“I grew up in a small town playing a lot of sports,” Goodheart said. “I always thought I was officiating when I was playing because I thought I knew the rules from having a dad that did it.”
Goodheart had hoped to play sports in college, but when he realized he probably wasn’t going to achieve that goal, he decided to follow in his father’s footsteps.
“I really wanted to go play college sports, but probably didn’t meet the criteria for coaches — wasn’t big enough, wasn’t fast enough,” Goodheart said. “So officiating kind of turned into a hobby and became a passion.”
He started officiating basketball when he was in high school, then added volleyball and softball when his father encouraged him to pick up another sport or two to help pay his way through undergrad at Kansas State.
“I grew up with four sisters, so I was around volleyball quite a bit,” Goodheart said. “I actually just enjoyed softball more than baseball because I think the pitching’s better.”
Since earning his bachelor’s degree from Kansas State and then getting his master’s in sports administration from Fort Hays (Kan.) State, Goodheart has worked in various fields, including education, athletics and sales. But the one constant has always been his officiating career. Since 2023, Goodheart has been pursuing his passion full-time as KSHSAA’s director of officials.
“I’m blessed to be able to travel around and teach schools about the officiating curriculum, recruiting new students, helping provide a service for our administrators in our office,” he said.
Goodheart’s first experience with NASO came when he attended the 2022 Sports Officiating Summit in Denver.
“There are so many officials, not only from the U.S. but from around the world, here to help for the betterment of officiating,” he said. “Doesn’t matter if you’re there for cricket, if you’re there for rodeo, if you worked the Super Bowl last year, if you’re just a local high school official. It was so cool to have the same people all sitting in the same room and discussing the state of officiating.”
As a member of the NASO board, Goodheart hopes to be a voice for high school sports and find officiating solutions that suit each state’s needs.
“Ultimately, we’re trying to find consistency in officiating, which I think is hard because the issues we have in Kansas are very different compared to what they deal with in California or New York,” Goodheart said. “I think it’s always bringing conversations to the table and having good dialogue, but then what can work for your state?”
