The buzz of cars driving by and birds chirping helps to drown out the nervous thoughts of what is to come. A family man to the core, Dr. Michael Goodlett accepts what may become a new reality.
As the Auburn University Sports Medicine Physician for almost 27 years, Goodlett is faced with a new challenge: no student-athletes.
Amidst the coronavirus pandemic, all Auburn sporting events were canceled for the remainder of the 2020 Spring season and foreseeable future. Most student-athletes even left campus.
With no student-athletes present seems like a loss of a job for a college team physician. However, in this instance, it’s personal.
Often it is said that the job chooses the person, the person doesn’t choose the job. Serving as the team physician at Auburn, there was no better match for Goodlett.
Auburn University strives to seek a family-like atmosphere.
“After moving to Auburn I asked Mike, ‘So how many kids do we have?” said Goodlett’s wife, Donna. “Well, about 600,” Goodlett responded.
With only two kids of his own, Dr. Goodlett took personal responsibility for the care of each of “his” Auburn athletes.
Clearly, Auburn chose the right man for the job.
As Goodlett’s wife describes, his passion tends to take over in his work.
Instead of meeting expectations, Goodlett takes his job description a step further.
“One of the reasons I’ve stayed at Auburn is that they let me take care of my student athletes,” Goodlett said. “I’m a family medicine doc at heart, I want to take care of the whole patient, not just the athlete part of them.”
Goodlett not only cares for the student-athletes, but the organization and all members involved.
Marcy Girton, Assistant Athletic Director, joined the Auburn Athletics staff four years ago. Still a fairly new face in the organization, Girton began to feel ill as the athletic department traveled to Florida for the Outback Bowl.
“I didn’t have any other way of getting medicine besides asking him, which I hated to do,” Girton said.
Dr. Goodletts' wife ensured Girton, “Don't ever feel bad about contacting him; he thrives on helping people.”
Now months later with no athletes on campus, Goodlett did the opposite of what might be expected of his position.
Goodlett remains in his office on campus, serving student-athletes who are unable to leave Auburn’s campus.
“We started making preparations for the worst case scenario, never dreaming that it was gonna happen.”
Goodlett’s previous schedule consisted of 6:30 a.m. clinics for athletes Monday through Friday, working games as well as seeing student-athletes throughout the day for illnesses.
After the virus spread across the country, Goodlett’s already non-stop schedule nearly doubled as Auburn became something of a ghost town.
“In one day we went from arguing about who should be in the dugout with players to having no season.”
Goodlett’s role with the student-athletes only deepened.
“Sports becomes a little bit more of a back-burner and survival comes to the fore-front.” If a student-athlete who is still in Auburn has symptoms of COVID-19, Goodlett encourages them to call him for a diagnosis to determine the severity of the symptoms and direct them to a testing site.
Goodlett and the Auburn Medical Clinic’s goal is to send a COVID-19 patient directly to the hospital if their symptoms are severe and to avoid bringing them into the clinic.
While COVID-19 remains top priority, Goodlett and his staff still have to tend to the “routine” illnesses during the pandemic.
“We’ve had people with type A flu, strep or even viral gastroenteritis,” said Goodlett. “People are still getting sick and we’re still taking care of them, we are just being very careful that we are not inadvertently exposing people to COVID-19.”
Even if student-athletes are home with their families, Goodlett speaks with them on the phone about questions they may have concerning the virus and offers simple precautions.
Goodlett’s close work and relationship with the student-athletes, as well as his constant surveillance of the virus, has captured the attention of the NCAA and SEC.
The NCAA has formed a committee with a few staff members and a leading physician to determine when sporting events may recommence for schools across the country.
The physician for this committee stays in contact with Goodlett to determine or predict when it will be safe for teams to return to practice or gameplay.
The SEC has also reached out to Dr. Goodlett to determine the amount of time athletes, football players in particular, will require to be physically adequate to play in a game when the season returns.
While Goodlett has always played a vital role with the Auburn football team, he has now taken on a coach-like role.
Auburn head coach Gus Malzahn creates a video for his team every Monday including at-home workouts as well as a message from Goodlett.
Goodlett shares social distancing tips and updates on the virus in hopes to educate them on how to return to the sport they love as quickly as possible.
Goodlett’s care for the student-athletes runs much deeper than medical terms.
Like Goodlett said himself, he has over 600 children at Auburn, and he hurts for each one of them as they adjust to the loss of a sense of identity in their sport.
“Our student-athletes essentially went through the four stages of grief: denial, anger, depression, acceptance,” Goodlett said. “They felt they had been cheated, more so than the average student.”
Pain echoed through Goodlett’s voice describing the early mornings, countless hours of training, practice, and meetings each of the student-athletes endured, just to have their season canceled in what seemed like an instant.
“We sent them away expecting to see them again in three weeks,” Goodlett said. “Obviously that's not the case.”
For many of the athletes, their senior seasons were taken. The rest of them don’t know when or if their upcoming season will even occur.
Endless factors are unknown and uncertain, yet Goodlett continues to encourage the student-athletes and work tirelessly in hopes to ensure a return to their sport.
“Amidst the pandemic, Dr. Goodlett is the most valuable player of our organization right now,” Girton said.
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