked whether his state championship or his son’s state championship meant more to him. Steve said emphatically:
“Oh, my son’s, most definitely.”
Blake would then joke: “Well, Dad that was a long time ago. You probably just forgot how you felt.”
There is no doubt these are good times at the Saffell residence and naturally comparisons of those teams from separate eras will forever emerge in this household.
When asked which team would win if somehow we could travel through time and meet in another dimension, both Steve and Blake immediately piped in that “their” team would win. But after talking for a while, one could tell neither could emphatically say they would win.
“I think probably they would win,” Blake conceded later in the conversation. “It just depends on a lot of things. But golf was just so much harder back in those days.”
Not granted Blake was not around back in those days to justify making such a statement. But he has heard the stories and has seen the equipment.
“It really is so hard to compare golf today to the way it was back then,” Steve said. “Everything is so different. Not only has the equipment changed but so have the golf courses. You would have never heard of any high school player back in my day driving the ball over 300 yards. Now kids are doing it all the time.”
Perhaps a little comparison is in order.
1983 Wellington golf team. Saffell is third from right holding the state championship trophy. (Click to enlarge)
1983 –
Wellington’s state championship team under head coach Max Bretches was a group of six individuals who included Evan Northbrook, Daren Wisel, Eric Northbrook, Steve Simpson, Bobby Wilson and Saffell. A seventh golfer Scott Johnson did not play in the state championship tournament that year but consistently was good enough to compete with the Crusaders’ top golfer.
“I think the advantage that 1983 team would have is we didn’t have just one great golfer,” Steve said. “We had seven really good golfers, who could win a high school golf tournament on any given day. We had so much depth.”
For example, in the 1983 4A Kansas State Golf Championship which incidentally was played at the Wellington Golf Club, all six golfers finished with scores that were just six strokes apart.
Coincidentally, Steve was also a state individual runner-up just like his son was on Tuesday. He shot a 75 that May 16. Eric Northbrook shot a 76, Wilson a 78, Simpson 81, Wiseley 81, and Evan Northbrook 81. And it was that way throughout the year. It wasn’t uncommon to have a different Crusaders win a different tournament each week.
But while shooting a 310, as this team did in the 4A state meet, would be an average score for the 2021 team, the circumstances were different.
The woods were so much more unforgiving – unlike the aerodynamic lighter graphite shafts we have today. The balls were worse. It was common to replace your ball after only four holes because it would become ‘wobbly’ as Steve would put it. If you hit the ball flat, it wasn’t uncommon to split it apart. The shoes were heavier back then and uncomfortable. And even the gloves were not all that helpful. Today’s golf equipment is simply better in every single aspect.
But it wasn’t just technology, even the Wellington golf course was different. Back in the day, instead of cutting the pines high, the golf course workers allowed the trees to live in their natural state. That meant there were more lost balls and penalty shots to be had. The Gills of the 1980s also slickened the greens and allowed the rough to grow more readily than they do today.
“It was just harder to play golf in the day,” Steve said. “I think these young golfers would have had to make some significant adjustments.”
The 2021 Kansas State boys golf champions. (Photo by Luke Smith) (Click to enlarge).
2021
Blake said he would have welcomed the challenge, and said other than the woods, the golf irons and putters were not that much different. He thinks he personally could play par golf with 1980s equipment and believes his teammates could have done the same.
“But we would have had to play very well,” Blake said. “When we are good we are really good. But the trouble is, we are not that consistent.’
The 2021 team — consisting of Blake, Deitrek Gill, Jace Lawrence, Peyton Linker, Laken Smith, and Brett Wyckoff — can claim one thing the 1983 can’t: an undefeated season, winning every tournament they played in. Steve would push back and say that this team never played a championship tournament as they did in 1983 during the regular season that had the best 36 teams in the state.
Blake countered they still were able to beat every team on their schedule and they never had a chance to play a team like Kapaun, which won the Class 5A title and maybe the best high school team in the state throughout the classifications this year.
Steve said Steve Gill, the former Wellington Golf Club pro, suggested settling the matter by having the two teams battle it out together. Sure the 1983 team is now a group of 56-year-old geezers, but the wrinkle would be they would have to use 1980s equipment. Nobody would doubt that would be a lot of fun.
Freshman Blake Saffell wins the Class 4A Regional at the Wellington golf course in 2018.
All in the family
Nevertheless, while the 1983 vs. 2021 golf team debate will never be resolved, the chances of having a father and then a son on the last two-state championship teams 38 years apart are quite incredible.
But Steve claims to have contributed nothing to Blake’s golf success thus far other than a financial and paternal one.
“I have never taught him anything,” Steve said. “In fact, Blake has never had an official lesson. He’s been pretty much self-taught.”
There was never a demand on Blake to play golf as his father did.
“I didn’t care what he played,” Steve said. “We just have one rule in the house. It doesn’t matter what you do, just as long as you stay busy.”
Blake was at a crossroads when he was 12 and ready to play Babe Ruth Baseball – play either baseball or golf. Blake said he chose golf because he liked the golf culture.
It turned out to be a good decision. Blake ended up a state runner-up in golf and qualified in every state tournament his high school career except in 2020 when there was none.
He has played in several KGA tournaments, and holds the Wellington course record by shooting a 59 on Nov. 6, 2020 (see story here). He is now on his way to Hutchinson Community College where he will play for the Blue Dragons who just won their first NJCAA Division I national championship this spring.
His eventual goal is to play division 1 golf and, who knows, after that.
“I want to win the Masters,” Blake smiles, who doesn’t seem to lack in confidence.
Wellington has now won two state golf championships with a Saffell. If there is another newspaper article in 2059 writing about another Wellington state golf championship with a Saffell as a member – then that would be quite the story.
