Major awards have eluded the Goodson and Grose families.
John Goodson, an offensive lineman on the 1992 Fayetteville team, finished second in the Hunt Award voting that season. Melissa Grose, a guard at Woodrow Wilson, finished second in the girls basketball player of the year voting. Her brother, Chris Grose, finished second in the Kennedy Award voting in 1990.
Melissa and John’s son, Atticus Goodson, now has family bragging rights as a major award winner.
Atticus, who rushed for over 1,900 yards and 29 touchdowns, helped guide Independence to its first state championship game in program history this past season. For his efforts, Goodson has been named the Warner Award winner by the West Virginia Sports Writers Association.
The Warner Award, named after legendary Pineville, Penn Sate. and Seattle Seahawks running back Curt Warner, is presented annually to the best running back in the state of West Virginia.
“We actually had a Christmas party yesterday and everybody was there,” Goodson said. “I said I was the only person who could finish first in something and then my dad had to come out and hit me with the ‘well I’m a state champion’ line.”
Goodson’s journey to being named the top running back in the state was one that almost didn’t happen.
He elected not to play football his freshman year of high school and his head coach, John H. Lilly, had to talk his mother into it.
“Well, when he played in middle school, he wasn’t very good,” Melissa said. “I said ‘Atticus, why are you wanting to play football? You’re going to risk injury for what? Do you not remember you were bad?’ He said he wanted to play and in ninth grade he went back and forth on the fence but in 10th grade he was bound and determined to play and he did and we see where we are now.”
“In middle school I was absolutely terrible,” Atticus said. “I was probably one of the worst players in the state, if not the worst. I was slow and goofy and hadn’t grown into my body yet. I was kind of really nervous about it at the high school level because I mean if I didn’t have success at the middle school level, who knows what was going to happen at the high school level. We were nervous about it but I decided to go with it and play.”
The decision paid dividends for Goodson and the community. Right out of the gate he exhibited the traits of a star, scoring two touchdowns against a team (Midland Trail) coming off a Class A semifinal berth. Still, even he was worried about getting hit and how he’d respond.
“I was scared to get hit early,” Goodson said. “I finally learned to run at a lower height and run through people instead of trying to run around them. I knew that I was a pretty big running back and the game at Trail, my first one, I juked a kid and juked into a lineman coming to hit me and he hit me and I bounced off the ground and came back up. I was loopy but it didn’t hurt that bad so ever since then I knew that was probably the hardest hit I was going to take.”
“It’s funny because he played that first game and did well his 10th grade year,” Melissa said. “The second week we were wondering if it was a fluke or not.”
Goodson, who’s committed to pursuing a career on the baseball diamond, became confident in his ability to play football while on the hardwood. He played basketball as a freshman and became aware of how aggressive and physically imposing he could be.
“I got to high school basketball and was really aggressive,” Goodson said. “I was boxing kids out and throwing them on the ground and stuff. I was like, maybe I can do this in football.”
“He jumped up to get a rebound in a game and my husband and I kind of looked at each other wondering where that came from,” Melissa said. “But you could see his speed and agility increasing. Everything just started working together at that point. He did alright.”
Coming in to this season Goodson was already well-known around the state. He was the second-team all-state captain his sophomore year and a first-teamer last year. Lilly, who coached Hunt and Huff Award winners knew Goodson could match those individual accolades but with a great player comes the task of finding ways to challenge them.
For Goodson that challenge and motivation came from not only wanting to bring success to Coal City, but seeing his teammates improve as well. It motivated him step his game up and he delivered.
“I think what helped me the most was having a team around me that was just as good as me,” Goodson said. “Like having people around me that gave me a run for my money as the best player on the team and pushed me to be the best.
Goodson will be honored during the 75th annual Victory Awards Dinner on May 1 at the Embassy Suites in Charleston.
Email: tylerjackson@lootpress.com