File photo by Kirby Lee
Marquise Goodwin
Marquise Goodwin calls his national long-jump record (26-10) a “God thing.”
After leading Rowlett to its second consecutive Class 5A state track championship, the 5-foot-9, 175-pound superstar told MaxPreps he did not plan to compete in the USATF Championships in Eugene, Ore.
Then he wavered and decided to make the trip, but only to watch the big meet with a friend.
However, people kept urging him to compete and less than a week before the meet was scheduled he finally gave in and decided to enter the long jump.
It was a dramatic meet to say the least.
Goodwin first competed against jumpers his own age to qualify for the Pan American Junior Championships, which will be held July 31-Aug. 2 in Trinidad. He took only two jumps (of a possible six) to win that title with a wind-aided 26-1 ½ and “save some energy” in the process.
The drama continued to grow as Goodwin quickly moved to the senior division where he “was the youngest person by far,” competing against collegians and professionals. He was in the second flight and the first jumper ahead of him was former Olympic champion Dwight Phillips.
“Dwight Phillips is a real good role model for me,” he pointed out. “He’s a real good person – not just a great long jumper.”
Well, Phillips ripped off a 27-10 jump on his first effort. “I’d never seen anything like that, except on television,” Goodwin marveled. “He had the crowd going. I scratched. I wasn’t nervous at all. I usually scratch on my first jump.”
In round two, Phillips soared an even 28 feet. “I went out there and jumped 26-3,” the competitive teenager noted. “The crowd goes, ‘OK, whatever.’ They wouldn’t show me any love.”
In the third round, Phillips passed, leaving the early center stage to the Texas teen. “I got the crowd clapping,” he said. “I didn’t know how far I went, but I saw the back of my heel. They flashed 8.18 (meters). The crowd went ‘wooo, that’s pretty far.’ I didn’t know how far that was.
“Then they flashed 26-10 on the scoreboard (the record was 26-9 ¼ by Dion Bentley of Penn Hills (Pittsburgh, Pa.) in 1989). People were going, ‘Hey, that’s a new national record. Hey, you’re in high school.’ Dwight Phillips came up and said, ‘You’re a beast, man!’ He gave me his number and said, ‘I’ve been keeping up with you.’ I was trying to be professional, but I was happy.”
Unfortunately, three other jumpers soon followed with leaps of 27-1, 27-0 and 26-11, to push Goodwin into fifth place and keep him from qualifying for the senior finals.
It was probably a good thing, however, because he revealed, “I started cramping in my legs because my body was not used to jumping that far that many times.”
Not surprisingly, track was the first sport that Goodwin tried as a nine-year-old. He grew up in Lubbock and competed for the local Martin Luther King Track Club. In his very first state meet at Texas A&M, he “came out of nowhere” to win the long jump, 100- and 200-meter dashes.
His family moved to Rowlett – a Dallas-area town of 47,000 with 2,700 students in the high school - when he was in seventh grade and he won the district long jump (19-1) and triple jump (38-8) at Coyle Middle School. In eighth grade he again won the district long jump (a city-record 21-5) and triple jump (40-6).
That city record alerted Rowlett track coach David Nanez, who “knew he was something special.” However, as a freshman, Goodwin was placed on the JV team “to ease him into the varsity,” Nanez pointed out. “But after he jumped 22 or 23 feet (in his first meet), we said OK, guess he’s ready for the varsity. We moved him up the next week.”
All he did that year was win the district title with a personal-record 23-9 and become the first Rowlett male athlete to reach the state meet where he placed seventh.
It should be noted that he pulled a hamstring late in the season and competed in every round of the state qualifications with the injury. It was bad enough that he skipped summer track entirely. This was to be a recurring story during his prep career, making those close to him wonder what he might have achieved with an injury-free career.
As a sophomore, Goodwin also began making an impact on the Rowlett football team. As a wide receiver he made 26 catches for 278 yards and three touchdowns. He also returned kicks.
“I played football because my grandpa (Ira Joe Goodwin, who died in 2005) was a tough football-type guy,” Goodwin revealed. “I always wanted to make my grandpa happy. I loved my grandpa to death. But I’m real physical and I like contact.”
That spring he was healthy and ranked No. 1 in his event, so it was no surprise that he soared to the first of his three consecutive Class 5A state long jump championships with a personal-record (and national-best for that year) of 25 feet. He also took second in the triple jump with a PR of 49-6 ¾.
During the summer he began making his mark outside of Texas by jumping 24-8 to win the prestigious Nike Outdoor Nationals in Greensboro, N.C. “It was great,” he exclaimed. “I got a ring and everything. It was different from high school. The crowd was a lot smaller, but competition-wise it was a whole lot better and gave me a lot of confidence. I knew I was the best in the nation, but I didn’t let it get to me.”
He also went to Puerto Rico where he set a long jump record and helped his 4x100 relay set another record during the Caribbean Scholastic Invitational.
Goodwin’s junior football campaign proved to be the best of his career. He led the district with 70 catches for 843 yards and seven touchdowns, while making 11 kick returns for 237 yards.
That winter he competed in his first-ever indoor meet, the Carl Lewis Invitational at the University of Houston, and won the long jump with a meet-record 24-7. He followed that up with a 24-9 championship at the Nike Indoor Invitational in Maryland.
