Garrett Goebel; Chicago Tribune "2008 Athlete of the Yr."
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Watch for Chicago Tribune / WGN TV to announce their choice of "2008 Athlete of the Yr." this coming Friday.
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Garrett Goebel built for success
Athlete of the Year: Montini's Garrett Goebel began many days at 6 a.m. in his family weight room, created by his dad, Greg. Many times, Garrett wanted to crawl back in bed, but he stayed primarily to please his father, indirectly because he knew the morning sessions would make the blocking, the tackling, the pinning, the winning that much easier.
TRIBUNE/WGN-CH. 9 HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETE OF THE YEAR
Garrett Goebel built for success
All the early-morning workouts paid off for Montini's Garrett Goebel, who will take his intense work ethic to the Ohio State gridiron
By Colleen Kane | Tribune reporter 10:34 PM CDT, June 12, 2008 - The entrance to the Goebel weight room is hidden, as if concealing a secret laboratory where a boy can morph into a beast.
Go downstairs, step through the laundry room and push past a thick row of shirts hanging on a clothesline. It's tiny and dark, with dozens of free weights scattered on the ground to the side of a weight bench. The walls are covered with collages of muscled men and mirrors plastered with signs that shout phrases such as "No Whining." The wooden ceiling boards hang down to reveal the chalked-on words "state champions."
Montini's Garrett Goebel began many days at 6 a.m. in this corner of the high school sports world, created by his dad, Greg. Many times, Garrett wanted to crawl back in bed, but he stayed primarily to please his father, indirectly because he knew the morning sessions would make the blocking, the tackling, the pinning, the winning that much easier.
The truth is there were no secrets?other than fastidious coaching from his father?that turned Goebel into the 2007-08 Chicago Tribune/WGN-Ch. 9 Athlete of the Year.
It's not a mystery that a youngster who used to love wheeling around concrete would find the toughness to become one of the best wrestlers in Illinois high school history. He finished with two individual state championships and state records for career victories (201), career pins (131) and wins in a season (tied at 57). He also led the Broncos to this year's Class AA team wrestling title with his younger brother Grant.
To his family and friends, it was natural that Goebel?a kid who hated to finish second even to a classmate in the weight room?would transform himself in just four years from a football rookie to a Tribune first team All-State offensive lineman. A two-way player, he also became one of the most sought-after high school defensive tackles in the country, with a Rivals.com national ranking of No. 6 at his position and a commitment to play for Ohio State.
As Montini football coach Chris Andriano put it: "He could be playing marbles against you, and he'd be doing it to win."
Greg Goebel, a former wrestler at Elmhurst College, knew something about that attitude because he was the same way, Andriano said. So he did his best to channel his son's energies, beginning with that little weight room, a wrestling mat and a wheelbarrow.
Building blocks
Most that know Garrett Goebel talk as if his 6-foot-5-inch, 275-pound frame was molded from the cement of his father's concrete construction business. The story, told and retold, is that Garrett's earliest drills didn't come with blocking dummies and a whistle but wheelbarrows full of concrete and his father's shouts to hurry before the mixture set.
"These ready-mix drivers would be looking at him going, 'Man, he wheels as much as a grown man!' " Greg Goebel said of his son as a 4th grader. "He got that integrity from that, just hustling. A lot of it is just a hard work ethic. That carried into when he got older and started lifting weights."
At his father's urging, Goebel reluctantly took up wrestling in 2nd grade and only began to like it when he started winning consistently a couple years later.
A former wrestling and football coach, his father attended practices and summer camps, taught his son moves that had given him success and started his strength training early. He pushed his son to hold off playing football until high school so he could focus on wrestling, a move that began to fill the family shelves with trophies by the time those early-morning father-son lifting sessions started freshman year.
His motive was simple. "I just always wanted him to be the best he could be," Greg Goebel said.
Goebel understood, his coaches and friends said, but there were inevitable clashes, especially at 6 a.m. while the teenager was clinging to his last minutes of sleep.
"I tried complaining at first, but then he kind of yells at you and gets [mad] at you for a while, so it's better to just get up and do it," Garrett said. "If you don't do it, you're like, 'Sweet, I get to sleep.' But then you wake up and think, 'I should have just done it and gotten it over with.' "
If the attitude sounds nonchalant, don't be deceived. Goebel entered high school weighing less than 200 pounds, but wrestling coach Mike Bukovsky said his weight-room work ethic soon became "legendary."
"We'd be starting off [lifting] around the same weight and I'd try to keep up with him," Montini wrestler and linebacker Dan Grimes said. "But whenever I'd get close, he'd add more weight. Just to prove that he was No. 1."
'He's got it all'
After Goebel won the state wrestling heavyweight championship his junior year with a 55-1 record, No. 1 was no longer good enough. Dominance was the goal.
He finished his senior year 57-1, his only loss to the top-ranked wrestler in the country in his weight class. In the individual state tournament, he pinned his first three opponents and won a 5-0 decision over St. Rita's Kevin Galeher in the final for his second straight state title at 285 pounds. He pinned 46 of his opponents on his way to a No. 2 national ranking by Amateur Wrestling News.
"A lot of it is just a mind-set," Goebel said. "You go into a match and you're not happy unless you pin the guy. If you beat him, you think, 'All right, but I didn't pin the guy, so I could have done better.' And if you pin the guy, you can get off the mat quicker."
Garrett Goebel built for success
To the swooning of many a college football coach, Goebel's attitude and agility on the mat carried over to the gridiron, despite his late start.
He made the varsity football team by the end of his freshman year?a season in which Montini won the Class 4A state title. During his junior year, as a two-way lineman, Goebel was being courted by as many as 40 colleges, Greg Goebel said.
He finished his senior season with 68 tackles (22 for loss), eight sacks, five pass deflections, three forced fumbles and one recovered fumble.
Football became his new love, fresh and fun enough to convince him to give up wrestling for playing at Ohio Stadium on Saturdays in the fall.
The Buckeyes, for their part, are thrilled at Goebel's inner-wrestler, hoping he follows the lead of other Ohio State wrestlers-turned-defensive-linemen such as Luke Fickell, Tim Anderson and Dexter Larimore.
"We've had success with that type of football player," Ohio State defensive coordinator Jim Heacock said. "He's got a great work ethic, great effort. The neat thing about him is there aren't a lot of weaknesses. He's got it all, the whole package."
A new world
Among the contents of that package, Heacock said, is Goebel's background.
While new influences helped shape Garrett during his high school career, his dad remained close as a Montini assistant wrestling and football coach. On Saturday, the day before Father's Day, Goebel will officially part ways with his dad for Columbus.
"The Tressels are great people," Greg Goebel said, "and they said, 'Pass him off to us. We'll take him from here.' "
On the other side of the weight-room wall, in a bedroom crowded with awards and photos, one item is stuck to the ceiling above Garrett Goebel's bed. An Ohio State bumper sticker, strategically placed within view for any lazy moments still left in him, indicates he no longer needs his father as an alarm clock. He's ready to step out of his home-spun training facility to a bigger world.
The transformation?this phase, at least?is complete.
Coming Sunday
Watch a feature on Goebel on WGN-Ch. 9's "Instant Replay," which begins at 9:40 p.m. And in case you miss it, you can find a video of the feature (available Monday) at chicagosports.com/prepsplus
