MAYFIELD — Soccer was an ideal choice for Mayfield High School senior Britain Goodemote — it’s a sport that penalizes a field player for touching the soccer ball with their hands — because the Mayfield valedictorian and three-sport star had his hands full throughout his high school career.
Goodemote scored 30 goals and had nine assists for the Section II Class C boys’ soccer champions. He was a Western Athletic Conference Big School boys’ basketball first-team all-star and the Panthers leader in points, assists, rebounds and steals during his senior season. In the spring, Goodemote won the triple jump, long jump and ran a leg on the winning 400-meter relay squad at the WAC League championship meet — and is ranked No. 1 in the senior class with a 100 percent average.
“I think that playing sports helps you fit it all in because it almost forces you to manage your time more wisely,” Goodemote said. “When you have a smaller block of time it’s more important that you know how to use it and fit all of your work into that time.”
He was grateful to return to a packed daily schedule during his senior year at Mayfield High School.
“During COVID with no sports, there’s so much time that I don’t know what to do with it,” Goodemote said. “Then you can start things later than you expect and it’s not as easy.”
Time management by athletes is not a new concept created by Goodemote, but was passed on to him.
“I’d like to thank my parents and my teachers for instilling in me the importance of getting everything done before deadlines and trying to participate in as many extracurriculars as you can at the same time,” Goodemote said.
The three-sport star also game-plans his upcoming classroom assignments.
“I try to keep track during the classes, write down what I have to do for each and then look ahead,” Goodemote said. “If I have a practice or a game I use the time around it to finish the work. There’s still time to do other stuff outside of school with friends; you still are able to be pretty spontaneous if you get all your work done in the time you have.”
Goodemote is not only efficient with his assignments, his 100 percent average equates to his passion for accuracy.
“I’m not a complete perfectionist, but I like to learn and do everything as far as I possibly can,” Goodemote said. “I like to keep reviewing everything I have until I know I don’t have any mistakes in a project.”
He equated his perfectionism with sports.
“You try to perfect your shooting form or your [high jump] jumping form,” Goodemote said. “I just keep doing it again and again until I feel it’s as good as you can get.”
Goodemote’s commitment to his classroom work hasn’t been ridiculed by his teammates, but emulated by them.
“I’ve got very supportive teammates here and I think all the teams I’ve been on have above a 95 percent team average,” Goodemote said. “They’re right along with me.”
The focus on academics has translated to smarter, better play on the field for Goodemote and his Panther teammates.
“If you’re committed in the classroom it’s more likely than not you’re also going to be fully committed to the team,” Goodemote said. “You’re less likely to have someone that’s there some days and not others. Everyone is fully committed and with that we were able to bring two sectional titles to Mayfield.”
Goodemote will attend Castleton University as a business management major. He took a full slate of AP classes and took advantage of the offering at Fulton-Montgomery Community College’s first-year college courses.
“It should allow me to graduate a year earlier if I wanted or take a lighter class load if I wanted to,” Goodemote said. “I could also go five years and get a master’s degree.”
Goodemote has only committed to compete for the Spartans’ outdoor track team in the spring — college soccer remains an option.
“If I really miss soccer then I’ll talk to their coach and at least try out the beginning of the next year,” Goodemote said.
While still working on his valedictorian speech for graduation day, Goodemote, a student-athlete of few words, was willing to share a few thoughts.
“Try to be involved in as many things as you can, and complete everything to the best of your ability,” Goodemote said. “I’ll just leave it at that.”
Categories: Life and Arts
