SE: Syd on the Sidelines – Goodson Ready for WBCA Coaching Clinic
Mar 26, 2021 | Women's Basketball, Sports Extra
By: Austin Siegel
"Hey y'all, shark party at my house this weekend."
If you played women's basketball at Arizona State, Texas Tech or K-State and got some version of that text, it didn't matter if you had the sender in your contacts. You knew who it was from.
"I just think there's so much value when a team is unified, so I take a lot of pride in being that glue player," Sydney Goodson said. "I can get along with all different kinds of people, I just don't get into the drama…Let's find fun things that people are going to enjoy together."
Thing is, a Shark Week party at Goodson's house isn't really about sharks. Neither is this article.
It's about why Goodson was named to the "So You Want to be a Coach" program by the Women's Basketball Coaches Association after her graduate transfer season with the Wildcats.
When it comes to Goodson, it's easy to let the details distract you from the "why." Because behind everything she does, on and off the court, is a belief in bringing people together.
Even when she's explaining how Discovery Channel sort of mailed in their shark-based TV shows this year, the part of Goodson that's all about being a unifier comes out.
"They pushed it back to August because of COVID and it wasn't as big of a deal. They only had a few hours a night of new content, a lot of replays," she said. "But it's really more about the idea and the party. Sometimes we don't even watch Shark Week, we just watch movies."
With that mindset, it's not surprising that Goodson has always been interested in becoming a coach when her playing career is over. The "So You Want to be a Coach" program has been on her radar for a while.
The WBCA puts on the workshop every season to help the next generation of women coaches network and learn the skills that will help them take their first steps in the profession.
In a normal year, the workshop would be held in-person, but Goodson will participate remotely next week. It was a competitive application process, with K-State head coach Jeff Mittie nominating Goodson and writing her a letter of recommendation in the fall.
For some graduate transfers arriving at a new program, it would be a challenge for their head coach to write about the qualities of a player they just welcomed to campus.
That wasn't the case with Mittie and Goodson.
"I've known Coach Mittie for probably 10 years. When he was at TCU, I was in high school and he was recruiting me," Goodson said. "We both knew what the other one was about, so it wasn't too far out of his comfort zone to write me a letter of recommendation."
After her application was in the mail, Goodson spent the season proving what her new coach already knew.
"To be a good coach, you need to have a team that's united," she said. "I loved developing those skills while I'm on a team so when I get into coaching, I know how you're thinking and how their thinking and how we can compromise and come together."
There are plenty of basketball players whose impact on a team doesn't stand out until you dive into the numbers and find a way to prove how much they mean to a locker room.
If you tried doing that at Bramlage Coliseum this season, you might have missed the game show Goodson hosted on the scoreboard during timeouts - Six Words with Syd.
It was basically just Goodson playing Password with a different teammate every game. But how many graduate transfers come into a program and have the chemistry with their new teammates to record a very silly in-game video with each one of them?
Then there was the practice back in November when Goodson was mic'd up. That turned into a 90-second video of her cracking jokes and coming up with handshakes for her new teammates.
That might just be her personality, but it belongs to a player who began her career at Arizona State, graduated from Texas Tech and played her graduate transfer season in Manhattan.
Goodson is the first person to admit that she's never been in a coach's meeting, but she has spent her career thinking about how she would handle some of the different challenges at each program.
And that's provided an uncommon player with an uncommon perspective.
"I think it's really important to push players on the basketball court, but I think it's so important for them to know that you coaching them hard is also you loving them," she said. "They have to know that you care about them as more than a basketball player."
Goodson also knows that isn't always the perception around her favorite sport. She's ready to help change it.
"I think that gets skewed a lot in athletics like, 'I just want you for your skills and your talent. The second you can't offer that I don't need you anymore.' But that's skewed; coaching is about building up the person," she said. "Basketball is going to end for them, whether they go pro or not, it's going to end. But we're going to use this sport to prepare you for the rest of your life."
After COVID-19 forced her to grind through a season without the off-the-court bonding that drives Goodson, she finally has a little control over when exactly the rest of her life begins.
Goodson is still deciding whether to return for the extra season of eligibility granted to every winter sport athlete in 2021, or whether to begin her coaching career in the winter.
It's certainly not a question of making an impact on the basketball court, after Goodson often played more than 30 minutes a night for the Wildcats down the stretch this season. She even threw in a 22-point performance against Oklahoma in the final regular season game of the year.
"My friends have done a great job reminding me, 'Hey you're good at this, this and this. But you don't have to just put a rubber ball through a metal hoop. You have so much more to offer.' When you hear stuff like that, it feels so dumb to view that as the end goal," she said. "My faith has been huge too, the inflection of the Church and student ministry. My identity is in Christ."
Whether she makes the move to the sidelines next month, next year, or makes it at all, Goodson is approaching "So You Want to be a Coach" with the attitude that's informed her whole career.
It's always going to be bigger than basketball.
"If you focus too much on basketball and make basketball life and death, it's going to become miserable for your players, because then their identity is in performance," she said. "It's about building a culture where you want to get better, but you want somebody else to get better with you."
"Hey y'all, shark party at my house this weekend."
