INA, IL (Apr. 24, 2023) –Nothing much has changed in the 30 years since Rend Lake College Coach Dave Smith began his pursuit of another golf prospect from deep Southern Illinois, JR Conkle. Both are still very active, proud members in their Mutual Admiration Society, albeit to an even greater degree with each passing year.
A very shocked Conkle is slated to be welcomed into the RLC Sports Hall of Fame during 22nd Induction Ceremonies on Saturday, April 29. His presenter – no surprise – will be his former coach and now lifelong friend.
Full disclosure here is important, however. “Coach” is not on the nine-member Selection Committee responsible for tabbing Conkle. The honoree earned the distinction on his merits, not his friendships.
“I was not heavily recruited out of Hardin County High School. My background was playing on a nine-hole public course,” admitted Conkle.
As if that isn’t enough, the young golfer had success his first year, including medalist honors late in the fall campaign over 16 teams at the Lincoln Invitational. His two-day total of 74-71–145, highlighted by an even-par round on Day Two, was two strokes better than anyone else over the Lincoln Elks Course. He was sixth individually at the Highland “36” in another Warrior victory.
And then he was gone . . . convinced by someone Mortuary School was the career path he should pursue.
Smith and some of his teammates were hearing Conkle might be having a change-of-heart. The coach, a pretty fair amateur golfer of his own, and Bryan Drew invited him up to play a round with them.
“You would be welcome back to the team next season,” his mentor told him. “I have a scholarship saved just in case somebody came along late.”
“He gave me a first chance,” recalled Conkle, “and he gave me a second chance. You can’t ask for anything more than that.”
Continued the ’23 Sports Hall of Fame honoree, “Midway through that final year, my game just took off; he (Smith) hung in there with me and had a lot to do with that improvement happening. I played at Murray State University (KY) after Rend Lake, getting that opportunity without their coach even seeing me hit a ball.
“Every bit of that I have Dave to thank for . . . I’d never even had a lesson before coming to RLC. I owe everything golf-wise to Dave. I worked three summers at Rend Lake Golf Course, including the year after my junior year at Murray State; I loved the place and the people.”
Traditionally, college mentors try not to over-coach or suggest drastic swing changes because their recruits return home on a regular basis to confer with lifelong pros who helped them become college-worthy players.
“Dave was my coach. Every winter we would make necessary changes to better my golf swing,” continued the student. “Several years ago, I was playing with him and some of his former players in the Rend Lake College Foundation Open Tournament and I was really struggling around that time. He watched me hit a couple of drives, neither of which was very good, and I asked him what he thought.”
“If you lose about 20 pounds, that will fix the problem,” responded his coach, only half-kiddingly. “Dave really took me under his care.”
And the admiration goes even farther. When Conkle graduated with a degree from MSU in Physical Education, Smith was one of two individuals who encouraged him to pursue a second degree in Health Administration. He knew money-wise the Administrative degree would make a big difference.
“Dave has always talked to me about the importance of Roth IRAs and other things like that. To me, he is a lot more that just a Golf Coach.”
“I was trying to come up with a golf team at Rend Lake College, so I decided the best thing for me was to recruit some athletes,” Smith explained. “ ‘Junior’ Conkle, as he was known in those days, played high school basketball and golf. It was the same with guys like Bryan Drew (Benton) and Scott Johnson (Alton Marquette); they were All-State basketball players, but they were not quite good enough or big enough to play at the college level in that sport. They were athletes, though.
“Jeremy May (Staunton) was a great baseball player. He struck out 17 or 18 in one game; everyone recruiting him was wanting him for baseball. I brought him on a recruiting trip and he said he never wanted to play baseball (in college), he wanted to play golf. Brandon Auld from Nashville was another one. Those were all athletes.”
May, in fact, was a starter on Staunton’s 27-4 Class A State Championship Basketball Team in 1992-93 with a 66-62 verdict in the finals over Chicago Hales Franciscan. No other Bulldogs squad, past or present, has ever won any post-season tournament beyond the first-round (Regional) level.
Another Smith Coaching Philosophy: “I tried to get people to come to Rend Lake College to improve their golf swings. All of a sudden, golf became No. 1 for these all-around athletes. We’re going to play golf only in college. Now we are doing it 24/7.”
Back to Kenneth R. Conkle, Jr., who has stuck with the JR moniker for his adult life. “What a wonderful young man. He knew where he was going in life back when we signed him out of Hardin County High School. Both parents were always very supportive of him.
“We’ve been good friends for a long time,” Smith added.
Conkle may have been as responsible as anyone for HOFer Matt Armstrong coming to Rend Lake College as a sophomore after spending his freshman year on scholarship at Florida Southern. All Armstrong did in his one season for the 1994-95 Warriors was lead the team to the first of eight consecutive Region XXIV Championships before becoming the first RLC athlete in any sport to become a First-Team All-America performer; he led through the first two rounds before settling for fourth individually, one shot out of third. As a team, the 1994-95 Warriors were runner-up behind Tyler (TX) in the NJCAA Finals and entered the RLC Sports Hall of Fame along with Armstrong as the fourth class in Spring 2003.
