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Coach's Presence Is Still Felt

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By EDDIE DANIELS, The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 3, 2008

LAND O' LAKES - James Gaulden is eight years removed from his Class 2A 160-pound wrestling state title, and he still gets goose bumps.
Winning the title isn't the lone cause of the fond memories. It has a lot to do with the man in his corner.

"One of the greatest things for me, and Adam Nuru, too, is when me and Adam both won state our senior year with him there," recalled Gaulden, a Land O' Lakes alumnus. "That was the ultimate high school dream; we both won state and he was there with us. I still get chills about that right now."

The person Gaulden is referring to is former Land O' Lakes wrestling coach Ed Goodpaster.

Goodpaster, 64, made his way to that familiar gym, which he made his home from 1994 to 2001, on Dec. 22 to watch the competition at the 21-team inaugural Edward Goodpaster Invitational.

It was the first wrestling tournament Goodpaster has attended since he retired in 2001.

"I see the boys frequently. They come by the house or they give me a buzz, so I'm really up to date with most of them, really from all over the country," said Goodpaster, sitting in a padded chair on the Land O' Lakes stage as matches were in progress on three mats. "I really haven't been back to it. Fifty years is a long time."

In that time, Goodpaster etched an impressive history, which includes having more than 50 wrestlers place at the state tournament and leading Bradenton Manatee to a second-place team finish in 1973.

The last time Brandon was on the wrong end of a wrestling dual meet score, it was at the hands of that 1972-73 Manatee team. Goodpaster led the Hurricanes to a 28-19 victory, and the following season the teams tied at 24.

Since then, the Eagles have built a record streak of 456 dual-meet victories. Goodpaster would give up traveling with his artist wife to art shows and his early morning golf outings to put a bookend on what has grown into simply "The Streak."

"It's fine, but I would rather be known as the guy who beat them again," he said laughing, his competitive juices bubbling through his years of retirement. "If there was anything that would ever bring me back into coaching, it would be one last shot at beating Brandon, but that's not going to happen."

During Goodpaster's time, winning was nice, but it wasn't the main focus. That's highlighted by the fact he has to take a stab at his career record.

"I can give you a ballpark figure," said Goodpaster, who was convinced by Ara Parseghian while at Miami (Ohio) University and before Parseghian's Notre Dame coaching days, to pursue coaching instead of architecture.

A short time later, Goodpaster figured it was 340-105 and added: "I don't know for sure. I really can't tell you.

"Winning was something that took care of itself. It was the byproduct, it wasn't the activity. The activity was the kids and working with the kids. I threw matches from time to time, in all seriousness, because there was a lesson to be learned. Sometimes the lesson is more important than the winning of the dual meet. I never cared about the record really."

What he cared about was molding his wrestlers into productive members of society, and whether it was indirect or at point-blank range, it happened.

"One of my things, I spent two years overseas in two deployments," said former Gators wrestler Jimmy Tuttle. "I look at the stuff I did over there and not too much of it was as hard as wrestling practice or rolling with the old man. I think he helped me out a lot."

Added Jason Carpenter: "It made me a better football player for sure. It prepared me for college football. Even Coach John Benedetto, our football coach, said that we were better football players because we were wrestlers. Our practices were hard, really hard."

Seems Goodpaster accomplished what he set out to do.

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