bag-o-chips
09-13-2017, 06:09 PM
Starting the 11th season at Navarro and this is a Great Article
Posted: Wednesday, September 13, 2017 12:00 am
Scot Kibbe Special to the Gazette | 0 comments
Navarro Panthers head football coach Les Goad is not a believer in luck.
“I tell my kids that I only have two superstitions: blocking and tackling,” he said. “When we do those two things, everything seems to work out.”
Things have been working out a lot for Goad and the Panthers ever since he took over as head coach in 2007.
When he wins his 100th game at Navarro –which could happen this Friday night when the Panthers play at Gonzales– it will cap a remarkable decade for the program.
In Goad’s tenure, Navarro has:
• Won nearly 80 percent of their games (99 wins, 25 losses).
• Qualified for the playoffs in nine consecutive years.
• Taken five district championships.
• Tallied 10 wins or more in seven seasons.
• Reached the third round of the playoffs four times, the quarterfinals twice, and the semifinals for the first time in history last year.
• Lost in consecutive weeks only once early in his first season at the school.
• Suffered just one shut out again, in his first season.
Current streaks include 25 consecutive regular season victories, 17 straight home wins and 14 straight district wins.
Two former Navarro standouts who played for Goad believe they know why the program has thrived under his leadership.
Jacob Garcia, who was on Goad’s first Navarro team and ranks as the school’s all-time leader in rushing yards and scoring, talked of his former coach’s “fire for the game.”
“Coach Goad expected perfection,” Garcia said. “He worked to make everyone better, whether they were first team, second team or third team. As players, that came down to us and we soon stepped up to share his drive and passion.”
John Bormann, who was the starting quarterback and a defensive back on the Navarro’s 2010 team that reached the quarterfinals, expressed similar sentiments.
“He is ultra-competitive,” Bormann, now a catcher in the Pittsburgh Pirates system, said. “And he is extremely focused, he understands what it takes to win football games.
“In the Slot-T offense he runs, everybody has to carry out their fake or nothing works. That takes a lot of discipline, its why he had us run the same four to six plays and only those plays at the beginning of camp until we got them right.”
Goad grew up in Carlsbad, New Mexico and said that in high school he was “a smaller type athlete who just loved the game of football.” He played defensive back and on special teams. He later joined the football team at Eastern New Mexico University as a walk on.
He got his first head coaching job at the age of 24 at Nazareth High School in the Texas Panhandle. He was there for two years before deciding he needed to get in a program where he could learn from more experienced coaches.
So in 1990, Goad accepted a job as an assistant at Gregory-Portland High School. There he learned under the guidance of Bruce Bush, who is a member of the Texas High School Coaches Hall of Fame, and the father of Seguin head coach Travis Bush.
“That was probably the best move I ever made,” Goad said. “I learned the Slot-T offense and that opened a lot of doors for me.”
He left in 1993 to take the reins at Kenedy. He advanced the program from an 0-10 mark his first season to 7-2-1 and 9-2-1 records the next two years.
From there, he went to San Antonio Southwest and led them to an undefeated regular season in his third year. He spent a year as the head coach at New Braunfels Canyon before moving on to stints as offensive coordinator at Liberty Hill and San Marcos.
He served as head coach at Lockhart in 2005 and 2006 before answering the call from Navarro.
Now in his 11th season, Goad is the longest tenured and winningest coach in the program’s history.
“It wasn’t immediate but the kids and the community have bought in to our style of football,” he said. “We haven’t always outmanned opponents athletically but I’ve had a great coaching staff that has put the right talent in the right place at the right time. And the physical conditioning from working hard in the weight room has been a big difference.”
Goad said each year has come with its high moments. But he said his favorite moments have come when his charges defeated teams that gave them problems in the past. First on that list was last year’s quarterfinals win over Cuero, a team that had knocked the Panthers out of the playoffs in three straight seasons. He also fondly remembers a victory at Canyon Lake in 2010, Navarro’s first district game after moving to a higher classification, as taking a big step for the program.
He has had disappointing moments as well. He points to three close losses in a one-year period against Wimberley (2012), Port Isabel (2012) and Fredericksburg (2013) as being particularly hard to get over.
Goad also said it is hard to lose players each year when graduation comes around, but he hopes their short time in the program is rewarding for them later on in life.
Bormann and Garcia each say the answer is “Yes.”
“What he taught me about competing and discipline still helps me in my baseball career,” Bormann said. “He’s a guy who really cares about you and wants to help you be better on and off the field.”
Garcia, who is a paramedic with the Canyon Lake Fire Department and hopes to become a doctor, said playing for Goad has made him “goal oriented.”
“I can still hear him telling me in practice ‘You gotta go’ when he wanted me to hit the hole faster,” Garcia said. “Those words have never left my head and inspire me whenever I run into any obstacles to what I want to accomplish in life.
http://seguingazette.com/sports/article_bdfdc12e-9823-11e7-81e4-9f92faf5067b.html?referer_url=/sports/article_bdfdc12e-9823-11e7-81e4-9f92faf5067b.html
Posted: Wednesday, September 13, 2017 12:00 am
Scot Kibbe Special to the Gazette | 0 comments
Navarro Panthers head football coach Les Goad is not a believer in luck.
