By May 2006, Julie Goodenough was 14 months removed from the last time she stepped on the basketball court as head coach at Oklahoma State. Job prospects came and went at Goodenough’s will. Each opportunity felt like a pair of shoes one size too small: uncomfortable – and ultimately – painful to walk in.

“I applied for several jobs and went on several interviews and every time I would tell my husband, that wasn’t it,” Goodenough said. “Good jobs, good schools but I would call and say, ‘I’m sorry, I just don’t feel this isn’t where I feel the Lord is leading me right now, I want to pull my name out of the hat.’”

Goodenough’s husband Rob told her if she kept turning down jobs, eventually the opportunity to coach would be gone.

It’s those moments in our lives, when we are challenged, that our faith is tested. The touchstone for Julie Goodenough had arrived and she responded steadfast in faith and prayer.

“I’d been praying about it, a lot of my Christian friends were praying for God to just reveal where we needed to be,” she said, “and I thought, ‘I’m going know beyond the shadow of a doubt, I’m going know where I’m supposed to go.’ So, I’d gone on several interviews and just didn’t see the signs, didn’t feel it.”

Goodenough’s next interview had promise. The former Oklahoma State coach felt good about the opportunity. “I interviewed and when I came home, I told my husband, there’s a lot of work to be done there, but it won’t be bad for us,” she remembers.

Her husband Rob asked, “If they call and offer you the job, are you going to take it?”

Feeling confident an offer would come, Goodenough told her husband she would accept the position. The call came, the offer didn’t. The position was filled. That’s when she began to panic.

“I was like, ‘Oh my gosh there aren’t going to be any more jobs open, oh my gosh I got turned down,’ “ recalls Goodenough. “I panicked a little bit … I thought, it’s getting late, there won’t be any more jobs open … but I also knew too that’s not where I was supposed to go.”

Goodenough’s worries were short-lived.

“Within 30 minutes of that rejection phone call, my friend from Wichita State called,” said Goodenough. That friend is Jane Albright, head women’s basketball coach at Wichita State.

Albright told her about the head coaching opportunity at Charleston Southern. Albright assured Goodenough the job “had her name all over it.” In a matter of minutes, Goodenough’s emotions ran from worry to optimism. As she read the job description and the school’s mission, her eyes filled with tears. She remembers thinking, “This is exactly what I’ve been looking for, what I’ve been praying for.”

On Monday, May 29, Julie Goodenough was introduced as the new women’s basketball coach at Charleston Southern University. “When he [Hank Small] called and I accepted the job it was really peaceful,” Goodenough recalls. “I knew this was where God wanted me to be.”

Finally, the shoe fit.

Emotional Rollercoaster

Goodenough was unceremoniously relieved of her duties at Oklahoma State in March 2005. She was blind-sided by the move.

“I had never been through an experience like that,” she said, “ … asking me to turn in my letter of resignation. For me, it was such a blow to my ego. It was hurtful, it was embarrassing, it was almost like going though those stages of losing a loved one. I felt like I had to go through that process. I got really angry. I didn’t feel good about myself for a while.”

Oklahoma State had just hired a new athletic director, with a different philosophy and the university decided to change directions of the program. Part of that process included a coaching change. Goodenough was out and she began to question her own self.

“I’ve always been a person whose cup is half-full, that I can accomplish anything I put my mind to,” she said. “If you say I can’t, I work that much harder until I get it done. So, for someone to say, we don’t want you here anymore it was … it hurt my feelings a lot.”

Goodenough started her coaching career at Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene, Texas, compiling a 188-54 win-loss record over nine seasons. She left the program with the best coaching record in the program’s history, including six conference championships and five consecutive post-season appearances.

Her three-year tenure at Oklahoma State were highlighted by an exciting, high-energy brand of basketball that attracted five of the top 10 largest home crowds in school history, including the largest crowd to ever watch a home women’s basketball game.

“I thought we made great strides while we were there,” Goodenough said. “I inherited a program that was in serious financial straits, integrity and character … we were competing in one of the top women’s basketball conferences in the country and it’s hard to make strides in a conference like that … in my first year, seven of the teams in the conference were in the Top 25 in the country.

