Welborn makes it four sets of brothers from Northwestern to play in Clash

When Loughan Welborn suits up for South Carolina in Saturday’s Clash of the Carolinas high school soccer all-star game, he’ll make Northwestern High’s fourth set of brothers to play in the game.

Welborn’s older brother, Julian, played in the 2014 game. Loughan Welborn was in the stands at Blackbaud Stadium for that experience, and Julian will be looking on Saturday when his younger brother takes the field.

“Making the all-star game means everything,” Welborn said on Thursday. “It’s the best 18 players in the state.”

Loughan Welborn will join his older brother on soccer scholarship this coming fall at USC Upstate. The two will live together in an on-campus apartment. It might bring back memories of playing soccer together as kids in their driveway, bashing a soccer ball against a wall for endless hours.

“Growing up and seeing how good he was basically set my goals for how good I wanted to be,” Loughan said.

▪ The previous three sets of brothers from Northwestern to play in the Clash of the Carolinas: Ben and Jamie Brannan were first, then Enzo and Alex Martinez and Dennis and Caleb Moore. Alex Martinez and Dennis Moore played together in the 2010 game, the last time the Palmetto all-stars beat North Carolina, with Martinez scoring.

Having sets of brothers has been a boon for Northwestern’s soccer program, especially under Dom Wren.

“Many of the successful teams that we’ve had have had older brothers that played for me,” Wren said. “The kids are around it at a young age, the younger brothers, and they see the impact the older brother has and they know about the program, the expectations.”

▪ Welborn will be joined by three other locals, Garrett Gerdes (Indian Land), Kevin Garces (Nation Ford) and Dylan Jones (Clover). No girls’ soccer players from the area were selected.

Garces was named The Herald’s All-Area boys’ soccer player of the year and Nation Ford coach Jon Jarrett said Garces plans to return to his native Colombia later this month for professional soccer tryouts. Of the four locals playing Saturday, only Welborn (USC Upstate) is slated to play college soccer at the moment.

▪ South Carolina’s boys haven’t won the Clash of the Carolinas since that 2010 match, only scoring once in five consecutive defeats, a goal assisted by Julian Welborn in 2014. Last year’s 7-0 win for North Carolina was the most lopsided in the nine-year history of the game.

The Palmetto girls’ all-stars haven’t had much success either, beating N.C. just once in nine tries. They have drawn two of the last three, though.

▪ The game is being held outside of Charleston for the first time. Raleigh’s Cardinal Gibbons School is hosting the all-star game - the only one in the country that pits neighboring states’ soccer all-stars against each other - this weekend.

This story was originally published July 8, 2016 at 1:11 PM with the headline "Welborn makes it four sets of brothers from Northwestern to play in Clash."