Harrison Goodrick is a senior business and marketing major from Sydney, Australia. Goodrick has been a part of the NSU basketball team since his sophomore year after transferring from Metropolitan State University of Denver. He has been named MVP twice and was named best offensive player. Goodrick listed sushi as his favorite food and “The Notebook” as his favorite movie.
Goodrick went on to explain how he started playing basketball and the journey it has taken him thus far.
How did you start playing basketball?
“It was back in Australia, where I’m from. I was playing rugby a lot and my body started changing shape so I was a bit too tall and scrawny to play rugby anymore, so I decided to get into basketball. I’ve loved it ever since. That was when I was about twelve or thirteen. Ever since then I’ve just been playing basketball and that lead me to where I am today.”
How did you end up at NSU?
“I transferred from a school in Denver after my freshman year. I was put in contact with my coach and we’ve been great friends ever since. It was through mutual friends and mutual coaches, and I ended up here, and I’m very happy about it.”
How do you balance being a student and an athlete?
“First, it’s all about using your time wisely. Getting enough sleep at night, your diet, when you eat, all that sort of stuff. Studying too. It’s a lot of time management. I’ve always been pretty good at that so I would say as a student athlete it really hasn’t been too much of a big deal for me. I just use my time wisely and get it done. Be sure to use your time wisely and don’t waste too much time. In those down times, sort of relax and don’t overdo it too much. If you overdo yourself you’re not gonna be able to do enough in the other areas that you need to be performing in. Just set yourself up to succeed.”
What the toughest part of your transition into college?
“The toughest part was being away from home and away from my family. When I first moved to college I was really, really homesick for about a month and a half or two. I get homesick every time I go back now, but it gets less and less every year to the point where, even though I’m still homesick this year, it’s minimal. So, yeah, homesickness and then also going back home and having to communicate with everyone and keep in touch. Definitely keeping those friendships back home strong, too, so that when you do go back you’ve still got them.”
What is your favorite thing about being a shark?
“The campus is amazing, so are the facilities and the staff we’ve got from the trainers to all the extra that we have. Pretty much just the whole vibe you get here. It’s so supportive. They allow you to succeed in every way possible. It’s just a great atmosphere to be a part of.”
Do you have any pre-game rituals?
“Personally, I have to put the socks on a certain way, I have to start getting ready at a certain time, I need to eat a certain amount of time beforehand, just little stuff that I think goes into creating a good platform or routine. Usually I listen to a little bit of music as well.”
What motivates you the most?
“I like being the underdog. It’s never fun just being expected to win. They just came out with the preseason rankings for SSC and they have us as eighth out of nine teams, which is great. I’m excited about that. That’s something I wanted. I’m glad, I’m happy. They can put us at ninth if they want to, I don’t care. It’s something to work for. I think this group of guys we have is good for that. We’ll do what we need to do and work hard for what we want.”
Is there a moment that sticks out to you as one of the best or most rewarding when it comes to basketball?
“Not really. The whole college experience has been pretty amazing. I never could have expected it back as a thirteen year old. I just started playing basketball, I didn’t expect to come over to America and play and have all of the opportunities that I’ve had. Yeah, just the whole experience. That’s what it’s always been for me, it’s been the whole experience. I never came over here expecting to just take one thing out of basketball, I just take it all in. I wanted to take the school, the lifestyle, and take the most out of everything and I think that’s what I’ve got out of it. I’ve decided that the opportunities basketball has given me as a whole is more important than a single, little memory. But, I also love just going home and playing with my friends and family, my little brother especially. That’s always very fulfilling to play with him and see how he’s grown, and also share that experience.”
Did you always know that you wanted to come over to America?
“I was aiming to move to America, but I never knew if I was good enough. It was a long process over there. You don’t really know. You don’t have people contacting you from colleges. They haven’t really seen you. I really wanted to and I love what Australian kids do, but it’s hard to get the sign from coaches and it’s hard from them to get to know you, but that is getting better in Australia. I’ve always wanted to come here and when I got the opportunity, I only had one, I ended up taking it and moved here. It’s been great.”
Was it difficult to transition from Australia to a school in America?
“Yeah, the culture is really, really different. You have to learn the things you can and can’t say. My first year we had five Australians on the team, though, so we were able to talk to ourselves. Just getting used to the culture change mostly. Warm up was very daunting, over here sports are so much bigger. I get asked every time I go out ‘how tall are you?’ and ‘where do you play?’ so much that I feel like I should get it tattooed on my head, but it’s something I’ve gotten used to. Here at Nova there are so many internationals that it’s a good environment to sort of take America and understand the culture while still buying into other, similar cultures. We’ve got two Sweeds on the team, they have a similar culture so that helps.”
Do you have any personal goals or team goals for the season that you would like to share?
“Just win as much as possible. We want to win that SSC championship, but also just enjoy the season and have fun with the whole team. There’s no real individual players, we all bind together and know what we want to do this season and I think that it’s a really positive environment. We have good leaders, good coaching staff, it’s very fun to be a part of so we’ll see how it goes.”
You had mentioned that being the underdog you would like to prove them wrong, is that another goal of yours for the season?
“I’m not worried about that and I don’t think anyone on the team should be worried about that. It’s just someone’s opinion at the end of the day. We’re just going into it knowing that what we’ve done in the pre-season and over the summer will lead us into good standing and we’ll go from there, but we’re not really too concerned with that. We’ll just do us in a positive way.”
What are your plans after graduation?
“I have no idea. I’m just playing it by ear like I always do. It could be playing over in Europe maybe for a year or two, that would be ideal if that could happen. I really have no idea other than that. I’m honestly just looking at this season and after that I’ll start looking into other options. I’ll graduate on time and it should all be good after that. Once I get to March/April when basketball finishes I’ll start looking into other options.”
