Weber’s greatest victory not on football field

By Jeff Kolpack The Forum

Fargo

The question was asked of senior safety Dawson Weber following North Dakota State’s dramatic 35-32 FCS semifinal win over Incarnate Word in mid-December: Was his game-clinching interception comparable to the one teammate Destin Talbert had against James Madison almost exactly one year earlier?

Weber smiled, said he was just excited to head to Frisco, Texas, for the national title game and the emotional nature of it all. He handled five straight questions with maturity and without hesitation, rarely messing up a word, like a seasoned coach who dealt with reporters’ questions for years.

It wasn’t always that way.

Weber has four FCS national title rings, being on Bison championship teams in 2017, 2018, 2019 and last season and has a chance for one more when the Bison play South Dakota State on Sunday afternoon at Toyota Stadium.

His greatest victory, however, was conquering a speech impediment diagnosed at an early age.

“I would say yes, just overcoming something like this,” Weber said. “There have definitely been difficult times with it but for the most part it hasn’t really affected me. And knowing I have people around me to support me is always beneficial.”

Kyle and Jill Weber, his parents, first noticed an issue when Dawson was preschool age, when the youngster would try to speak but would get stuck on certain sounds. If there was a two- or three-syllable word, he would make it through the first syllable but not the second or third.

The parents started researching for help and enrolled Dawson in a speech therapist program before elementary school near their home in Elk Grove, Calif., located just south of Sacramento. It was an initiative that he maintained all through elementary, junior high and high school.

“It was very beneficial seeing the techniques and devices he would use to address things,” Kyle said.

The worry once Dawson got into junior high and high school, Kyle said, was bullying and other kids teasing their son. But Dawson has always carried himself with confidence, was always outgoing with others, and that was a comforting factor for all involved.

Nobody remembers any incident where another kid made fun of Dawson’s speech.

“I wouldn’t say I got teased much,” Dawson said. “I have pretty thick skin so my good friends would mess around here and there but it never affected me.”

Improvement was extremely gradual over a period of his entire childhood, with noticeable improvement coming when Dawson got to junior high.

Talking to people just became a more ordinary thing. Being involved in sports helped, he said.

Kyle and Jill can still detect the impediment every so often. In Bison post-game press conferences, there were a few occasions where Dawson would take a pause before finishing his answer.

But if you didn’t know his life’s battle, you wouldn’t know.

“Never noticed it and never cared,” said Bison head coach Matt Entz, “because you cared more about the person than you did the other stuff. We all have things we’re trying to battle with. It shows you where he’s come from and the growth that he’s had over time.”

Kyle said he’ll never forget Dawson’s first postgame press conference a few years ago, with him and Jill being nervous for their son. But the young player sailed through it.

Like presenting a speech in a class, it helps when Dawson knows what he’s going to say. And in football, in describing plays or feelings on the field, that generally comes natural. Perhaps the most difficult moments over time were in a class environment when he would be in front of a room of students. His nerves would kick into overdrive.

“In the impromptu, it’s almost like his brain is working faster than his mouth,” Kyle said, “which is hard to believe knowing his mouth, I would say.”

At the beginning of each school year, Kyle and Jill would meet with Dawson’s teacher and explain the situation. They outlined the speech therapist sessions he was to go to once a week.

They also didn’t want other kids to “get in trouble” if they said anything to Dawson.

They didn’t want Dawson not talking as a crutch to hide the speech issue.

“He’s going to be dealing with this his whole life, he needs to be able to have some thick skin,”

Kyle said. “So if they do say something, we don’t want any special treatment. If he’s going to get teased or bullied or whatever, he’s going to have to deal with it. We didn’t want to sugarcoat it for him, but he’s always been very outgoing and having an older brother who through him there was some exposure to it with his friends. So there was a big support system for sure.”

When Kyle now sees NDSU athletic department video replays of Dawson in post-game press conferences, or interviews on local Fargo television stations, he says “his allergies act up a little bit.” In other words, he gets emotional.

Especially in the win over Incarnate Word, when Dawson’s two interceptions and fumble recovery were a major reason NDSU is continuing its season. The last one, the pick with 1:13 left, clinched the three-point victory.

But before that, in WDAY’s “Gameday Pregame Show,” Dawson earlier in the week taped an extensive 1-on-1 interview with WDAY’s Logan Campbell. Later, Kyle went on the internet and watched the show that included Kyle Emanuel’s clicker segment where he highlighted Weber and fellow safety Michael Tutsie and then watched the post-game press conference. He thought about Dawson’s first press conference and how far the kid came in life.

“It just makes me super proud,” Kyle said. “He’s come a long way, he’s grown a long way and we have total confidence in him that he’s going to be able to handle anything.”

The growth with Weber at NDSU has had more to do with maturity, anyway, than anything speechrelated. He wasn’t a favorite of Bison coaches his true freshman year but, like his speech progress as a kid, improvement came over time.

“Dawson has done a tremendous job in his six years here,” Entz said. “It’s been awesome to see him develop and grow.”

Dawson thinks back to his first media day during the first week of practice in the fall and how nervous he was.

“I dreaded media day,” he said. “But as time has gone on, I’ve just felt really comfortable. The more you build confidence in a situation, the easier it becomes.”

The next step in confidence after the title game is to prepare for a shot at pro football. He has yet to figure out where he plans to train, but will be participating in NDSU’s annual pro day at the end of March.

There’s no interview test like there can be at the NFL Combine but if there was, that would be no problem, either.

It was Dawson Weber’s biggest victory. Readers can reach Forum reporter Jeff Kolpack at jkolpack@ forumcomm.com. Twitter@ KolpackInForum