BY TIM MORRIS
Staff Writer
Marcus Goode likes to needle his dad about his athletic career.He’ll tell his dad, Milt Goode, that his paper clippings are yellow and have 19 in front of the year. That’s old to the Freehold Township High School senior-to-be.
“It’s my time now,” he’ll tell dad, and that’s just fine with Milt.
His time, however, became their time during the scholastic track and field season, when Marcus Goode set the Shore Conference (SC) record for the triple jump, traveling 46-10 1/4.
With that leap at the NJSIAA State Group IV championships, where he finished second, the Goodes made history becoming the first father/son combo to hold SC records. Milt Goode set the still-standing Shore Conference high-jump record of 7-2 in 1979 when he was starring at Monmouth Regional (1977-79).
The idea of holding the records simultaneously hadn’t entered either of their minds until midway through the season when Marcus started breaking the Patriot school record while drawing closer to the conference mark.
“Once I got closer and closer to it, we started to talk about it,” he said. “We had some fun with it. He’d tell me that he was a record holder.”
Then, Marcus joined him in that distinction at the state sectionals.
“I thought it was pretty cool, awesome that we both made history,” said Marcus.
When Marcus joined his dad as a Shore Conference record holder, it was dad who got the last word. He could still chide his son, adding that he held the indoor record as well as the outdoor. Marcus will be searching for indoor track meets next winter that hold the triple jump, looking to add the indoor record to his outdoor standard.
No one was happier about Marcus’ record than his father.
“For me, I’m very proud [of Marcus’ record],” said Milt Goode, who was a 1984 Olympian for the United States. “I couldn’t ask for a better son. He always listens.
“It’s [dual records] an amazing thing to me,” he added. “I was really happy and surprised [to still be holding the high jump record]. It was good to hear it. I was surprised that it’s still hanging on.”
The father/son distinction sits well with Marcus.
“I like it,” he said. “It was a motivation for me to do the father/son thing.”
Marcus recalled he was 9 or 10 years old when he became aware of his father’s athletic past, looking at those old yellow press clippings. It didn’t take him long in track and field to know the stature his dad holds in the area.
“Every time I line up, I’m asked if I’m any relation to Milt Goode,” he said. “It’s pretty cool.”
It’s Milt Goode’s athletic success that has driven Marcus.
“He gave me the motivation to do well, and the work ethic,” he said. “He’ll tell me about the workouts he did. It’s pretty nice to have him to talk to. We have a really good relationship. He wants me to beat what he did.”
It was his father who steered him to the long jump and triple jump and away from the high jump after watching him at a Freehold Township practice.
“He had too much speed coming around the turn,” he remarked.
Goode could see his son’s speed better utilized vertically, with the long and triple jumps, than horizontally in the high jump.
Marcus entered the 2007 season with a personal best of 37-0 in the triple jump, and the event wasn’t looming very large with him until a date he remembers well.
“April 19, the CBA [Christian Brothers Academy] meet,” he said. “Coach [Brian] Golub asked me to do the triple jump. I did 44 feet.”
It was a new school record, and from there he kept improving on it until he did his 46-10 1/4 Shore Conference record.
Next spring, Marcus will call upon all of his father’s experiences as he looks to tack on more distance to his record, and perhaps challenge the state mark. He knows he’ll be one of the featured athletes in the state and will be going up against other’s expectations.
“I told him this is just the beginning for him,” said Milt.
Milt knows a little something about chasing records, and the expectations that go with it.
“You can’t think about it, you just go and do it,” he explained.
Marcus said that he seeks his father’s advice often.
“He tells me to relax and not put too much pressure on myself,” he noted.
The best advice that Milt has given to his son is “never count yourself out of anything.”
Marcus said that has helped him to jump farther than he ever thought he could. Both are thinking about getting to 50-0 next year.
In a way, both are happy that Marcus is not competing directly against his father in the high jump.
“I’m glad that he’s found his own niche,” said Milt Goode.
That way, Milt noted, Marcus doesn’t have to worry about being measured directly against what he did.
Going to the track and field meets while following his son, Milt can still pick out the few that have the desire and commitment he had to excel.
“A lot of kids still have the ‘go out and get it’ attitude,” he pointed out. “They do what it takes to get there.”
Milt Goode, of course, high-jumped at the highest level of track and field, internationally. He competed from 1980-86 and was ranked as high as No. 3 in the country, and in 1984 reached the apex as a member of the U.S. Olympic team that competed in Los Angeles.
“When 1984 came, I was very excited,” he noted. “I had been progressing in 1981, 1982 and 1983. It was a peak season for me.”
He carries a trunk load of memories of competing in Europe in the Mecca of world track and field – venues like Zurich, Oslo, Brussels and Berlin.
“It was us against Europe everywhere we went,” recalled Goode. “We won most of the major meets.”
There was also the competition within the United States, which provided world-class duels. He went up against the likes of Dwight Stones regularly.
“We had our battles,” he pointed out.
Milt Goode admits that watching his son does bring back memories of his competitive days and refuels the competitive juices.
“It gets my blood going again,” he said, adding that he is contemplating a return to competition at the Masters level, if his back will allow it.
Before Marcus sets out to break more records, there is the 2007 football season. He’ll be playing running back and cornerback for the Pats. He first started playing at the Pop Warner level at age 6 and admitted that at first he didn’t like it. He’s grown to love the sport and the teamwork involved.
But after his track and field campaign, track is suddenly taking over.
Marcus has gotten by on the gridiron because of his pure speed. This summer, he will hit the weights seriously for the first time and do speed and agility drills. It will certainly make him better on the gridiron, but what he really wants to see is how it will help in the triple jump.