Ryan Goodson
Basketball season never ends for Ryan Goodson, an ambitious 23-year-old who recently completed his final season as Appalachian State’s head manager, has developed into a premier ball-handling expert and has produced motivational and instructional videos to help players improve their game.
He has his sites set on being a head coach someday.
Goodson, from Statesville, will graduate in May with a degree in health promotion and is hoping to land a graduate-assistant position somewhere next season.
He has already built a solid resume, and he said he will stay busy with a basketball in hand this summer working for Pure Sweat Basketball.
“I’m one of their national trainers,” Goodson said. “Every weekend this summer I will be in a different city running different camps and clinics for high school and college age players.”
His niche is dribbling. And, as his videos attest, he is a whiz at it.
“Last year, I spent five hours in the gym six days a week just working on that and trying to get really good at it,” Goodson said.
Some of it is for entertainment, some for fundamental training.
“Growing up I watched a lot of DVDs and continually worked on drills to help my game,” said Goodson, who played basketball at West Iredell and then one season at Columbia Union in Washington, D.C. and one at UNC Pembroke.
“I had numerous injuries, but I wanted to coach so I thought would get a head start on pursuing that and got the job as manager at App State.”
His projects include motivational videos, dealing with subjects such as work ethic and persistence, and his latest is a DVD done with Corey Rich of the Harlem Globetrotters featuring ball-handling talents. It will be available in May on the Pure Sweat website.