In spring 2020, then-freshman Hunter Goodall received a tall order from the football coaching staff – play as starting offensive lineman for a fledgling program trying to win games against perennial 3A powerhouses in the infamous COVID-altered athletic schedule.
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In that shortened season, Goodall and a green, undersized squad scratched out a gritty 2-4 season – but more important, established a belief that if the group stuck together, there would be brighter days on the horizon.
“I remember it like it was yesterday,” said Goodall. “I was going up against grown men, but once I grew, it got a little bit easier.”
The brighter days would indeed come for the Panthers, but not necessarily for Goodall himself. He learned after his freshman year that he had been competing on a torn ACL and meniscus for a portion of the season.
The recovery from surgery wiped out his sophomore seasons for both football and wrestling, before beginning the long road back during his junior year.
Now, in his senior season, Goodall approaches 30 victories, having become one of the dominant forces on the mat in 3A wrestling. One of three seniors for head coach Ryan Daves, Goodall and the Panthers have their sights set on the biggest prize.
“It’d be the first state tournament for any of us seniors in wrestling,” said Goodall, whose state ranking in the 190-pound classification has him squarely among the top 10 in the field, “and all three of us want to go out with wrestling being back at Montezuma-Cortez – especially since it’s been a few years since anyone from here has gone to state.”
Goodall, alongside classmates DJ Vreeken and Airoughn Morris, put in the work to get a shot over the weekend of Feb. 9-10 in the 3A regional meet. Vreeken’s climb to the upper echelon of the 157-pound division mirrored Goodall’s in a number of ways, as both responded from missed time to now enter the regional meet with a strong chance to make it to Denver.
Morris, meanwhile, shows his versatility as one of the few student-athletes in CHSAA history to compete in the two-sport combination of golf and wrestling. Morris qualified for state on the links in the fall, and now looks for one more state trip for the icing on the cake, competing in the 144-pound classification.
The battles in the trenches, both on the front line for the Panther football team, as well as in the one-on-one pressure cooker on the mat, have been challenges that Goodall has relished over the years. “With the offensive line, we’d split off during practice – so it was easy for us to work together, training together, and we became unstoppable.”
“Some of my best friends from M-CHS are my teammates,” he said, reflecting on the Panthers football journey that included the program’s best season in 65 years during his junior year.
Some of the benefit of having “backup” on the field with a unit of five disappears when Goodall takes to the mat.
“After surgery, there are certain wrestling moves that I’m not able to do, so I’ve had to work hardest to adjust to what I can do to make up for my limitations,” Goodall said.
Goodall’s father, Keve, has had a firsthand account of his growth – coaching his son from peewee all the way through high school in football, and during his developmental years in wrestling as well. “I’ve liked having him by my side – even on the days when he can be tough because he expects a lot from me – because I know not a lot of kids have their father around for this – it’s made me really appreciative.”
The final regular season matches for the Panthers will include a trip to Page, Arizona, for the Sand Devil Tournament on Jan. 19-20, before taking on the field at the Butch Mellon Invitational in Ignacio the following weekend. It all leads up to the 3A Region 3 tournament in Gunnison on Feb. 9-10, where the Panthers and 13 other squads will vie to land as many competitors as possible in the top four of their respective weight divisions, which would earn them qualification to the state championships – held at Ball Arena in Denver over the weekend of Feb. 15-17.
