LYNCHBURG, Va. (AP) - Adam Godwin made it 10 years without having much of an interest in soccer. For those around him - family, classmates and people he passed on the streets - it was a way of life. The sport, after all, is baked into the culture in England, where Godwin grew up.
One fateful conversation, though, ignited his passion.
Godwin interjected as his father and older brothers were talking about an upcoming Premier League game they’d planned to attend. Godwin casually asked if he could join.
“I don’t know why,” he said, recalling the request as somewhat of an odd decision for him at the time.
His family obliged, and the game provided everything Godwin - now coach of the Randolph College men’s team - never knew he loved.
He remembers so many details about that cold Tuesday night. Aston Villa won “1-nil” on a penalty kick. The game was the centerpiece for a larger-than-life experience for that 10-year-old boy - who, as his dad lifted him up on his shoulders, heard and saw 50,000 fans cheering, chanting and singing players’ names.
“That soccer experience changed my life,” Godwin said. “From that moment, all I wanted to be was a soccer player.”
That, he became.
From youth teams in England to the squad at Liberty University in faraway Lynchburg, Godwin checked the box. Soccer paved his journey to becoming a head coach, and opened doors for Godwin to find his purpose.
‘BECAUSE I LOVED IT’
Godwin’s pursuit of a career in soccer started immediately after the Aston Villa victory.
In the days after that experience, Godwin “walked past my buddies and went to where the soccer kids were,” he said, though his first touches weren’t exactly exquisite.
“I was terrible, picked last on the team,” he said. “But I didn’t care. I played soccer because I loved it.”
Stints on organized youth teams followed. In terms of wins and losses, though, it’s safe to say Godwin’s time on the pitch was more about building skills than major accomplishments.
“The absolute worst was 23-0,” Godwin, now 38, recalled of one his first team’s final scores.
But Godwin individually improved significantly over the next several years, thanks to all the time he spent playing with friends “until we couldn’t see anymore.”
Back then, the pursuit of a career in the sport was the product of “an unconditional love for soccer,” Godwin said. Coupled with unconditional support from family, that passion opened doors Godwin eventually walked through, despite plenty of unknowns.
‘ I DIDN’T KNOW WHERE VIRGINIA WAS’
Godwin’s journey to the U.S. was nontraditional, and started with a decision. He could stay in Europe and continue pursuing a professional career as a player, having been offered a one-year contract with a lower-level professional team, or take Liberty up on its scholarship offer.
Godwin, who’d earned a tryout with a Premier League team at the time, had enough clout to warrant a scholarship offer without any Liberty coach at the time ever having seen him play - recruiting was a different world then, around 2000, Godwin added, without the ability to easily send film.
Knowing Liberty had a quality program and coach, Godwin chose LU and Lynchburg, a place he couldn’t come close to locating on a map.
“People talk about not knowing where Lynchburg is,” Godwin said. “I didn’t know where Virginia was.”
After choosing LU, there were some moments of doubt, like that 3:50 a.m. wake-up call his body offered the morning he’d been set to go to Heathrow Airport to say “goodbye to everything you’ve ever known.” He sprang upright in bed and thought, “What the hell have I done?”
But he made the international trek nonetheless, then dealt with “almost crippling” homesickness. Godwin called family, via calling cards, in increments lasting no longer than 20 minutes each week.
Soccer, though, and a string of “great people” that became part of his life in Lynchburg helped him through. Among them was his future wife, Morgaine, who worked at Liberty for years - during which time the two met - before starting her own art-focused business.
“As always,” Godwin said, “beautiful girls change everything.”
‘BITTEN BY THAT BUG’
Godwin graduated from Liberty in 2005 and stayed in the U.S. as he embarked on life as a professional - also recording a milestone in 2007, when he married Morgaine, with whom he now has two boys, Jack and Charlie.
Part of that phase of life included the pursuit of playing past the college level, eventually getting tryouts for an England national team and playing with developmental and reserve teams. His move into coaching followed.
