Konlin Weaver Lifts Camden County to 9th Straight Wrestling Title

Written by: Phil Jones

Konlin Weaver is a two-time state champion for the powerful Camden County Wildcats wrestling team, having won his class in his freshman and sophomore years. Entering the GHSA Class 7A state wrestling championship earlier this year, the wrestler known as “Tank” helped lead his team to its ninth straight team championship, not by winning, but by pure grit.

With Weaver wrestling in the semifinals of the sectional tournament, and looking as if he was on a path to a third straight state championship, he suffered a debilitating ankle injury. Camden wrestling coach Jess Wilder says Weaver was mere minutes away from victory, but when he and his opponent stood up, the coach knew something was wrong.

“Konlin stood up and immediately collapsed to the mat,” Wilder recalls. “We called an injury timeout and I went over and started asking Konlin what was wrong, and he told me that he wasn’t sure. He thought it was his ankle.”

Weaver went back out to the mat, and almost immediately the Camden wrestling coach could tell his star wrestler was struggling.

“Konlin’s opponent started coming back, and you could tell Tank was doing all he could to hang on,” Wilder says.

The coach decided to use another injury timeout, and this time he wasn't sure if Tank was going to be able to answer the bell.

“We have 90 seconds before an injury forfeit is called,” Wilder remembers, “and there was about one second left, and Konlin told me he thought he can make it through.”

Weaver toughed it out and won the match. But the coach and Weaver had a decision to make. There was still one match left, the final of the sectionals. Weaver decided to wrestle, but without any ability to push off with his injured ankle, he was no match for his healthy opponent. Weaver lost the match, but then yet another decision loomed: The state finals were a week away, and Wilder knew that if Weaver couldn’t go, his team had no chance to defeat Buford, their opponent in the 7A championship.

“It’s just too tight,” Wilder explains.

With the cumulative point total from each of the individual wrestlers making up the overall team score, that meant if Weaver couldn’t wrestle, win or lose, it would force the remaining Camden wrestlers to somehow capture enough points to defeat the mighty Wolves.

“It’s impossible,” Wilder explains. “They're just too tough, and without Tank, we would not have a chance mathematically to win enough points to beat Buford.”

It was decision time. Wilder says he spoke with Konlin’s parents, Fred and Amanda Weaver, and after receiving assurances that the ankle wouldn’t suffer any further damage if their son tried to wrestle, they were OK with it.

But Wilder knew this would still be a long shot. Then again, the 157-pound Camden wrestler had always proved others wrong.

“When Konlin wrestled for the state championship as a freshman, no one thought he had a chance,” Wilder says. Weaver had not won a state title as an eighth grader, nor had he won a youth state title, so how could he come up and win a state championship in his first season as a varsity wrestler?

Weaver would indeed win the state championship as a ninth grader, and then again the following season, when he knocked off the defending state champion.

So, here he was, going for his third straight state championship with an ankle injury. Wilder knew it had to be bad.

“Konlin is one of the toughest kids I have ever coached,” Wilder says.

And the kid they call Tank proved it.

Faced with the decision of not wrestling and handing the state title to Buford, Weaver decided this was too important.

In the state finals, with his injured ankle heavily taped and wearing a brace, Weaver decided to give it a try.

Unable to push off, he still won his first match in overtime, but he lost his final match, finishing in second place.

While there would be no third straight state championship for Weaver, his gritty performance, limping through those final matches, would give his Camden wrestling team enough points to capture the overall state championship.

“One of the best individual efforts I’ve ever seen,” Wilder says.

That’s what champions do. That’s Konlin Weaver.

Valwood senior Emory Hogan loves baseball. Or at least he loves a part of the game of baseball. “I’ve never really enjoyed hitting that much,” Hogan said recently.

There’s a good reason for that. Pitching is what Hogan does, and he’s good at it. He is a GISA All-Region and All-State selection, and as soon as he wraps up his Valwood senior season, Hogan will head to Valdosta State University, where he will continue his baseball career with the Blazers as a preferred walk-on.

“I’m considered a ‘PO,’” Hogan explains. That stands for Pitcher Only, although he does see time on the other end of the battery as an occasional catcher for the Valiants. Hogan said if he does hit, his focus usually is to bunt or try to move runners over some other way.

Hogan says his love for pitching goes back to when he was 9 years old, playing coach-pitch baseball.

“I played the pitcher position, even though I didn’t pitch – the coach did,” he recalls.

The next season would bring live pitching from the players. Hogan says he naturally went to the same spot as the year before, but this time he was the one pitching. He says the art of pitching a baseball just came naturally to him.

“I could throw a curve ball, or at least that’s what the ball did when I threw it, so I could tell right away that this was my thing,” he says.

That knack for being able to pitch has stayed with the tall right-hander. The 6-foot, 2-inch Hogan has been a member of the Valwood baseball team since his freshman season. He’s made 40 total appearances, all of which have come in the last three seasons. (His ninth-grade year was all but a wash with the Covid-19 virus shortening the Valwood baseball season to a mere three games).

Hogan has continued to improve each season, and according to longtime Valwood head baseball coach Robert “Shippy” Shipman, Hogan has really found his comfort zone as one of the team’s top pitchers.

“Emory initially came to Valwood as a first baseman and pitcher,” Shipman says. “He has now developed into an All-State and All-Region starting pitcher, and he catches for us, too. Emory has 11 wins and 6 losses over the last two years, and he has 66 Ks this year.”

Hogan says that indeed this 2023 season has been a better year for him and the team overall.

“This is the best season I’ve had in my four years here at Valwood,” he says.

Last season, the Valiants finished 10-14 overall, and 3-6 in region play. Their season was over after a 2-1 playoff series loss to Southland Academy. This year, the vibe is completely different with the Valiants at 16-9 overall with one game remaining in the regular season. They have won twice as many region games this season compared to last season, and Hogan says he and his team have achieved some of their goals. But there’s still one or two left.

“Before the season, we made a few goals,” Hogan says. “We wanted to win more games than last year.”

Check that.

“We also wanted to get past the first round of the playoffs.”

Check back on that one.

Shipman says Hogan’s strength’s are both mental and physical: “Emory is a fierce competitor and he doesn’t shrink under pressure. He has worked hard building up his arm strength and durability. He always gives us a chance to win when he is on the mound.”

You can bet the coach will be ready to hand his big right-hander the ball when the playoffs come around.