“When we found out things weren’t working out for Matt in Florida, JR really helped convince him to come to Rend Lake College. As a good friend, JR worked as a go-between to help make the transfer happen.”
“We were really good that year,” Smith said, hinting a national championship banner might have been a possibility had Conkle not been missing for that in-between year.
Conkle clearly qualified as one of those all-around athletes Smith favors. He also played baseball and basketball for Hardin County, with Warrior Basketball Mentor Tim Wills among those showing interest in the All-South cager want-a-be. “I probably liked basketball better back then, but I was not that quick and I couldn’t jump. I realized golf probably was where I needed to go.
“I played a lot of tennis, too. I was just one of those guys who played and didn’t like to lose, regardless of what I was playing,” conceded the “winning” linkster.
After the National Runner-up / RLC Sports HOF team headed by Armstrong did its thing without him, Conkle returned alongside sophs May, Auld and Vanderbilt University transfer John Raski III (Herrin), joined by freshman sensation and future pro Jace Bugg (Henderson, KY), Jeff Eickhoff (Hillsboro), Brandon Birney (Barlow, KY) and Jerrod Prince (McLeansboro).
Smith’s athletes captured, in order, the 24-team Highland “36” by 23 strokes; the 20-team Parkland Invite thanks to a record 296 composite; the 54-hole John Wood Invite by 20 in a 10-team field, and the Rock Valley Invite by 13 before having to settle for third in the DuPage Classic. The Fall campaign wrapped up with a win in the Lincoln Trail Invite by 18, second in the Lincoln Invite by one and a successful defense of the Rend Lake College Invitational championship by 11 in a 12-team field.
The short-but-all-important spring season was more of the same . . . First in the Louisburg, NC Invite behind the runner-up threesome of Conkle, May and Birney; runner-up behind Tyler among Jucos in the Southern Junior-Senior Invite, and first at the Western Illinois University Beu Classic.
Yet another first-place effort, in the Region XXIV Tournament at Franklin County Country Club in West Frankfort, gained entry into the NJCAA Division II Finals. The victorious 602 total included four All-Region performances – Medalist May at 148, runners-up Conkle and Raski tied at 150 and Bugg at 155.
Nobody was going to beat three-time kingpin Tyler in the Finals at Southern Pines, NC, but the Warriors had to be content with third on this occasion behind Lansing (MI), 1,193-1,195. May and Conkle were both Second-Team All-America designees in 12th (297) and 13th, tied - 76-71-73-78–298, respectively. “Long Drive” Contest winner Bugg was 22nd at 303, Auld boasted the tournament’s lone hole-in-one in the second round of his 305 total for 27th overall and Raski was tied for 42nd at 309.
The Illinois import placed second individually twice during his two-year career for the Murray State (KY) Racers. He bowed out in grand fashion, placing runner-up in his final collegiate outing in the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament at Springhouse Golf Course in Nashville. Conkle shot a 212 to lead MSU to a fourth-place finish at 873 and merit All-OVC recognition.
Brett Alexander of Middle Tennessee State was four strokes better at 208 en route to his first of three straight OVC Tournament medalist awards. Alexander eventually became a PGA Teaching Professional.
Conkle was a grand-prize winner at MSU in other ways. He and his wife of 23 years, Lindsey, met during their time on campus. Following the advice of his Friend/Coach, Conkle has been a school administrator for 18 years; he is presently Metropolis Elementary School Principal.
The Conkles are proud parents of two accomplished student-athletes – Lily, 19, followed in her father’s golf shoes and was a Southern Illinois River-to-River Conference and Regional standout all four years for the dominant Massac County gals and caught the attention of Freed-Hardeman University (TN), where she is a sophomore contributor; Libby, 17, was among Illinois High School Association leaders in Digs this past fall as a volleyball junior.
Lily, conceded a proud pop, did beat him on the golf course a couple of times by her senior season. “But it was one of those things, she was going to have to earn it . . . and she did. Yeah, she let me know about it, too,” said a proud father.
Perhaps like his buddy, Smith, the educator has done a little coaching, also. With considerable success!
As an Assistant Basketball Coach for Carlisle County during the 2000-01 season, he got to experience the KHSAA Boys State Tournament in Rupp Arena. A highlight for the 23-5 Comets, Region I Champions, was a guided tour of the University of Kentucky Wildcats locker room in preparation for their first-round meeting with Lexington Lafayette. The Generals defeated the Western Kentucky reps, 62-49, before beating two other foes and then upsetting favored Louisville Male in the finals, 54-49.
As the Head Golf Guru for two years at Massac County, Coach Conkle inherited the defending individual state champion in Mason Jacobs. Before he “retired” two seasons down the road, Conkle had guided his charges, with help from his star player, to a Class A State Championship in Fall 2006 and a runner-up Class 2A showing in Fall 2007.
Mason, before departing for a stellar career at the University of Illinois, would become the first three-time state champ in IHSA history. The three-time Southern Illinois Male Golfer of the Year claimed State Class A titles in 2005 and ’06 before his school moved up a notch in classification and he won the Class 2A crown by four strokes with his 70-67–137 tally.
“I just seemed to walk into good teams after good teams,” admitted a humble Coach Conkle.