If you played women's basketball at Arizona State, Texas Tech or K-State and got some version of that text, it didn't matter if you had the sender in your contacts. You knew who it was from.
"I just think there's so much value when a team is unified, so I take a lot of pride in being that glue player," Sydney Goodson said. "I can get along with all different kinds of people, I just don't get into the drama…Let's find fun things that people are going to enjoy together."
Thing is, a Shark Week party at Goodson's house isn't really about sharks. Neither is this article.
It's about why Goodson was named to the "So You Want to be a Coach" program by the Women's Basketball Coaches Association after her graduate transfer season with the Wildcats.
When it comes to Goodson, it's easy to let the details distract you from the "why." Because behind everything she does, on and off the court, is a belief in bringing people together.
Even when she's explaining how Discovery Channel sort of mailed in their shark-based TV shows this year, the part of Goodson that's all about being a unifier comes out.
"They pushed it back to August because of COVID and it wasn't as big of a deal. They only had a few hours a night of new content, a lot of replays," she said. "But it's really more about the idea and the party. Sometimes we don't even watch Shark Week, we just watch movies."
With that mindset, it's not surprising that Goodson has always been interested in becoming a coach when her playing career is over. The "So You Want to be a Coach" program has been on her radar for a while.
The WBCA puts on the workshop every season to help the next generation of women coaches network and learn the skills that will help them take their first steps in the profession.
In a normal year, the workshop would be held in-person, but Goodson will participate remotely next week. It was a competitive application process, with K-State head coach Jeff Mittie nominating Goodson and writing her a letter of recommendation in the fall.
For some graduate transfers arriving at a new program, it would be a challenge for their head coach to write about the qualities of a player they just welcomed to campus.
That wasn't the case with Mittie and Goodson.
"I've known Coach Mittie for probably 10 years. When he was at TCU, I was in high school and he was recruiting me," Goodson said. "We both knew what the other one was about, so it wasn't too far out of his comfort zone to write me a letter of recommendation."
After her application was in the mail, Goodson spent the season proving what her new coach already knew.
"To be a good coach, you need to have a team that's united," she said. "I loved developing those skills while I'm on a team so when I get into coaching, I know how you're thinking and how their thinking and how we can compromise and come together."
There are plenty of basketball players whose impact on a team doesn't stand out until you dive into the numbers and find a way to prove how much they mean to a locker room.
If you tried doing that at Bramlage Coliseum this season, you might have missed the game show Goodson hosted on the scoreboard during timeouts - Six Words with Syd.
It was basically just Goodson playing Password with a different teammate every game. But how many graduate transfers come into a program and have the chemistry with their new teammates to record a very silly in-game video with each one of them?
Then there was the practice back in November when Goodson was mic'd up. That turned into a 90-second video of her cracking jokes and coming up with handshakes for her new teammates.
Big guard, big hearts
— K-State Women's Basketball (@KStateWBB) December 3, 2020
🎙 Mic'd Up w/ @sydneygoodson2#KStateWBB x Honor The Journey pic.twitter.com/1IqvRUcPnj
That might just be her personality, but it belongs to a player who began her career at Arizona State, graduated from Texas Tech and played her graduate transfer season in Manhattan.
Goodson is the first person to admit that she's never been in a coach's meeting, but she has spent her career thinking about how she would handle some of the different challenges at each program.
And that's provided an uncommon player with an uncommon perspective.
"I think it's really important to push players on the basketball court, but I think it's so important for them to know that you coaching them hard is also you loving them," she said. "They have to know that you care about them as more than a basketball player."
Goodson also knows that isn't always the perception around her favorite sport. She's ready to help change it.
"I think that gets skewed a lot in athletics like, 'I just want you for your skills and your talent. The second you can't offer that I don't need you anymore.' But that's skewed; coaching is about building up the person," she said. "Basketball is going to end for them, whether they go pro or not, it's going to end. But we're going to use this sport to prepare you for the rest of your life."
After COVID-19 forced her to grind through a season without the off-the-court bonding that drives Goodson, she finally has a little control over when exactly the rest of her life begins.
Goodson is still deciding whether to return for the extra season of eligibility granted to every winter sport athlete in 2021, or whether to begin her coaching career in the winter.
It's certainly not a question of making an impact on the basketball court, after Goodson often played more than 30 minutes a night for the Wildcats down the stretch this season. She even threw in a 22-point performance against Oklahoma in the final regular season game of the year.
"My friends have done a great job reminding me, 'Hey you're good at this, this and this. But you don't have to just put a rubber ball through a metal hoop. You have so much more to offer.' When you hear stuff like that, it feels so dumb to view that as the end goal," she said. "My faith has been huge too, the inflection of the Church and student ministry. My identity is in Christ."
Whether she makes the move to the sidelines next month, next year, or makes it at all, Goodson is approaching "So You Want to be a Coach" with the attitude that's informed her whole career.
It's always going to be bigger than basketball.
"If you focus too much on basketball and make basketball life and death, it's going to become miserable for your players, because then their identity is in performance," she said. "It's about building a culture where you want to get better, but you want somebody else to get better with you."
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