LION-HEARTED MENTORS

Meet three MSJ coaches who light the way for athletes, on and off the field.

By Tabari McCoy

In the words of two-time Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inductee and College Basketball Hall of Fame member John Wooden, “Young people need models, not critics.” MSJ students often shine in their athletic feats, their accomplishments akin to a grand firework display that’s met with a resounding roar. All the while models— MSJ coaches—have provided an eversteady light, also serving as mentors, surrogate parents, cheerleaders, and, in some cases, at the end of a studentathlete’s career, friends.

Here we spotlight how three coaches shine brightly every day in the hearts of MSJ student-athletes.

TINA BLAKLEY ‘15: CROSS COUNTRY AND TRACK & FIELD

TINA BLAKLEY ‘15

Photo by Mark Byron

Glancing over at her résumé, Tina Blakley’s career path seems unlikely. Initially wanting to be a police officer, Blakley worked for an investment firm and was a personal trainer before becoming head coach of the Mount’s cross country and track & field teams. How? One might call it destiny. “I had a person I worked with who was a member of the YMCA who had just gotten hired as the head coach of cross country and track & field here at the Mount,” she says. “He knew I had a strength-and-conditioning background and approached me saying, ‘Hey, I just got hired as the head coach, would you like to come and be a seasonal coach for me?’ I thought he was kidding but after weeks of him continuing to ask me about it, I agreed. When I tell you this, this is exactly how it happened, it’s the truth: I showed up on campus for the first time, stepped on the track and I immediately fell in love with it.”

Coach Tina Blakley and members of the MSJ track & field team.

Photo by Don Denney.

Now in her 12th season at the Mount, Blakley took over head coaching duties when the coach who hired her left for a Division I job. A soccer player growing up, Blakley has steadily learned the ins and outs of track & field as well as cross country. But those discoveries pale in comparison to the life lessons coaching has given her that she now uses in mentoring her student-athletes.

“When I worked in the investment firm, I was so excited to be able to help people invest in their future,” she says. “When I transitioned from financial investments to investments in people’s lives by becoming a coach for these college students, I was able to help them understand the value of their education that they were getting here and the opportunity that they were getting to be a collegiate athlete. Every one of them is coming from different walks of life with different reasons and paths for being here.”

That’s why Blakley says she doesn’t try to sell prospects on the Mount. Instead, she works to make sure both her team and the University are the right match for them. That’s what she says helped land Justin Dreyling, who transferred from the University of Findlay in Findlay, Ohio, to the Mount.

Dreyling became a standout in his first season at the Mount, breaking the school’s triple jump and long jump records several times during the 2022 season en route to earning All-American honors.

Coach Tina Blakley encourages MSJ runners during a race.

Photo by Don Denney.

Calling him “an amazing young man,” Blakley says having a student-athlete like Dreyling makes her entire team better, herself included.

“He’s a peer leader on our team—I can’t say enough things about him,” she says. “When it was all said and done and we’re congratulating him, he was just his normal self. He just carried himself so well through that whole experience. As his coach, it really was a learning experience about how you can handle pressure and have success at it and be humble about it.”

Dreyling, however, credits Blakley for making it easy to be humble because she has helped set him on the road to success.

“She is familiar with the University which allows athletes to go to her for a sense of direction or advice,” Dreyling says. “She also made sure to surround me and the team with a full coaching staff that has a lot of experience and knowledge. This allowed me and the team to train, improve, and compete at our best.”

Striving to always get better herself, Blakley hopes to use her position to inspire others to do the same.

“Being a good coach, that’s a lifelong journey—you can’t just achieve that,” Blakley says. “When I think back on maybe some of the decisions that I made and situations I was in, I would have given anything to be on a team [with this type of] support system. I continually, on a day-today basis, try to identify areas where I can be a better person to them, give them a voice, advocate for them, and just be a support system.”

BETH GODERWIS: WOMEN’S SOFTBALL

BETH GODERWIS

Photo by Mark Byron

Beth Goderwis, who went from high school to working for Toys “R” Us, eventually running a $15 million store, did not have a traditional path to coaching. But when she heard the Mount was looking for an assistant softball coach, Goderwis, a manager trainer for her former employer, jumped at the opportunity to showcase her teaching skills in a new field. Now the field at Mount St. Joseph University Softball Complex has become a second home for Goderwis and the scores of young players she has helped mentor for 21 seasons and counting.

“She has taught me so much when it comes to softball, but it’s the life lessons I appreciate more,” says senior outfielder Cassandra “Casey” Bramble, a member of the Lions’ team that won the first regional championship in school history this past season. “Having a good mentor in life is an important thing to have—in women’s sports, however, it’s even more important. This life is hard enough as it is but having someone in your corner that is constantly fighting for you helps tremendously.”

Bramble says, without Goderwis, she wouldn’t be graduating in the spring with a degree in secondary education and math, getting a job as a high school teacher, nor would she have played four years of a college sport.

