“I don’t care because I coach. I coach because I care.”
Julian Goodson, known to his athletes as Coach J, is the founder of Goodson Training, a youth basketball training, mentoring, and leadership program in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Since starting Goodson Training in 2016, he has trained hundreds of young athletes, and 50 of them (and counting) have signed to play in college.
Sports saved Coach J’s life. At 14, after losing his mom, he walked home from baseball practice through some of the toughest streets in Grand Rapids, until one coach noticed and started driving him home. He’s wanted to coach ever since.
He has spent more than ten years in youth development, coaching, and recreation programming. From 2012 to 2020 he was a foster and adoptive parent, and he’s a trauma-informed parenting trainer and youth advocate. He is the author of Thoughts of a Foster Dad and a father of five, all of whom played high school sports.
He’s been the parent who said the wrong thing on the ride home. He’s also been the one who learned to stay quiet for 100 yards in the snow. The Real Stat Sheet is everything he learned in between.
