Community College Notebook : Loss Gives Goodwin New Reason to Win

Sean Goodwin didn’t really know how good a wrestler he wanted to be until he lost.

Goodwin, 21-year-old sophomore from Cypress College, had a successful first season . . . well, for the most part anyway.

He was 31-6, won the Western State Conference title and was also the Southern California Regional champion in the 193-pound weight class.

Then came his own personal downfall, the state finals.

Goodwin lost in the first round and couldn’t regain his concentration. He finished seventh.

“I just wasn’t ready mentally,” Goodwin said. “The first match could have gone either way, but I lost it in overtime. After that, I just kind of lost my motivation, I guess.

“This season, I don’t want that to happen. Everybody has good and bad days. I just want to make sure I can still win on my bad days.”

This season, Goodwin has set his goals high. He wants to win the state title.

“For Sean, seventh (in the state finals) was a kind of a disappointment to us,” said Ray Haas, Cypress coach. “We don’t allow our wrestlers to set goals that are lower than their potential would allow them to be, and he has the potential to be the best in the state.

“His motivation has been very, very strong. He is getting himself ready to earn a state title.”

Goodwin is 23-0, ranked No. 1 in the state and has won the 193-pound division at the Cuesta, El Camino, Lassen, Cypress and West Valley tournaments.

He goes after victory No. 24 tonight as the Chargers are at Cuesta. Cypress then spends the weekend at the San Luis Obispo tournament.

Godwin, who graduated from Eisenhower High School in 1983, where he was on the wrestling team three years. After graduation, he moved to Santa Ana and worked at different jobs.

Then last year, he decided he wanted to compete again.

“I don’t know why, it just happened,” Goodwin said. “I didn’t think I had the grades or the talent for a four-year school out of high school so I just went to work for a while. When I wanted to wrestle again, I looked around and found Cypress.”

Haas said: “He just showed up in the wrestling room one day and said ‘I want to wrestle.’ We didn’t even know he was in the area . . . but we are glad he is.”

The Big game. Golden West (4-1, 7-1) plays Cerritos (4-1, 5-2-1) Saturday night at 7:30 in LeBard Stadium for first place in the South Coast Conference. The winner takes a one-game lead with one left.

Fullerton (3-2, 4-4) is at Compton (1-4, 1-7) at 1:30 p.m. in the other South Coast Conference game.

In the Mission Conference: Rancho Santiago (4-3, 5-3) is at Grossmont (2-5, 3-5) and Saddleback (3-4, 3-5) is at Citrus (2-5, 2-6) for 7:30 p.m. games. Orange Coast (4-3, 4-4) plays Palomar (4-3, 5-3) at San Marcos High School at 1:30 p.m.

Golden West’s 21-7 loss to Fullerton dropped the Rustlers to 17th in the nation, and third in Southern California. Glendale (9-0), which was the nation’s top team last month, fell to second behind Northeastern Oklahoma (10-0), but still tops the state and Southern California polls.

This year’s PONY Bowl doesn’t figure to be Fullerton against Saddleback again.

Fullerton is having an average season and Saddleback was forced to forfeit three victories because of an ineligible player.

The situation should clear after this weekend when Golden West plays Cerritos for first place in the South Coast Conference.

There is no automatic berth in the bowl, but an Orange County team would offer a better draw for the Dec. 6 game at Orange Coast’s LeBard Stadium.

Pat Penner update: Penner, a sophomore soccer player at Golden West who is chasing the school single-season record of 27 goals set by John Sandoval and Abel Dorado in 1976, scored twice last Friday to give him 26 for the season.

Penner had 25 goals last season. He’ll have a chance to tie and break the single-season school record Friday when the Rustlers travel to Fullerton for the South Coast Conference final for both teams. The game starts at 3 p.m.

Hoops are coming. The 1986-87 basketball season opens for most of the county teams next week, but the Orange Coast men’s team plays Saturday night against Marymount College in the campus gym at 7:30.

When Orange Coast’s water polo team completed its Orange Empire Conference season 12-0, it was second time in two seasons that Coach Don Watson’s team finished the conference season unbeaten.

Last season, the Pirates were 14-0 in the old South Coast Conference but lost in the first round of the regionals.

As impressive as Watson has been in two seasons, Golden West Coach Ken Hamdorf deserves mention also.

In his first season after succeeding Tom Hermstad, Hamdorf coached the Rustlers to a 23-3 record. Hermstad became the school’s athletic director.

Golden West, the defending state champion, tied for the South Coast Conference title with Long Beach City. Long Beach was undefeated and top ranked most of the season until losing to the Rustlers in the championship of the Cypress tournament and then again in the final conference meeting to tie for the title.

OCC and Golden West join Rancho Santiago, Saddleback, Santa Monica, Cuesta, Long Beach City and San Diego Mesa in the Southern California Regionals at Belmont Plaza in Long Beach Friday and Saturday.

The single-elimination tournament starts at 9:30 a.m. Friday and the championship game is at 7:30 Saturday night. The top two teams in the regional advance to the state tournament Nov. 21-22 at Merced.

The Orange Coast College men’s and women’s cross-country teams travel to Woodward Park in Fresno for the state championships Saturday.

The Orange Coast women finished second in the Southern California regionals and the men third.