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Goodman's golden opportunity
Notre Dame dream comes true for Bishop Dwenger standout
By Michael Rothstein
The Journal Gazette
The letter, framed by John Goodman's mother for his birthday in July, hangs in the back corner of his two-level house on the northeast side of Fort Wayne. The letter, typed on gold paper and signed by Charlie Weis, signifies how fast things can change.
Goodman smiles when he looks at the letter, when he thinks about how it happened and what it means. The letter is an offer to play wide receiver for Notre Dame.
Last summer, the letter seemed almost impossible. Goodman attended Michigan's summer camp as a quarterback -- the position he played when he started as an 8-year-old until his sophomore year of high school, when Bishop Dwenger coach Chris Svarczkopf moved him to wide receiver. Michigan's coaches said campers could switch positions midway through camp, but Goodman forgot.
So the last day he asked whether he could work out at receiver.
"I went to receiver with little kids because they didn't know me yet because I just got there for the last day," Goodman said. "So there were older kids on one field then middle kids and younger kids and I was with the middle kids just like doing my business on them."
Michigan's coaches noticed. They pulled him from the middle field to the top field and then from the line on the right to the line on the left, where the camp's elite players were working out.
Eventually, the coaches running the drills had Goodman cut in front of other receivers to get him more work. He saw then-Michigan recruit Ryan Mallett watching. Same with Michigan coach Lloyd Carr, four Wolverines assistants and some of Michigan's receivers.
"I was like `Wow, I'm getting looked at right here,' " Goodman said. "It was the first time I was ever being recruited so I was high on adrenaline."
He also had one of his best days. He doesn't remember dropping a pass but a post-workout visit to Carr's office said everything.
In one afternoon, Goodman went from another player to a high-end prospect.
"That kind of changed things," said his father, Andy, an assistant coach at Dwenger. "Like wow, he really is a Division I football player. The rest kind of snowballed from there."
Goodman's athletic ability and talent had always been known. From the time he dented the garage of his house throwing a baseball against the wall as a 10-year-old to when he ran around and then past an entire team during a middle school football game for St. Jude, Goodman always possessed something different than his peers.
His oldest sister, Lindsay, would hear men saying "Remember this kid. He's going to go places" when she was at Goodman's games.
But even when he played a game at Saint Francis and eluded everyone, Lindsay didn't know what to think of her brother's athletic abilities.
"He outran every single player," Lindsay said. "Even then I was like, whatever, this kid is in seventh grade. I had no idea the potential he actually had."
The Michigan camp changed that for everyone. His anonymity in the hypersensitive college recruiting world disappeared. Message board posters discussed his strengths and flaws without even knowing who the 6-foot-4, 192-pound then-junior from Fort Wayne was.
Coaches began text messaging non-stop, as Andy remembered one night when his son had simultaneous conversations with Purdue, Indiana, Michigan and Notre Dame.
Ball State officially offered first. Then Purdue. Michigan -- where his ascent began -- came at Christmas. The one he waited for, the one he grew up wanting -- Notre Dame -- hadn't appeared.
Goodman did well at Notre Dame's camp the prior summer but heard nothing. He became frustrated. Andy gave up hope. Following junior days at Notre Dame and Michigan, father and son decided it might be best to forget about the football team closest to his home and his heart.
"Honestly, I didn't expect them to offer," Andy said. "We left a DVD with (defensive coordinator) Corwin Brown. I left him a DVD at the junior day and hadn't heard anything back and it was weeks."
Notre Dame had invited Goodman back for a second junior day. After discussing it with his dad, Goodman decided he wasn't going. The dream seemed over. Eventually, Notre Dame called and began talking with him. An offer, it seemed, was imminent.
Goodman had been at basketball practice on a Saturday when he received a text message from wide receivers coach Rob Ianello. He told him to call Weis after practice.
"I was like `Oh my God, it's coming now,' " Goodman said. "It was my best practice of the year in basketball. After practice I called him and he extended the offer to me and it was one of the best days of my life."
Three weeks later, Goodman went to Notre Dame for his second junior day and orally committed. The hardest part, he said, was confronting the ones who initially gave him the chance -- the coaches at Michigan. He grew to like them and if Notre Dame's offer hadn't come would have likely been the second straight top Fort Wayne player, joining Snider's Artis Chambers, to play for the Wolverines.
But it did, and now Goodman's future is firm. He'll quarterback Dwenger's football team for the first time since his freshman year. He'll play basketball and run track at Dwenger. He'll play in the United States Army All-American Game in San Antonio. And then he'll be off to where the gold letter -- his favorite of the offer letters received -- came from.
"I don't have to worry about anything except getting better," Goodman said. "Now I've reached that goal of getting to Notre Dame. My next goal is to win a state championship and the other one was to be an All-American and I got in that game so two of my three goals were accomplished. Now I just have to get a state championship."
