Aggie excels in barefoot waterskiing and soccer
It seems as though college athletes have been born and bred for their sport alone, toiling since the day they could walk to become the best.
Although this may be true is some cases, Aggie women’s soccer player Lyndy Goodsell is the difference.
Goodsell, currently a junior majoring in liberal arts, plays defense for the Utah State University women’s soccer team.
Although she has been playing soccer since middle school, Goodsell’s athletic heart beats beyond the soccer field.
A native of Newton, Utah, Goodsell has lived on the water her whole life, and has been barefoot water-skiing since age 9.
“Wherever there was water, that’s usually where I was,” Goodsell said. “I started water-skiing when I was 7, then my dad got into barefooting and met a guy who had a boat and knew how to do some barefoot tricks when I was 9, so that was the first time I’d ever tried it.”
One year later, her dad gave her a wet suit and she started learning tricks. Soon after, she attended a skiing tournament with her family.
“Everyone freaked out and was like ‘you have to enter her.’ so I got entered in a tournament when I was 10, and I basically skied down the lake and back because that’s all I could do, but that’s how it all started.”
From her first tournament, Goodsell continued to hone her aquatic talents as she and her father worked to better her skills.
Her dad wasn’t the only one coaching her though.
Goodsell lived in Florida at the time near professionals such as Peter Fleck and Mike Seipel, training with them every day in exchange for baby-sitting jobs while they went out with their wives at night.
When one hears about barefoot water-skiing, one question generally comes to mind. Does it hurt?
“So many people ask me that,” Goodsell said. “We actually have a barefoot shirt that answers all those questions.
“Yes, it’s fun. No, it doesn’t hurt my feet. Maybe the first time out in the summer, my feet are bruised the next day, but when you’re out there standing on the water it doesn’t hurt, it’s just pressure.”
If the pain doesn’t come from the water running at 35 to 43 miles per hour under her feet, Goodsell definitely knows where the pain in barefoot water-skiing comes from.
When first learning how to dock start (starting from the dock, jumping off and then landing in the water) Goodsell was attempting to keep the slack out of the tow rope, and slipped, hitting the back of her head on the dock.
“That was probably my worst biff. The scariest thing was probably learning to jump, because you get shot up in the air and it’s hard to land, so I’ve had a lot of crazy falls that way.”
Fortunately, throughout all of those “crazy falls,” Goodsell has never broken any bones.
Her worst injuries have been some pulled muscles and bruised ribs from falling on her side.
All of the training and hard work eventually had a payoff for Goodsell though. By the time she reached age 14, Goodsell claimed the Junior Girls National Championship and came in fourth at the Junior World Championships.
With all of the success, Goodsell had to make a difficult decision after starting her high school soccer career.
“My freshman year of high school is when I was going to nationals and my soccer coach said if I left I couldn’t start. I was like ‘okay, I’ve already paid for the ticket and I’ve worked really hard for it, so I’m just going to go.’ Then, I didn’t start that year, and I didn’t play much varsity until the end.
“That’s when I started feeling the need to be with my peers, and be part of a team instead of with my dad out on the lake for five hours a day,” she said.
Goodsell now devotes her time to Utah State soccer, starting in all 10 games this season.
“I still do it [barefoot skiing],” Goodsell said. “I haven’t been able to do it that much anymore because of soccer. There is so much training, but I still go every summer, and I’ll occasionally go to a tournament and ski.”