For evidence of her commitment, simply visit the softball complex, which she and her husband, Alan, built by hand— including the dugouts, press box, and hitting cages. They also turfed the bullpens and even built the block wall around the backstop. “As the field was being built in 2007, the project went over budget, so they started to cut things,” Goderwis says. “I started to find people that were willing to donate money or product to build the dugouts. We had a player on the team whose dad was the accountant for Sardina Concrete and he was able to get the concrete for the walls donated. We had several other people that donated money so that we could buy the building materials, so once we had everything my husband and I went to work. I want this program to have the best, so if it means putting in some hard work, then that is what I will do to give our players the best experience they can have.” Goderwis says the player and coach bond is one she believes someone must experience first-hand to truly appreciate.

Coach Beth Goderwis at an MSJ softball game.

Photo by Don Denney.

Goderwis cites building relationships as one of her top personal successes and key qualities that make someone a good coach. She also finds fulfillment in watching impressionable student-athletes grow into successful young adults.

“One of the biggest things is that people just don’t understand how much time we truly put into the program,” Goderwis says. “We might get a phone call from a kid that’s homesick at midnight or be talking to a recruit at nine o’clock at night. It’s not just a nine-to-five job.”

Ask Goderwis about her favorite career moment, and the Mount’s regional championship last season is an understandable choice. Junior pitcher Casey Kemp, the pitcher who was on the mound when the Mount clinched that championship, says that ending like those wouldn’t be possible without Goderwis.

Coach Beth Goderwis leads a team huddle at an MSJ softball game.

Photo by Don Denney.

“Coach Goderwis has had a very big impact on me both as an athlete and a young woman,” Kemp says. “She is always supportive and knows how to push me and has helped increase my pitching skills, confidence on the mound, and overall drive as an athlete. She has made an impact on me that will stick with me forever.”

While she might be in coaching for “maybe just a few more years,” Goderwis says she looks forward to the future.

“The fact that they continued to stick with me, even in those years where it wasn’t great, showed me how loyal to me they were and I wanted to be just as loyal to them,” she says.

“With our current president and new people coming into various positions, they have the vision of what they want to make Mount St. Joseph to be. The exciting things that Dr. Williams and people in some of the vice president positions are doing have me really looking forward to the future to build Mount St. Joseph.”

CHARLES MASON JR.: WRESTLING

Charles Mason Jr.

Photo by Mark Byron

Since becoming the Mount’s head wrestling coach in 2018, Charles Mason Jr. has racked up some impressive accolades. The 2018-19 season resulted in him being named the National Wrestling Coaches Association (NWCA) National Rookie Coach of the Year. In 2020, he was named the NWCA Division Central Region Coach of the Year. This past season saw one of his student-athletes, Cornell Beachem Jr., become the first national champion in any sport in the Mount’s history.

But for Mason, the accolades he is focused on are always yet to come—because for him the best success is watching others succeed.

“Wrestling is my tool to give back with,” Mason says. “It’s just a part of life, man, if you’re not sharing what you learn through your journey back to someone, you will lack fulfillment. I find true fulfillment in being able to take everything I learned through my journey—a lot of ups and downs in my life that I had to grow from and eventually pass it back down to someone else.”

A team captain and All-American wrestler himself at DII Notre Dame College in Cleveland, Ohio, Mason says he has wanted to be a coach since his youth. While his father coached baseball, his mother, Linda Crawford, ran what he calls a community house, providing kids throughout the neighborhood with guidance and love. Mason now applies the same mix of stern concern with genuine care and concern to coach his student-athletes.

The awards he’s won only serve as more motivation to bring more success to those around him. “I’m not real big on awards,” he says. “I don’t like being put on ahead of anything because I’m just a small part. I have to keep good assistants around me and I really appreciate them because they carry me when I need to be carried.

Coach Charles Mason and team at a 2019 wrestling match.

Photo by Don Denney.

Without my assistants, my wrestlers, and learning from them, I wouldn’t win any award—it’s a team effort all the way around.”

Gary Powell Jr., who was a freshman member of the Lions’ wrestling team last year, says that mentality is why Coach Mason has meant a lot to him as a young man and athlete.

“Having a mentor like Coach Mason is very important for helping a student-athlete like myself on and off the field because he puts the student part first,” Powell says. “For example, last year I had a crucial exam the next day and instead of making me just worry about practice, Coach Mason allowed me to miss so I could study and connect with a tutor to make sure I passed. Not many coaches will allow that; all they care about is winning, not the success of their athlete’s future. From the athlete’s perspective, Coach Mason knows what it means to win… competing is in his blood. He wants us to succeed just as much as we want to see ourselves succeed.” Student-athlete Beachem agrees. “Coach Mason has just been a great role model and he just teaches me everything I need to know in wrestling and pushes me to become better daily,” Beachem says. “In life, Coach Mason is just always there for you and someone to talk to and he doesn’t accept mediocrity and that’s huge as a coach and he just pushes me in every aspect of life. Every program needs someone like Coach Mason because he is just a great mentor, doesn’t set low standards, and everything we do is to become better young men in life. He just proves that there are still great human beings in the world and they are hard to come by.”

Coach Charles Mason with Cornell Beachem Jr. at the NCAA DIII Nationals.

Mason became a father with the birth of his son in October and he hopes to keep inspiring others for as long as the Mount will have him.

“We have a 99 percent [career placement] rate, which means we’re getting people jobs, putting people in positions to be successful once they leave,” Mason says. “The Mount wants to see you grow as a professional, an individual. Having a championship person makes it easier to translate into a championship athlete and I want to see the best version of them as people.”