At the outdoor state meet, Goodwin defended his long jump title with a state-record leap of 26-1 – which also led the nation - and added the triple jump crown (50-1/2). In addition, he helped his 4x100 relay place first in a nation-leading 40.26. He also was second in the 100-meter dash (10.38) and helped his 4x200 relay place third.
The biggest payoff, though, was Rowlett’s first-ever state team title in any sport and he scored 37 of the 70 points.
He returned to Puerto Rico that summer and won three gold medals – the long jump, 100-meter dash and the 4x100 relay.
He also carried that old bugaboo – a hamstring injury - to the Junior Nationals in Columbus, Ohio. Still, he won the long jump at 25 feet and qualified for the 100-meter dash finals, though unable to run in the finals.
“You’ve just got to go for it, I guess,” he said philosophically of competing with a nagging injury. “I knew all that money they spent to get me there and I wasn’t going to go for no reason.”
Thus, he qualified for the World Junior Championships in Bydgoszcz, Poland where he won the long jump at 25-4 ¾ and ran on the champion 4x100 relay team.
“I learned a lot,” he said of his trip to Poland. “People down there aren’t as fortunate as people here who live in the worst conditions. It was a big life-changing situation. I wish everybody could take a trip and see how others live.”
Due partly to his national track reputation, Goodwin was a marked man during his senior football campaign. Facing double coverage most of the time, he finished with 42 catches for 638 yards and seven touchdowns. He had 12 kick returns for 323 yards.
His final game against arch-rival Garland – a 17-10 loss – will forever be frozen in his mind. “They got me pretty good,” he admitted. “It was different because I was getting hit from the back all the time. I have some friends on that team.
“They were yelling, ‘This ain’t track, Marquise!’ I had a migraine. I couldn’t even play the next game because I had a concussion.”
During his final indoor season, Goodwin broke his own long jump record with a 25-foot leap at the Carl Lewis Invitational. He also won the 60-meter dash in a personal-best 6.75 seconds.
Outdoors, at the prestigious Texas Relays, he won the long jump with a record leap of 25-2 3/4 and also captured the triple jump at 49-10 1/2. In addition he was runner-up in the 100-meter dash (10.48).
At his final state meet he did, indeed, go out in a blaze of glory. He set a state record with a leap of 26-4 ¾ and won the triple jump with a career-best leap of 50-5 3/4. He ran a leg on the winning 4x100 relay (40.86). He also set personal records while finishing second in the 100-meter dash (10.24) and 200-meter dash (21.24).
He lost the 200 in the last five meters “because he was gassed,” from running five events in a single day, coach Nanez pointed out. “He’s definitely the best athlete I’ve ever coached in 17 or 18 years. He might be the best track and field athlete in the state of Texas when it comes to being a complete athlete. I don’t think I’ll get another like him in my lifetime.”
Goodwin accounted for 41 of the Eagles’ 66 points as they repeated as Class 5A state champion.
“It wasn’t like a job,” Goodwin related. “We all had scholarships. We really had fun. We believed we could do it again and we did.”
The multi-talented teenager finished his prep career with a 3.2 GPA and plans to major in either kinesiology or architecture at Texas. He still helps coach youngsters at the Garland Track Club.
Even before he began running track, he was an accomplished artist. He is most proud of a self portrait (wearing UT garb) and a Tweety Bird he drew for his sister, Deja, when she turned 16. Others who know him well believe he could become an accomplished professional artist.
On Aug. 8 Goodwin will report for football – as a walk-on - at the University of Texas, attempting to become a rare two-sport star. “I know I’ll be on the team – I just don’t know if I’ll be redshirted,” he said. “Maybe I’ll return kicks.”
He obviously has football talent because he runs 40 yards in a blazing 4.3 seconds, has a vertical jump of 40 inches and bench presses an impressive 305 pounds at 5-foot-9, 175 pounds.
His high school football coach, Kiff Hardin, told MaxPreps, “It will be a year or two process if he elects to stay with football. He is talented enough to be an impact player. Character-wise he is a tremendous young man. As far at an athlete, he’s extremely talented. Whatever he sets his mind on, he usually gets the job done.”
Texas track coach Bubba Thornton calls Goodwin “the No. 1 recruit in America for what he truly brings to the table. He’s a great person. I know a lot of coaches who have great athletes, but who don’t sleep well at night. His (record) jump was better than a lot of country’s best in their senior championships.
“I’ve never seen a young man so considerate of other people. He’s a tremendous competitor, but it’s that humbleness that I think is going to make him one of the big-time athletes. He has that big smile, is caring and just a good guy. I have a tub full of respect for him.”
Thornton has no problem with his ace trying to double in football. He pointed out that former UT star Eric Metcalfe set a long jump record and also played in the NFL. “They are about the same size, but Marquise is a little bit ahead of him,” he noted. “It just makes us better. He can dream big and have an opportunity to live those dreams.”
The teenage sensation is not overwhelmed by the challenge of playing two sports in college. “I don’t think it will be that hard,” he believes. “It’s not that different than high school if I apply myself.”
Goodwin says his track goals are to, “hopefully, win all four years in the NCAA and try to make the Olympics in 2012.”
Lest anyone thinks he’s just a track guy dabbling in football, he stresses: “I just love football. Texas is my dream school. I don’t want to pass that up. Pro football is a possibility some day if I have the opportunity. You can’t go wrong playing in the NFL.”