Notre Dame dream comes true for Bishop Dwenger standout
By Michael Rothstein
The Journal Gazette
The letter, framed by John Goodman's mother for his birthday in July, hangs in the back corner of his two-level house on the northeast side of Fort Wayne. The letter, typed on gold paper and signed by Charlie Weis, signifies how fast things can change.
Goodman smiles when he looks at the letter, when he thinks about how it happened and what it means. The letter is an offer to play wide receiver for Notre Dame.
Last summer, the letter seemed almost impossible. Goodman attended Michigan's summer camp as a quarterback -- the position he played when he started as an 8-year-old until his sophomore year of high school, when Bishop Dwenger coach Chris Svarczkopf moved him to wide receiver. Michigan's coaches said campers could switch positions midway through camp, but Goodman forgot.
So the last day he asked whether he could work out at receiver.
"I went to receiver with little kids because they didn't know me yet because I just got there for the last day," Goodman said. "So there were older kids on one field then middle kids and younger kids and I was with the middle kids just like doing my business on them."
Michigan's coaches noticed. They pulled him from the middle field to the top field and then from the line on the right to the line on the left, where the camp's elite players were working out.
Eventually, the coaches running the drills had Goodman cut in front of other receivers to get him more work. He saw then-Michigan recruit Ryan Mallett watching. Same with Michigan coach Lloyd Carr, four Wolverines assistants and some of Michigan's receivers.
"I was like `Wow, I'm getting looked at right here,' " Goodman said. "It was the first time I was ever being recruited so I was high on adrenaline."
He also had one of his best days. He doesn't remember dropping a pass but a post-workout visit to Carr's office said everything.
In one afternoon, Goodman went from another player to a high-end prospect.
"That kind of changed things," said his father, Andy, an assistant coach at Dwenger. "Like wow, he really is a Division I football player. The rest kind of snowballed from there."
Goodman's athletic ability and talent had always been known. From the time he dented the garage of his house throwing a baseball against the wall as a 10-year-old to when he ran around and then past an entire team during a middle school football game for St. Jude, Goodman always possessed something different than his peers.
His oldest sister, Lindsay, would hear men saying "Remember this kid. He's going to go places" when she was at Goodman's games.
But even when he played a game at Saint Francis and eluded everyone, Lindsay didn't know what to think of her brother's athletic abilities.
"He outran every single player," Lindsay said. "Even then I was like, whatever, this kid is in seventh grade. I had no idea the potential he actually had."
The Michigan camp changed that for everyone. His anonymity in the hypersensitive college recruiting world disappeared. Message board posters discussed his strengths and flaws without even knowing who the 6-foot-4, 192-pound then-junior from Fort Wayne was.
Coaches began text messaging non-stop, as Andy remembered one night when his son had simultaneous conversations with Purdue, Indiana, Michigan and Notre Dame.
Ball State officially offered first. Then Purdue. Michigan -- where his ascent began -- came at Christmas. The one he waited for, the one he grew up wanting -- Notre Dame -- hadn't appeared.
Goodman did well at Notre Dame's camp the prior summer but heard nothing. He became frustrated. Andy gave up hope. Following junior days at Notre Dame and Michigan, father and son decided it might be best to forget about the football team closest to his home and his heart.
"Honestly, I didn't expect them to offer," Andy said. "We left a DVD with (defensive coordinator) Corwin Brown. I left him a DVD at the junior day and hadn't heard anything back and it was weeks."
Notre Dame had invited Goodman back for a second junior day. After discussing it with his dad, Goodman decided he wasn't going. The dream seemed over. Eventually, Notre Dame called and began talking with him. An offer, it seemed, was imminent.
Goodman had been at basketball practice on a Saturday when he received a text message from wide receivers coach Rob Ianello. He told him to call Weis after practice.
"I was like `Oh my God, it's coming now,' " Goodman said. "It was my best practice of the year in basketball. After practice I called him and he extended the offer to me and it was one of the best days of my life."
Three weeks later, Goodman went to Notre Dame for his second junior day and orally committed. The hardest part, he said, was confronting the ones who initially gave him the chance -- the coaches at Michigan. He grew to like them and if Notre Dame's offer hadn't come would have likely been the second straight top Fort Wayne player, joining Snider's Artis Chambers, to play for the Wolverines.
But it did, and now Goodman's future is firm. He'll quarterback Dwenger's football team for the first time since his freshman year. He'll play basketball and run track at Dwenger. He'll play in the United States Army All-American Game in San Antonio. And then he'll be off to where the gold letter -- his favorite of the offer letters received -- came from.
"I don't have to worry about anything except getting better," Goodman said. "Now I've reached that goal of getting to Notre Dame. My next goal is to win a state championship and the other one was to be an All-American and I got in that game so two of my three goals were accomplished. Now I just have to get a state championship."