“I tell my kids that I only have two superstitions: blocking and tackling,” he said. “When we do those two things, everything seems to work out.”
Things have been working out a lot for Goad and the Panthers ever since he took over as head coach in 2007.
When he wins his 100th game at Navarro –which could happen this Friday night when the Panthers play at Gonzales– it will cap a remarkable decade for the program.
In Goad’s tenure, Navarro has:
• Won nearly 80 percent of their games (99 wins, 25 losses).
• Qualified for the playoffs in nine consecutive years.
• Taken five district championships.
• Tallied 10 wins or more in seven seasons.
• Reached the third round of the playoffs four times, the quarterfinals twice, and the semifinals for the first time in history last year.
• Lost in consecutive weeks only once early in his first season at the school.
• Suffered just one shut out again, in his first season.
Current streaks include 25 consecutive regular season victories, 17 straight home wins and 14 straight district wins.
Two former Navarro standouts who played for Goad believe they know why the program has thrived under his leadership.
Jacob Garcia, who was on Goad’s first Navarro team and ranks as the school’s all-time leader in rushing yards and scoring, talked of his former coach’s “fire for the game.”
“Coach Goad expected perfection,” Garcia said. “He worked to make everyone better, whether they were first team, second team or third team. As players, that came down to us and we soon stepped up to share his drive and passion.”
John Bormann, who was the starting quarterback and a defensive back on the Navarro’s 2010 team that reached the quarterfinals, expressed similar sentiments.
“He is ultra-competitive,” Bormann, now a catcher in the Pittsburgh Pirates system, said. “And he is extremely focused, he understands what it takes to win football games.
“In the Slot-T offense he runs, everybody has to carry out their fake or nothing works. That takes a lot of discipline, its why he had us run the same four to six plays and only those plays at the beginning of camp until we got them right.”
Goad grew up in Carlsbad, New Mexico and said that in high school he was “a smaller type athlete who just loved the game of football.” He played defensive back and on special teams. He later joined the football team at Eastern New Mexico University as a walk on.
He got his first head coaching job at the age of 24 at Nazareth High School in the Texas Panhandle. He was there for two years before deciding he needed to get in a program where he could learn from more experienced coaches.
So in 1990, Goad accepted a job as an assistant at Gregory-Portland High School. There he learned under the guidance of Bruce Bush, who is a member of the Texas High School Coaches Hall of Fame, and the father of Seguin head coach Travis Bush.
“That was probably the best move I ever made,” Goad said. “I learned the Slot-T offense and that opened a lot of doors for me.”
He left in 1993 to take the reins at Kenedy. He advanced the program from an 0-10 mark his first season to 7-2-1 and 9-2-1 records the next two years.
From there, he went to San Antonio Southwest and led them to an undefeated regular season in his third year. He spent a year as the head coach at New Braunfels Canyon before moving on to stints as offensive coordinator at Liberty Hill and San Marcos.
He served as head coach at Lockhart in 2005 and 2006 before answering the call from Navarro.
Now in his 11th season, Goad is the longest tenured and winningest coach in the program’s history.
“It wasn’t immediate but the kids and the community have bought in to our style of football,” he said. “We haven’t always outmanned opponents athletically but I’ve had a great coaching staff that has put the right talent in the right place at the right time. And the physical conditioning from working hard in the weight room has been a big difference.”
Goad said each year has come with its high moments. But he said his favorite moments have come when his charges defeated teams that gave them problems in the past. First on that list was last year’s quarterfinals win over Cuero, a team that had knocked the Panthers out of the playoffs in three straight seasons. He also fondly remembers a victory at Canyon Lake in 2010, Navarro’s first district game after moving to a higher classification, as taking a big step for the program.
He has had disappointing moments as well. He points to three close losses in a one-year period against Wimberley (2012), Port Isabel (2012) and Fredericksburg (2013) as being particularly hard to get over.
Goad also said it is hard to lose players each year when graduation comes around, but he hopes their short time in the program is rewarding for them later on in life.
Bormann and Garcia each say the answer is “Yes.”
“What he taught me about competing and discipline still helps me in my baseball career,” Bormann said. “He’s a guy who really cares about you and wants to help you be better on and off the field.”
Garcia, who is a paramedic with the Canyon Lake Fire Department and hopes to become a doctor, said playing for Goad has made him “goal oriented.”
“I can still hear him telling me in practice ‘You gotta go’ when he wanted me to hit the hole faster,” Garcia said. “Those words have never left my head and inspire me whenever I run into any obstacles to what I want to accomplish in life.
http://seguingazette.com/sports/article_bdfdc12e-9823-11e7-81e4-9f92faf5067b.html?referer_url=/sports/article_bdfdc12e-9823-11e7-81e4-9f92faf5067b.html