Johnny Keib and Tanner Burns

Staff Writers

Jamesville-DeWitt High School Athletic Director John Goodson spends most of his day scheduling athletic events and attending meetings with coaches and teachers. However, what Mr.Goodson likes the most about his job is helping kids achieve their athletic goals. “I like setting up a plan in place and trying to work through it and make it happen,” said Mr. Goodson.

Mr. Goodson’s daily routine consists of going into his office around 8 a.m. and getting a project done right away. Then, after completing his project he usually has a couple of meetings. “You’re in and out of meetings all day, and usually wrapping the evening around 10 at night with my last scheduled meeting.” said Mr. Goodson. He follows a very structured schedule to better the school. Mr. Goodson always wants to be organized and two seasons ahead of what the actual sports season is right now in terms of scheduling.

Since Mr. Goodson first came to J-DHS eight years ago, the sports programs have taken off. There have been nine state championships in the past 10 years in boys lacrosse, girls basketball, and boys basketball. He contributes part of the success to the structures within the school. “This is a place that really has a lot of structures, from code of conducts to academic ineligibility and all these things that help students be successful,” said Mr. Goodson. Another reason that Mr. Goodson believes J-DHS has successful sports programs is that he works closely with the Booster Club in order to fundraise.

With such a significant job within a school there are going to be people who think Mr. Goodson is great, but also some people who question his decisions. Varsity Boys Basketball Head Coach Jeff Ike thinks very highly of him. “I think he’s one of the top in this area, if not one of the best in the state,” said Coach Ike. Senior varsity football and baseball player Anthony Ciccone agrees with Coach Ike. “I think he’s a pretty good guy overall,” said Ciccone. However, some students question whether he supports all of the sports programs equally or favors the boy programs more.

Mr. Goodson hopes to make many improvements to the sports teams this year. He looks at it this way: “every sport is always at a different level. So like right now baseball last year made it to the sectionals but didn’t win the sectionals. So the goal this year is to try and repeat and get back to sectionals and win,” said Mr. Goodson.  

Mr. Goodson was born and raised in Clinton, NY and grew up playing sports, which made him want to be involved in sports when he was older. But he didn’t always want to be an athletic director. At first he wanted to be a football coach. Mr. Goodson played two years of Junior Varsity football at Ithaca College. After playing he was brought on to be the coach of the J-V football team as a student assistant. When his years at Ithaca were over, he headed out to the University of Northern Colorado for his graduate degree. Finally, he went to SUNY Cortland so he could become an athletic director. Mr. Goodson would then go on to be a physical education teacher at Geneva High School before becoming the athletic director at J-DHS.

There is no doubt that the sports programs at J-DHS have been very successful with him at the helm. However, there are some people who disagree with how he runs things. But as long as the sports teams are winning, it is tough to doubt his ways.