HASTINGS, Neb.—There’s just something about seeing the Rev. Chris Goodwin in athletic attire that brings a smile to the faces of students at St. Cecilia High School.
Goodwin, 32, a soon-to-be fifth-year priest, isn’t bashful about showing students his baseline jump shot or forehand smash when the opportunity presents itself. A capable athlete who engaged in many sports during junior and senior high school and college, he finds athletics to be the perfect calling card for showing students another side of priestly life.
“It’s delightful to them,” he said. “They get to see that we don’t just sit around in church all day and pray constantly. …
“I think back to when I was in Catholic school in the fourth, fifth, and sixth grade, and when some of the young priests in our parish would come out and throw the football with us. That little thing established a connection and told me, ‘Hey, Father is cool!’
“Being involved in the parish life and the work of the school as a priest, it’s a very easy way in which I can connect with some of my students and parishioners.”
Goodwin’s love for sports dates back to his formative years as a youngster growing up in Wichita, Kan.
“My parents were both athletic growing up and all through their years, so sports was as natural to us as the water we drank and the air we breathed.
“My dad started us out playing baseball as little kids, and we’d always be playing catch. We played baseball, basketball, football. My dad was the best coach I ever had.”
Goodwin’s first organized sports experience was on a soccer field with the American Youth Soccer Organization. A natural born runner, he thrived in the sport because it used his natural ability to dash fluently from one end of the soccer field to the other, seemingly without effort. “I was good at that because I could run,” Goodwin said.
“They just said, ‘You’ve got the whole field, cover the field and feed a pass in to our forwards once in a while and get them a goal.’ So that was fun.”
From there, he learned to play youth baseball. Then came basketball and junior high track. Next, it was three years of high school basketball and a year of cross country and football.
At home, tennis was the sport that brought the whole family together on a regular basis, he said.
“My mom really loved tennis, so we’d go out to the park as a family,” he said. “The little ones would go play on the equipment and my dad, mom, brother and I would go hit the ball around.”
At the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, his involvement in sports included intramural basketball and a stint as a softball umpire.
These days, he remains sharp on the basketball court, jumping into pickup games around town whenever his schedule permits. He also logs three to five miles of running two to three times each week, along with lending a hand with the St. Cecilia girls basketball and tennis programs, when in season.
His enthusiasm for running remains strong. His longest trek to date is a half marathon, which he ran in Grand Island in 2007. He hopes to duplicate the feat at some point, though not for the same competitive reasons that once drove him as a youngster.
“It has become for me a way of staying in shape, not just physically, but mentally and psychologically,” Goodwin said. “There’s a spiritual component to running. When you’re out there, you have to put one foot in front of the other, whether or not you have a side ache or don’t have a lot of breath and your legs are heavy.
“If you keep running and get to the end of your run and have done well, you are going to feel the satisfaction of knowing you’ve been faithful to that run. That parallels the spiritual life, in that sense.”
———
Information from: Hastings Tribune,
