COLOMA, Mich. -- Zach Goodline is only a sophomore at Coloma High School, but he’s already broken the school’s all-time scoring and assist records. Starting his freshman year, he did what was asked of him and this year was no different.
“I’ve been coaching 21 years now. I’ve had several players break 1,000 points but he’s the first one to do it so quickly this early in his career," coach Paul Marfia said. "I think it was sort of the perfect storm. We have a combination of a kid that works really hard, has a great skill set, but also the makeup of our team where he had to be the leading scorer. He had to be the center of our offense very early on. I’ve hardly ever asked a freshman to do as much as I did last year and he’s really grown into that. Now as a sophomore he’s really embraced it and lived in that moment.”
And Zach is ready to keep going. So far there are only 39 players in Michigan history to have scored 2,000 career points, but that’s not stopping him from setting that goal.
“Oh definitely," the sophomore smiled, "That’s one of my goals for this summer right now. And if I keep this pace, it will happen. So that will be a tremendous goal if I accomplish it.”
But Coach Marfia hopes that he won't have to continue holding up the team, “I hope the second 1,000 points is a lot more difficult for him to get because we’ve got more support around us. Does he have the skills and the work ethic to do that? Absolutely, but there’s a lot of things that go into achieving those goals, like teammates. The biggest thing is we’re gonna have to make a tournament run. I mean the farther you make it, the more games you get to play, the easier it’s gonna be.”
And after a big win Monday night in overtime against Buchanon, their focus is to keep on going.
“Survive and advance. That’s our motto right now," Zach said. "Survive and advance. Just take one game at a time and who knows what could happen.”
And Coach Marfia's goals are team oriented. “As a high school coach you want to win it all. You want to end up at the Breslin. You would love to beat a school like Benton Harbor" he said, "but honestly when you think about it long and hard, you want a group of young men that truly love each other and truly like to work hard together. And I think we have that.”
Coloma takes on Benton Harbor, Wednesday in the district semi-finals.