“It was a great learning experience for me as a coach. I feel I am a better coach today, than I ever have been because of the experiences I had there [Oklahoma State].”

Picking up the Pieces

Confused and rejected, Goodenough was not ready to jump back into coaching after leaving Oklahoma State. “There were some jobs that came open that spring but I was an emotional wreck,” said Goodenough. “The three-year process was a real energy zapper.”

Goodenough used the changes in her professional life to make adjustments in her personal life. She became a full-time mother to her two daughters – Bailey (8) and Macy (10) – and a full-time wife.

“God was speaking to my heart a lot,” said Goodenough. “It’s kind of embarrassing to say this, but I kind of lost touch with them in that three years I was coaching, being pulled in so many different directions.

“I realized that the three years I was coaching at Oklahoma State that I was not doing a very good job of balancing all my commitments and responsibilities,” she said, “ … but I didn’t know how to get it all in sync. We had a lot of pressure on us to build the program and win more games. I poured way too much time into trying to get that program and missed out on a lot of things with my family.”

Goodenough embraced the opportunity to coach Bailey and Macy, on and off the court. “All year we would tell our daughters about, God is preparing a place for mommy and a place for daddy and a school for you and God is preparing a church for our family.”

Goodenough kept her coaching skills sharp during her coaching hiatus as a volunteer coach of her daughters Parks and Recreation hoops team in Oklahoma. “That was such a fun time for me,” she recalls. “I’ll probably never have time to do that again. Both of my daughters accepted Christ in that year I was home. It was just an awesome year.”

“Now I’m here [Charleston Southern], I’ve inherited another program … but I think I appreciate my family a lot more now and understand how much I missed those three years I totally engrossed myself in my job,” explains Goodenough. “I think I will be a better time manager. I think I will keep it all a little more in perspective. Plus, the fact that I have the two greatest assistant coaches in America working for me will make me (Kendra Anderson and Beth Jillson) a better head coach and will help me be more efficient with my time here.”

Getting Back to Basics

It’s Friday, September 8 and while most of the campus is shifting into weekend gear, Goodenough is filled with nervous excitement. The first team practice is scheduled for 5:30pm, that’s less than three hours away. She rubs her palms together and scans a printout outlining her first practice.

“I haven’t had a practice since March of ’05,” she says, looking at the schedule. “When I was making out the practice it was about five hours long.”

The agenda looks more like a grocery list than a basketball practice: Passing, ball-handling, defensive slide, shooting. Goodenough, without prompting, explains her way through the outline.

“While other programs are going to start putting in set plays and secondary breaks, while we’re just working on fundamentals … that’s just where we’re going to start,” said Goodenough. “That’s a big part of my coaching philosophy, we’re going to be fundamentally sound. By the first game, if we’re running one set play and that’s it, then we better be running it really good. But we’re gonna do those little things right … I do not like sloppy basketball.”

When she talks about basketball, her passion becomes visible, like an excited teenager, she can’t sit still and her hands and arms are waving. “I just really, really missed basketball,” Goodenough says with passion in her voice. “I missed the competition. I missed that daily interaction with players. Our job as coaches is more than just teaching X’s and O’s, it’s about developing people … to help give them all the tools they need to be successful after they leave the program.”

Goodenough’s office has wall-to-wall coverage sits of her two greatest passions: family and basketball. Peppered with the colorful artwork of her daughters, the girls articulate their love and support on 8 ½ X 11 white printer paper filled from corner-to-corner with hearts, basketballs and stick figures resembling the new Lady Bucs head coach.

Her husband Rob also shares her passion. Goodenough calls him her biggest fan and biggest critic. “In fact, he left me a voicemail today, just telling me how excited he is to see me on the floor again,” Goodenough says. “To see me back where I belong – in coaching.”

Goodenough and the Charleston Lady Bucs begin a new era on Monday, November 13 against Jacksonville.

(as published in CSU Magazine)