Godwin spent years, and two stints, as an assistant with the Liberty women’s soccer team. His plan in taking that post, he said, was to “just see where life takes (me),” though that mindset quickly changed.
“You just get bitten by that bug, just fall in love with it,” Godwin said of coaching.
A couple of other jobs were scattered in before Godwin’s arrival at Randolph, including one with the LU football team as assistant director of operations & recruiting, before he eventually got back to his first sport and to the lead job at another local school.
The road, there, however, was paved with cobblestones, Godwin’s destination only reached after a rough and uneven ride.
‘FINALLY YOU’VE GOTTEN IT’
On paper, Godwin looked like a good choice for the head coaching position with LU women’s soccer after the coach at the time retired. He’d been an assistant during one of the most successful stretches in the program’s history, when the Flames won eight conference titles and jumped into the top 60 in national rankings.
But Liberty went another direction with the hire, and with nearly a lifetime of work on the line, Godwin sought out about 100 opportunities in the coaching world. “No” was the response that always followed.
As he “reached a tipping point of pride and arrogance,” Godwin said he felt a deluge of humility dumped over him.
“My identity was wrapped up too much in the game,” he said. After all those rejections, Godwin remembers applying for the job at Randolph and the moment, before a phone call about the job with then-Randolph athletic director Tina Hill, when he surrendered his future.
“’OK God, listen. I really hope this is a ‘yes,’” Godwin remembered praying. “If it is, I’m going to take it right now. If this is a ‘no,’ I’m OK with that. But if this is a ‘no,’ I want you to know I’m going to be done with coaching. … If you want this, it’s yours.”
That, Godwin believes, was what God had been waiting for, and a step in finally opening the door to coaching again, after two years out of the game.
“Like (God) was sitting up there saying, ‘Yes, Adam. Finally you’ve gotten it.‘”
‘IT’S NOT A JOB; IT’S A PASSION’
Godwin led his first campaign as a head coach in fall 2018, with recruiting starting in the months before.
He was out to bring Randolph back into the top tier of the Old Dominion Athletic Conference. So he worked to create a culture in which athletes can develop as individuals and as a team.
Wes Boor, a sophomore and Nelson County High grad, was sold on Godwin in choosing Randolph. The ideals of “hard work, team first and love” appealed to Boor, as did Godwin’s soccer prowess.
On occasion, Godwin will prove his skills in practice, taking on players 1-on-1, though he recently ended up on the wrong side of a challenge. Against Evan Blow, a two-time ODAC player of the week this season, he pulled a hamstring.
That’s what happens sometimes, he said, when “trying to chase 21- and 22-year-olds around.”
Gavin Leverette, an E.C. Glass grad and freshman for Randolph, said he could take on his coach, too.
“If I go 1-v-1 against him in practice,” Leverette said confidently, “he might get taken.”
Leverette, who was attracted by Godwin’s “European vibe” in coaching, credited Godwin for creating a “family atmosphere” on the WildCats squad, which currently has a 4-2-1 record with one game left in the regular season.
Boor said the same, adding he misses pre-COVID gatherings that came with an English twist.
“Me and a few of the other guys would go in and have tea with him and we would just talk about soccer,” said Boor, who also explained he was “sold on (Godwin’s) accent” during the recruiting process.
The coach said his job, while obviously including plenty of the X’s and O’s of soccer, is more about relationships than anything else.
“I coach people that happen to play soccer,” said Godwin, who explained his main goal in his current role is to be a servant-leader. “To be able to help them achieve their potential and their goals and dreams, that just becomes irresistible.”
And the fondness for the game he fell in love with nearly 30 years ago will keep Godwin going for years to come.
“I’ll probably be on the sideline coaching when I’m 70 years old. It’s not a job; it’s a passion,” he said. “… I just hope that when kids are done with me, I just hope they love the game as much as I love it.”
Please read our comment policy before commenting.