Donoho’s Goodson overcomes serious knee injury to pursue dream of playing college football, signs with Carson-Newman, hopes his story inspires others
By Al Muskewitz
Connor Goodson had it all planned. He was going to have a monster senior year on the football field. He was going to enjoy the college recruiting experience. And he was going to sign with the program that checked all his boxes.
It’s not funny sometimes how fate seems to get in the way. On the eighth play of the second game of the season – Aug. 27 against White Plains, he remembers the circumstances precisely – the Donoho senior linebacker took a hit on his knee that ended his year.
He called it a “freak accident,” but all of a sudden all those plans that were so clearly defined were shredded just like his left knee. The interest he had better getting from college football programs suddenly was fading away.
But Goodson’s story has a happy ending and should serve as an inspiration for any college prospect who suffers a setback to their dreams. He found a program that accepted him – a lot closer to home than a lot of those others that had offered before – and Friday in the Donoho library he signed to play football at Carson-Newman University.
“I really didn’t know what I had in store for myself,” Goodson said after celebrating his signing with family, friends and teammates. “It really made me question a lot, second guess if I was going to be able to play or not.”
Before the injury Goodson had offers from three schools in Kansas and interest from one in Florida and one in Alabama, but once he got hurt those offers were pulled, made conditionally or the interest went away. He looked into a couple in-state schools just to go as a student, but he still yearned to play ball.
Actually he had reached out to Carson-Newman after watching the Eagles provide the opposition during his visit to another school. As fate would have it, he found a champion within the program.
Josh Turner, the Carson-Newman assistant coach recruiting him, had the exact same thing happen to him his senior year in high school – and he went on to play for the Eagles and start on three straight conference championship teams. So, if anyone knew what Goodson was going through and could recover from, it was the Eagles’ running backs coach.
Goodson already worked out a redshirt plan his first year there to strengthen the knee.
Now as he prepares to take the next step, he hopes his story will convince others they can overcome setbacks they encounter along the way of pursuing their dreams.
“I want other kids to think if you give up on yourself then your dream dies,” he said. “If you give up on yourself, whatever you’re chasing is done. It’s done at that point. There’s no hope; it’s over. I couldn’t give up on me.”
He never did, neither did Carson-Newman, and now he has a chance to pursue his dreams. [*** read more]
