Sonora's Dlyan Ford's comeback path back to state championship success

Sonora’s Dylan Ford had a nearly perfect sophomore year.

Ford was named Defensive Newcomer of the Year in District 7-2A football, starred on the varsity basketball and tennis teams and finished off the year as the Class 2A boys golf state champion.

Since picking up a golf club at six years old, golf has always been Ford's biggest passion. He said his father introduced him to golf after taking him on an outing and watching him swing a club – by seven years old, he was playing in youth tournaments.

“I like to put in a lot of work at practice,” Ford said. “Whenever I have free time, I go to the golf course. We have a light out at our driving range, and I’ll go out there at 10 at night on Saturday or even on weekdays because I really like to go out there and practice.”

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Ford started off his high school career with a trip to the 3A state tournament and finished in seventh place. Even though Sonora moved down in classification the next year, he hit the ground running leading the boys golf team to a district championship and another trip back to the state tournament where he took home first place totaling 69 points on both days for a total of 138.

Coming into his junior year, Ford had many of the same goals. He wanted to increase his role on the football team, continue improving in basketball and tennis and, of course,  win another golf state championship.

A new goal he set for this year was to bring home a state medal with the rest of the boys team.

“I feel like if we could get a medal as a team that would be amazing,” Ford said. “We haven’t done that in a little while, but if we could place as a team, it would be really big for the community too because they support us so much.”

"I don't remember"

The year began swimmingly for Ford. The football team was first in its district and was ranked as high as eighth in the state. Everything was going according to plan until he noticed something off after a game at Anthony seven weeks into the season.

“I don’t remember hurting my knee at all during the game,” Ford said. “I just remember getting on the bus and I noticed my knee hurt. I woke up the next morning and it was all swollen, but I played the rest of the season with it… It really hurt but I just wanted to play with my teammates.”

After the football season ended, Ford went to the doctor to check on the pain he felt in his knee. The diagnosis was a torn meniscus, which meant he would miss out on the rest of the year and all of the goals he set for himself.

To hopefully save the rest of his season, Ford sought a second opinion from another doctor in San Antonio who gave him the good news he was looking for. He said the doctors confirmed his diagnosis of a torn meniscus, but he could return by golf season after some intense physical rehabilitation. Even though he would forego basketball, he could still defend his state golf title and help his team to the medal stand at state.

Ford said a large part of his belief he could return came from his support system in the community, his family and Sonora’s golf coach Mitch Kay.

“When all of that was happening, my thought was never the golf team or about the season,” Kay said. “My mind was totally on him because I know he lives to compete at anything he’s doing, and I wanted his mind to be okay with potentially not being able to compete. I was making sure that he understood he would be okay and that he would be able to rehab this and come back stronger.”

The journey back

Ford made it back to the greens but admitted he did not play his best golf this year because he did not feel fully comfortable with his game. After not playing the way he wanted at district, he said he needed to tweak some things and overcome a mental block that formed while rehabbing his knee.

A slight fix to widen his stance and he felt like he was back playing high-level golf again after the regional tournament. He finished second overall at regionals, scoring a 71 on the first day and a 75 on the second day, which he said was still not quite up to his standards. And even though Ford wanted to perform better individually, he helped the boys team beat New Home in a sudden-death playoff for the regional title – something last year's team did not do.

“I think (winning the play-off) was pretty big for our guys,” Kay said. “We struggled a bit on the front nine of the second day, but we brought it back together… I think it was big for our guys mentality moving forward.” The Broncos move forward to the Class 2A boys state golf tournament at Lions Municipal Golf Course in Austin from Apr. 29-30, where Ford plans to fulfill two goals he set this year, defending his title and helping the boys golf team onto the medal stand.

This article originally appeared on San Angelo Standard-Times: High School Golf: Dylan Ford's comeback to state championship