Article on Les Goad

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Felicia Frazar - Seguin Gazette
Navarro State Semi-Final

Navarro head coach Les Goad wacthes carefully during the State Semi-Final game against the West Orange-Stark Mustangs on Friday, Dec. 9, 2016 at NRG Stadium in Houston.







Posted: Sunday, March 4, 2018 12:00 am
Scot Kibbe Sports writer | 0 comments
Last October, I approached Navarro head coach Les Goad for a post-game interview following the Panthers' 49-35 loss to eventual state semifinalist Wimberley. It was their first defeat of the season after a 7-0 start.
It was then that a fan neither of us knew loudly asked why he called for so many onside kicks in the game. Calmly but with some irritation, Goad explained that his defense was not stopping Wimberley and he had to keep the ball away from their offense.
This did not satisfy the fan and the grumbling continued.
One would think winning 108 games in 11 years at Navarro while making the playoffs 10 times, winning 10 games in a season eight times, taking five district titles and advancing to at least the third round of the playoffs five times would earn a coach some slack.
But that just comes with coaching. There will always be fans who think they know better and desire to share that information with the world.
Undoubtedly, far more Panthers loyalists appreciated what he led the program to accomplish during his tenure. That is why the news this week that he is moving on to take the reins at Class 6A Hays High School hit hard for so many around Navarro.
They should not have been shocked. Coaches who win 80 percent of their games and have a trip to the state semifinals on their resume are in high demand. Rumors circulated nearly every offseason of him leaving for a bigger school that could pay better and offer the opportunities and challenges that come with coaching at a higher level.
Finally, the stars aligned for him to make the move across I-35 to try to rebuild the Rebels’ fortunes. He will work against football factories Westlake and Lake Travis, trying to beat athletes who may someday play in the NFL.
But fans know a special era has passed.
I was privileged to cover every down of every game Goad coached in his 11 years at Navarro.
From game one at Marion in 2007 to the last game — a playoff loss to Cuero on Dec. 1. From the early teams led by the school’s all-time leading rusher, Jacob Garcia, to those led by Ivy League-bound Will Eveld, who is the school’s all-time leading passer.
Goad did not take over a bad program. His predecessor, a terrific coach named Lin Havron, did that. But Goad took it to a new level. He turned them into a regional powerhouse, a program widely envied and even imitated.
Several factors led to his success. First, he is an intense competitor. I could tell during post-game interviews sometimes that he was already thinking of his strategy for the next game, or how to fix something that went wrong, or how they could get better in an area.
He always respected his opponents — the worst he would say was “scrappy”—but never got too high after any win. He often questioned himself after a rare loss, agonizing over doubts that he gave his team their best chance to win.
Second, he was consistent. That is a theme that was heard whenever I talked to his players. They knew what to expect on and off the field. They would run the same plays until they got them right. Every one of them would have to maintain effort and discipline at the highest level or Friday nights would find them on the bench or in the stands.
Finally, he was an absolute master of the Slot-T offense. I wish I knew anything, as well as Goad, knows the three-back offense he has run successfully for so many years.
That’s why it was so much fun to watch him call a game. He anticipated how defenses were going to adjust to what he was doing and had adjustments ready for it. If his offense sputtered early in a game, he would keep throwing new looks and new plays at them until he found what worked. He almost always got there eventually.
He would sometimes smile after a game as he told me how he had been in a real chess match with the opposing defensive coordinator. He loved facing a worthy adversary.
Whatever becomes of Navarro football going forward (I believe it will continue to thrive), I suspect its fans will be talking about the Goad era for many years to come. Men who played on his teams will proudly say so and will let you know how they think Coach Goad would have done things.
We will all recall the great moments such as Bryan Aguilar’s amazing catch followed by Kirk Chalmers blocked field goal that beat Mathis in the 2010 playoffs and Garrett Weaver’s 96-yard interception return that helped the Panthers finally get past Cuero in 2016. We will also remember that the losses were even tougher because of their rarity, especially an overtime defeat by Port Isabel in the 2012 playoffs and a poorly officiated loss to Fredericksburg in 2013.
Mainly, we will remember an era when the community swelled with pride. We grew to expect excellence from the Panthers in every game and that is darn near always what we got.
I am sure Coach Goad can expect there will be times that at least a few Hays’ fans believe their football expertise exceeds his. He will find that larger fan bases tend to come with more of those “experts.”
But given the chance, he can build a great program. Just ask the folks who support the little school in Geronimo.



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[LHPfactory]

Great article, we hear the same thing from some of the expert fans in Liberty Hill.
Navarro will be hard pressed to find a replacement of that caliber.