SIDNEY — Lockwood senior Izzabella Weber was set on playing volleyball throughout her high school career. She didn’t see it any other way.
A medical condition changed those plans.
Weber, while playing volleyball and basketball in junior high, dealt with tightness in her Achilles, which gave her pain after playing both sports.
Her Achilles tendonitis required Weber to get surgery before high school. Weber got gastrocnemius recession, which cuts fibers of the gastrocnemius muscle — a large calf muscle — to allow the Achilles tendon to lengthen. She got the surgery in each Achilles separately, allowing one to heal before getting surgery on the other.
That sidelined Izzabella Weber’s plans of playing volleyball.
“I thought that I would be playing volleyball my whole high school career,” she said. “And then I went to one open gym and it was just too much.”
That surgery led her to try a new sport in golf.
That, and a little incentive from her mom, Tabitha Weber.
“Basically, my mom told me that I can do cross country or golf and she’d pay me $200. And I was like, ‘Yeah, I’m not a runner,'” Izzabella Weber said. “So I did golf without any knowledge. No one in my family had golfed. That was the start of it I guess.”
That start began a journey that ended with an all-state finish in her third-consecutive trip to state.
Weber put in an all-state performance at the Class A state golf tournament last Friday and Saturday at Sidney Country Club, finishing 14th with a two-day score of 186 (96-89) to earn the second-to-last all-state spot. The top 15, including ties, earned all-state honors.
“It’s actually kind of impressive for not joining golf until three, four years ago and not knowing anything about it,” Weber said.
Powering through
Before Weber had the surgeries, she couldn’t walk right after partaking in matches or games due to the Achilles tightness. During the action, her Achilles were fine. But the aftereffects were painful.
“I didn’t walk right. I’d like walk on my tippy toes, which was also an issue,” Weber said.
The surgeries then came and went. Weber originally planned on opting out of physical therapy, but the scar tissue was giving her so much pain, she decided to go with physical therapy.
“It was kind of rough, because the surgeon told me that I wouldn’t need physical therapy. So I had gone like two or three months just trying to remember how to walk all by myself,” Weber said. “And I just remember the worse part was the scar tissue — it was really bad. So then a couple months later, I just decided to go to physical therapy, which helped. But it was definitely a long battle.”
“It was really hard to get my foot down and walk without it feeling stiff,” Weber added. “It just put me in a lot of pain just doing daily activities.”
Enter golf. The sport, which Weber had just picked up, became physical therapy in itself, ultimately helping her recover and walk normally.
“I think it was good physical therapy, for sure. Because the more that I would walk, the easier it would get,” Weber said. “And at first, the first couple tournaments, I noticed that my Achilles would be really sore. And like now, I don’t even notice it.”
But then came learning a new sport as a freshman. That provided a brand-new challenge.
“It was rough,” Weber said. “I came home crying like every day of practice. I was like, ‘Mom, I want to quit. This is so bad.'”
“It was kind of funny, because when Izzabella first started, those first couple weeks the very first year, she did not want to play. She kept going home saying, ‘I don’t want to do this. I don’t want do this,'” Lockwood boys and girls golf coach Toni Bender said. “And mom kind of pushed a little bit, too. Obviously, I was pushing. But it just goes to show that you don’t have to be the best. Golf, as with any sport, can be difficult. But if you just keep your mind to it and stay motivated, anything is possible.”
Weber did just that and was rewarded for it. She made varsity as a sophomore in 2023 and was part of the state-qualifying Lockwood girls golf team, where she tied for 38th with a 213 (102-111) at Sidney Country Club.
That experience opened Weber’s eyes.
“I don’t really know why I stayed through it. But it got better sophomore year,” Weber said. “I made varsity my sophomore year. And then we made it as a team and I was like, ‘Huh, this actually isn’t so bad.'”
Full steam ahead
From there, Weber rolled to state the next two seasons.
As a junior, Weber just missed all-state honors at Polson Bay Golf Course after qualifying as an individual. She tied for 19th with a 186 (92-94), with her game continuing to get better both with Lockwood and on her own time, especially at Pryor Creek Golf Club in Huntley where she worked in the summer, practiced constantly at, and said plays similarly to Sidney Country Club.
“I would definitely say the one thing that really matters in golf a lot, or almost the most, is your short game, chipping and putting,” Bender said. “And she just really started to become very good around the greens and was able to get up and down. And I think that kind of made the difference in her being able to score well and putting her up there with some of the top golfers in the state.”
But that score was good enough for all-state this year.
Weber had to battle, though, after a rough start on the first day last Friday.
Weber double bogeyed the 369-yard par-5 fourth, her first hole of the tournament, bogeyed the 133-yard par-3 fifth hole and carded a 10 on the 450-yard par-5 sixth, putting her at plus-8 through three holes and near the bottom of the leaderboard.
And back home, her dad, J.D. Weber, was a nervous wreck. J.D. Weber planned to make the trip to state for day two with son Dominyk Weber after Dominyk’s Shepherd football team played at Joliet Friday night and was following along at home.
“The day before, my wife (Tabitha Weber) was like, ‘She shot an 81 on her practice round.’ And I’m like, ‘Oh man, she’s ready,'” J.D. Weber said. “And then those first three holes, that feeling in my stomach from being that far away and seeing she got a 10 − and I don’t think she’s gotten a 10 on a hole since she was maybe a sophomore. So I just knew that was complete nerves.”
Those nerves didn’t last. Izzabella Weber powered through to break 100, tying for 14th with a 96.
“I kind of just thought to myself like, ‘What are you doing?'” Izzabella Weber said. “Because at first it was just an absolute wreck. I hadn’t played that bad in so long, and so I had to just really get myself in a better mindset, like, ‘You know how to hit golf ball. Just hit it.’ And I think that helped. And my coach helped a lot, too, to just calm me down and stuff and talk me through it.”
That momentum rolled into day two, where her 89 kept her at 14th.
The all-state spot was secured.
“She seemed a lot more relaxed. Just kind of settled in,” Bender said. “That first day, being a senior and you want to perform well. She started kind of rough and started at the bottom, and then really battled back. So just coming back that first day like that, going from like 48th at one point up to 14th that first day I think kind of gave her that confidence like, ‘OK, I can do this.'”
A journey well ventured
Now, almost a week after her high school career wrapped up, Izzabella Weber is where she never thought she’d be when she first imagined her high school career.
“I’m not the type of person to go off track of what’s planned or whatever,” she said. “Looking back, I have no idea how I joined golf. That was so out of my comfort zone. But definitely for the best.”
It is. Izzabella Weber now loves a sport she got all-state in and has taken life lessons from it while also being near the top of her graduating class. And the family is all in on golf, too, J.D. Weber said.
All because of a medical condition.
“It definitely helped like my social awkwardness. I can talk to people more,” Izzabella Weber said. “It’s a great environment. I love it.”
The personal growth hasn’t gone unnoticed from Bender, either.
“She just amazed me how she stepped up from being like really quiet and scared and not want to really play to being like a leader on the team,” Bender said, “It was really neat to see somebody go from where she started to where she ended up.”
And where she ended up has J.D. Weber beaming with pride.
“It just makes me proud that it’s my daughter, and she’s an amazing person,” he said.
Scoreboard: 2025 Class A state golf tournament final round
Email at Jonathan.LeBlanc@406MTSports.com and follow on X/Twitter @JLeBlanc_21.
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