It’s official, Lamar Goods is a Florida Gator.
The Fort McMurray football star officially signed to continue his career with the University of Florida on Monday.
Goods, a 6’3″, 315-pound defensive tackle spent his high school career playing for the Father Mercredi Trappers – before playing prep in the U.S.
He tells Mix News he’s been anticipating this moment since he first picked up a football.
“It’s surreal,” Goods said. “This day was a long time coming. I’ve been looking forward to this day a lot and I’m looking forward to January 4th because that’s when I enroll so, everything is kind of coming at me and I’m just taking it. I don’t even think there are words that can fathom this feeling.”
Goods, a four-star recruit, had initially committed to play for the University of Kentucky but says he fell in love with Florida’s Strength and Conditioning coach as well as their Defensive Line Coach.
Those factors, along with academics are what ultimately lead to his decision to sign with the Gators.
Overall, he received 11 offers from NCAA Division I programs.
Goods says in him, Florida gets a player who’s hungry to compete and even hungrier to win.
“They get a guy who works hard, they get a guy who wants to win. I believe I’m a nice guy” Goods laughed. “But as much as I’m going for education – I’m going there to play football and to help my team win now.”
@GoodsLamar is officially a @GatorsFB #rmwb #ymm pic.twitter.com/iqWion7i4Z
– MIX 103.7 News (@Mix1037FMNews) December 30, 2019
Kevin Garbuio, who coached Goods in his time at Father Mercredi notes that since day one, he thought Goods had what it took to excel at the next level.
He sees Goods’ signing as the start of something big in Fort McMurray football.
“It’s cool to see the individuals of Fort McMurray football stepping up. Teams have gotten better. The Monarchs had a huge influence on that with Jesse Maddox and Dave Spence and all they’ve done in football. It’s just cool to see the community grow in this way and hopefully it continues to grow from here.”
Garbuio points to other young Fort McMurray players who’ve begun turning heads at the post-secondary level.
Father Mercredi’s Kael King signed with Queen’s University in 2018, while Dylan Remillard is getting a lot of attention both north and south of the border.
Holy Trinity’s Luke Foster is also gaining traction from the likes of Yale and Stanford.
Goods himself says he owes a lot to Fort McMurray football and he is proud to represent the community south of the border.
His advice for younger, prospective football stars is to work hard, focus on your studies and the success will come.
“Myself, I lacked in education, but I was lucky enough to have people like Coach Garbuio to support me to get to where I am which is a straight-A student on the honour roll. And I’m pretty proud of that. So, I just have to say don’t ever think you don’t need it – it might suck but just do it.”
Many NFL stars have come out of Florida, including the league’s all-time leading rusher Emmitt Smith, former quarterback Tim Tebow and current NFL Broadcaster Cris Collinsworth.
The 2020 NCAA season begins next August.